Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/396

 390 BUCKS BUCKTHORN in the university at Cambridge. He was a member of the academy of arts and sciences, and of the Massachusetts historical society. A volume of his sermons, remarkable for purity of thought and finish of style, with a memoir of his life and character by S. C. Thatcher, was published in 1814, and a memoir of his father and himself by his sister in 1851. His works were published in two volumes in 1839. A quarter of a century after his death a monu- ment was erected to his memory in the Mount Auburn cemetery. BUCKS, an E. county of Pennsylvania, hor- dering on New Jersey, and bounded N. E. by the Delaware river, which is here navigable for steamboats; area, 600 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 64,336. This was one of the' three original counties founded in 1682 by William Penn. It possesses valuable quarries of limestone and sandstone; and iron, plumbago, titanium, and zircon are found in some localities. The north- ern part is hilly ; the remainder of the surface is moderately uneven ; the whole is in a high state of cultivation. The Philadelphia and Trenton, the North Pennsylvania, and the Doylestown railroads pass through the county. The chief productions in 1870 were 525,740 bushels of wheat, 94,095 of rye, 1,325,626 of Indian corn, 1,208,717 of oats, 372,979 of po- tatoes, 118,014 tons of hay, 125,479 Ibs. of cheese, 2,861,557 of butter, and 151,372 of tobacco. There were 14,679 horses, 28,572 milch cows, 8,620 other cattle, 7,404 sheep, and 25,159 swine. Capital, Doylestown. I!H ksl'OKI, a town of Hancock co., Me., on the E. bank of the Penobscot, just above Or- phan island and the narrows, and 16m. 8. of Bangor; pop. in 1870, 3,433. During the war of 1812-'15 it was captured by the English. A large, substantial fort, built in 1846-'50, on the opposite bank, at a bend of the river, now commands the narrows and the river in both directions. The town is regularly laid out on a rising slope. Neat and tasteful houses, with overshadowing trees, give it a very pretty ap- pearance from the river. As the Penobscot seldom freezes at this point, Bucksport be- comes the winter harbor for Bangor vessels, as well as for its own commerce. There are two hotels, a savings bank, a national bank, four ship yards, and several manufacturing estab- lishments; a Congregational and four Meth- odist churches, and a male and female semi- nary, with a library of 1,200 volumes, under the control of the Methodists. BlICKSTONE, John Baldwin, an English actor and dramatist, born near London in 1802. At the age of 19 he began his career as an actor in the provincial towns, and in 1823 appeared at the Surrey theatre, London. He afterward played at the Adelphi, the Haymarket, Drury Lane, and the Lyceum, and gained great suc- cess in low comedy characters. In 1840 he visited the United States, and made his first appearance at the Park theatre, New York, in his own comedy of "Single Life." Returning to England, he became lessee of the Haymarket theatre in 1852. He has written nearly 200 pieces for the stage, mostly comedies and farces. Among the best known are "Married Life," "Single Life," "Green Bushes," "Flowers of the Forest," "Rough Diamond," "Good for Nothing," "Irish Lion," "Alarming Sacrifice," and "Jack Shcppard." BUCKTHORN, a plant of the genus rMm- nus, of the order rhamnacece, comprising about 60 species, distinguished by its hermaphro- dite or polygamo-dioecious flowers, 4 or 5-cleft calyx, the tube campanulate and lined with the disk ; petals small or wanting, when present notched and wrapped around the stamens; ovary free, 2 to 4-celled ; drupe berry-like, black when ripe, containing 2 to 4 seed-like nutlets grooved on the back. Shrubs or trees, with al- ternate, rarely opposite leaves, petiojate, pin- nate-veined, deciduous or evergreen ; stipules small and deciduous ; flowers axillary, ra- cemose or cymose. The buckthorn (S. catharticus) is a na- tive of Europe, and has been partly nat- uralized in the east- ern states. As it is hardy as far north as New Hampshire, and bears the knife well, it is much used as a hedge plant, for which its thick short branches and stout spines well fit it. When growing free as a standard, the buckthorn attains a height of 12 or 15 feet. The flowers are of a greenish-yellow color. The juice of the unripe herry has the color of saffron, and when ripe, mixed with alum, the pigment known as sap green is produced. The bark affords a fine yellow dye. Medicinally the ber- ries and inner bark are violently cathartic and purgative, and so strong are these qualities that they even affect the flesh of birds feeding upon the ripe berries. Plants are easily propa- gated from the seeds and grow with considera- ble rapidity. To make good hedges, however, it is necessary to keep them cut low for two or three years, and then if the longer free-growing shoots are intertwined with the older branch- es, a perfectly hardy and impenetrable hedge is procured in a few years. Among American species, R. laneeolatws and R. alnifolius are not uncommon, but neither is so easily managed as a hedge plant, nor are the berries so valu- able as those of R. catharticvs. In some spe- cies native to Siberia, the wood is reddish and exceedingly hard ; the Mongols use it for then- carved images. The wood is also used in the manufacture of charcoal for gunpowder. Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathar- ticus).