guard; but in September 1861, after the entry of Union forces into the state, he openly espoused the Confederate cause and was commissioned brigadier-general, later becoming lieutenant-general. He was third in command of Fort Donelson at the time of General Grant’s attack (February 1862), and it fell to him, after the escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow, to surrender the post with its large garrison and valuable supplies. General Buckner was exchanged in August of the same year, and subsequently served under General Bragg in the invasion of Kentucky and the campaign of Chickamauga. He was governor of Kentucky in 1887–1891, was a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1890, and in 1896 was the candidate of the National or “Gold” Democrats for vice-president of the United States.
BUCKRAM (a word common, in various early forms, to many European languages, as in the Fr. bouqueran or Ital. bucherame, the derivation of which is unknown), in early usage the name of a fine linen or cotton cloth, but now only of a coarse fabric of linen or cotton stiffened with glue or other substances, used for linings of clothes and in bookbinding. Falstaff’s “men in buckram” (Shakespeare, Henry IV., pt. i. II. 4) has become a proverbial phrase for any imaginary persons.
BUCKSTONE, JOHN BALDWIN (1802–1879), English actor and dramatic writer, was born at Hoxton on the 14th of September 1802. He was articled to a solicitor, but soon exchanged the law for the stage. After some years as a provincial actor he made his first London appearance, on the 30th of January 1823, at the Surrey theatre, as Ramsay in the Fortunes of Nigel. His success led to his engagement in 1827 at the Adelphi, where he remained as leading low comedian until 1833. At the Haymarket, which he joined for summer seasons in 1833, and of which he was lessee from 1853 to 1878, he appeared as Bobby Trot in his own Luke the Labourer; and here were produced a number of his plays and farces, Ellen Wareham, Uncle Tom and others. After his return from a visit to the United States in 1840 he played at several London theatres, among them the Lyceum, where he was Box at the first representation of Box and Cox. As manager of the Haymarket he surrounded himself with an admirable company, including Sothern and the Kendals. He produced the plays of Gilbert, Planché, Tom Taylor and Robertson, as well as his own, and in most of these he acted. He died on the 31st of October 1879. He was the author of 150 plays, some of which have been very popular. His daughter, Lucy Isabella Buckstone (1858–1893), was an actress, who made her first London appearance at the Haymarket theatre as Ada Ingot in David Garrick in 1875.
BUCKTHORN, known botanically as Rhamnus cathartica (natural order Rhamnaceae), a much-branched shrub reaching 10 ft. in height, with a blackish bark, spinous branchlets, and ovate, sharply-serrated leaves, 1 to 2 in. long, arranged several together at the ends of the shoots. The small green flowers are regular and have the parts in fours; male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The fruit is succulent, black and globose, and contains four stones. The plant is a native of England, occurring in woods and thickets chiefly on the chalk; it is rare in Ireland and not wild in Scotland. It is native in Europe, north Africa and north Asia, and naturalized in some parts of eastern North America. The fruit has strong purgative properties, and the bark yields a yellow dye.
An allied species, Rhamnus Frangula, is also common in England, and is known as berry-bearing or black alder. It is distinguished from buckthorn by the absence of spiny branchlets, its non-serrated leaves, and bisexual flowers with parts in fives. The fruits are purgative and yield a green dye when unripe. The soft porous wood, called black dogwood, is used for gunpowder. Dyes are obtained from fruits and bark of other species of Rhamnus, such as R. infectoria, R. tinctoria and R. davurica—the two latter yielding the China green of commerce. Several varieties of R. Alaternus, a Mediterranean species, are grown in shrubberies.
Sea-buckthorn is Hippophae rhamnoides, a willow-like shrub, 1 to 8 ft. in height, with narrow leaves silvery on the underside, and globose orange-yellow fruits one-third of an inch in diameter. It occurs on sandy seashores from York to Kent and Sussex, but is not common.
American buckthorns are: Rhamnus purshiana or Cascara sagrada, of the Pacific coast, producing cascara bark, and R. Caroliniana, the alder-buckthorn. Bumelia lycioides (or lanuginosa) is popularly called “southern buckthorn.”
BUCKWHEAT, the fruit (so-called seeds) of Fagopyrum esculentum (natural order Polygonaceae), a herbaceous plant, native of central Asia, but cultivated in Europe and North America; also extensively cultivated in the Himalaya, as well as an allied species F. tataricum. The fruit has a dark brown tough rind enclosing the kernel or seed, and is three-sided in form, with sharp angles, similar in shape to beech-mast, whence the name from the Ger. Buchweizen, beechwheat. Buckwheat is grown in Great Britain only to supply food for pheasants and to feed poultry, which devour the seeds with avidity. In the northern countries of Europe, however, the seeds are employed as human food, chiefly in the form of cakes, which when baked thin have an agreeable taste, with a darkish somewhat violet colour. The meal of buckwheat is also baked into crumpets, as a favourite dainty among Dutch children, and in the Russian army buckwheat groats are served out as part of the soldiers’ rations, which they cook with butter, tallow or hemp-seed oil. Buckwheat is also used as food in the United States, where “buckwheat cakes” are a national dish; and by the Hindus it is eaten on “bart” or fast days, being one of the phalahas, or lawful foods for such occasions. When it is used as food for cattle the hard sharp angular rind must first be removed. As compared with the principal cereal grains, buckwheat is poor in nitrogenous substances and fat; but the rapidity and ease with which it can be grown render it a fit crop for very poor, badly tilled land. An immense quantity of buckwheat honey is collected in Russia, bees showing a marked preference for the flowers of the plant. The plant is also used as a green fodder.
In the United States buckwheat is sown at the end of June or beginning of July, the amount of seed varying from 3 to 5 pecks to the acre. The crop matures rapidly and continues blooming till frosts set in, so that at harvest, which is usually set to occur just before this period, the grain is in various stages of ripeness. It is cut by hand or with the self-delivery reaper, and allowed to lie in the swath for a few days and then set up in shocks. The stalks are not tied into bundles as in the case of other grain crops, the tops of the shocks being bound round and held together by twisting stems round them. The threshing is done on the field in most cases.
BUCOLICS (from the Gr. βουκολικός, “pertaining to a herdsman”), a term occasionally used for rural or pastoral poetry. The expression has been traced back in English to the beginning of the 14th century, being used to describe the “Eclogues” of Virgil. The most celebrated collection of bucolics in antiquity is that of Theocritus, of which about thirty, in the Doric dialect, and mainly written in hexameter verse, have been preserved. This was the name, as is believed, originally given by Virgil to his pastoral poems, with the direct object of challenging comparison with the writings of Theocritus. In modern times the term “bucolics” has not often been specifically given by the poets to their pastorals; the main exception being that of Ronsard, who collected his eclogues under the title of “Les Bucoliques.” In general practice the word is almost a synonym for pastoral poetry, but has come to bear a slightly more agricultural than shepherd signification, so that the “Georgics” of Virgil has grown to seem almost more “bucolic” than his “Eclogues.” (See also Pastoral.)
(E. G.)
BUCYRUS, a city and the county-seat of Crawford county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Sandusky river, 62 m. N. of Columbus. Pop. (1890) 5974; (1900) 6560 (756 foreign-born); (1910) 8122. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio (Pennsylvania system), and the Ohio Central railways, and by interurban electric lines. The Ohio Central, of which Bucyrus is a division terminal, has shops here. The city lies at an elevation of about 1000 ft. above sea-level, and is surrounded
