Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/887

 F U R F U R 851 university in 1839. From the year 1864 till his death, which occurred on the 9th of February 1873, he held the rank of professor. lu 1835 he published the first part of the Lehrgebtiude der aramdischen Idiome, a work which he did not live to complete; and from 1837 to 1840 he was engaged upon his Concordantiae, an admirable edition of Buxtorf s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance, with valuable appendices, in the preparation of which he was largely as sisted by Delitzsch. In 1851 appeared the Hebrdischet n. Chalddisches Handworterbuch, which reached a third edition in 1876, and which has been translated into English by Dr Samuel Davidson (4th edition, 1871). Though a work of considerable merit, this cannot on the whole be said to have superseded that of Gesenius. In particular its philological theories, and its method of reducing triliteral to biliteral roots, are not likely to meet with general acceptance among scholars. His Geschichte des Karderthums appeared in 1865 ; and the Geschichte der Biblischen Literatur und des jiidisch-helleniscJien Schriftthums, begun in 1867, was com pleted in 1870. Fiirst also edited a valuable Bibliotheca Judaica (1849-1863), and was the author of some other works of minor importance. From 1840 to 1851 he was also editor of Der Orient, a journal devoted to the language, literature, history, and antiquities of the Jews. FURSTENBERG, the name of two noble houses of Germany. I. The more important is in possession of a mediatized principality in the district of the Black Forest and the Upper Danube, which comprises the countship of Heilegen- berg, about 7 miles to the N. of the lake of Constance, the landgravates of Stiihlingen and Baar, and the lordships of Jungnau, Trochtelfingen, Hausen, and Mb skirch or Mess- kirch. The territory is discontinuous ; and as it lies partly in Baden, partly in Wiirtemberg, and partly in the Prussian province of Sigmaringen, the head of the family is an here ditary member of the first chamber of Baden and of the chamber of peers in Wiirtemberg and in Prussia. The relations of the principality with Baden are defined by the treaty of May 1825, and its relations with Wiirtemberg by the royal declaration of 1839. The Stammort or ancestral seat of the family is Fiirstenberg in the Black Forest, about 13 miles N. of Schaffhausen, but the principal residence of the present representatives of the main line is at Donaueschingen. The Fiirstenbergs are descended from the counts of Urach, in the valley of the Ems, to the east of Tiibingen, Henry I., the youngest son of Egon VI. of Urach, ranking as the founder of the family. He was born about 1215, signalized himself as a supporter of the house of Hapsburg (which in the person of Rudolf, a relative of his own, ascended the throne in 1273), and died in 1284. On the death of Frederick III. in 1559, the family broke up into two lines, the Heiligenberg and the Kinzigerthal. To the former, which became extinct in 1716, belonged the well-known William Egon of Fiirstenberg, who, in spite of his elevation to the rank of elector by the emperor Leo pold, played into the hands of the French, had to leave Germany, and as a reward for his services was made arch bishop of Strasburg in 1682. The latter furnished a large number of military and diplomatic servants to the German states. The various possessions of the family were united in 1744 under Joseph William Ernest, who was born in 1699 and died in 1762 ; and to him his descendants were indebted for the right that they all possess of taking the title of prince. On the failure of the male issue of his elder son in 1804, the inheritance passed to the representative of a younger Bohemian branch, Charles Egon, a prince memorable for the liberal spirit by which he was actuated, and for the number of his benevolent and scientific founda tions, such as the infirmary at Donaueschingen and the blind asylum at Neidingen. The family is at present (1879) represented by his son Charles Egon. There are two subordinate branches, the Piirglitz with its chief residence at Lana in Bohemia, and the Konigshof with its chief residence at Konigshof in Bohemia. II. The second Fiirstenberg family has its possessions in Westphalia and the country of the Rhine, and takes its name from the castle of Fiirstenberg on the Ruhr, which is said to have been built by count Dietrich or Theodoric of Oldenburg, in the 1 1th century. The two most remarkable men whom it has produced are Francis Frederick William and Francis Egon. The former (1729-1811) became ulti mately minister of the prince-bishop of Miinster, and effected a great number of important reforms in the admini stration of the country; the latter (1797-1859) was an enthusiastic patron of art, zealously advocating the comple tion of the Cologne cathedral, and erecting the beautiful church of Apollinaris, near Remagen on the Rhine. See (for the first family) Miinch s Geschichte des Ilauscs und Landcs Fiirstenberg, Aix-la-Chapelle, 1830-1832, and Riczler, Fiirst- cnbcrgisclics Urkundcnbuch, hrsggbn von dem furstlichen Haupt- archiv in Donaueschingen, 1877, 1878. FURSTENWALDE, a town in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, government of Frankfort, on the right bank of the Spree, and on the railway between Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 28 miles E. of the former city. Its beautiful cathedral church contains a good many old monuments. The town possesses manufactures of linen and woollen goods, breweries, meal-mills, tile-works, and a chemical work. Fiirstenwalde is one of the oldest towns of Brandenburg. Since 1385 it was the seat of the bishop of Lebus, whose bishopric was incorporated with the duchy of Brunswick in 1595. The town was taken by the Swedes in 1631, and burned by the imperialists in 1633. The population in 1875 was 9688. FURTH, an important manufacturing town of Bavaria, circle of Middle Franconia, at the confluence of the Pegnitz with the Rednitz, 5 miles N. W. of Nuremberg, with which it is connected by railway. It is largely indebted for its importance to the industry and perseverance of the Jews, who at the beginning of the present century composed nearly one-half of the whole population, and now amount to about 3600. They have a college, a separate court of justice, several schools and synagogues, and two Hebrew printing establishments. The principal building of the town is the new town-house, with a tower 215 feet high. The manufactures include mirrors, jewellery, lacquered wares, chandeliers, spectacles, machines of various kinds, turnery wares, surgical instruments, lead pencils, artificial flowers, liqueurs, tobacco, leather, and woollen and cotton goods. There are also several breweries. A large annual fair is held at Michaelmas, which lasts for fourteen days. The population in 1875 was 27,360. In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus was defeated near Fiirth, in attempt ing to carry the intrenchments of Wallenstein; and in 1634 the town was burned down by the Croats. It was originally under the protection of the burggrafs of Nuremberg, but in 1806 it came into the possession of Bavaria. In the latter half of the 18th century it rose rapidly in importance through its manufactures, but it was not raised to the rank of a town till 1818. FURZE, GORSE, or WHIN, Ulex, Linn. (German, Stech- ginster ; French, Ajonc), a genus of thorny papilionaceous shrubs, of few species, confined to west and central Europe and north-west Africa. The leaves, except those of seedling plants, which are trifoliate, are exstipulate, and have the form of prickles; the flowers are axillary, yellow, and sweet- scented, and have a coloured calyx deeply divided into two concave segments, the upper bi-serrate and the lower tri- serrate at the apex, the carina and alae obtuse, stamens united into a sheath, style smooth, and stigma capitale. The pods are few-seeded ; their crackling as they burst may often be heard in hot weather. Common furze, U.