Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/397

 BUCKWHEAT BUDA 391 BPC1L WHEAT (polygonum fagopyrum, Linn.), a species of grain supposed to be a native of Asia, and called ble sarrasin, or Saracen wheat, by the French, after the Saracens or Moors, who are believed to have introduced it into Spain. It thrives on poor soils, conies rapidly to maturity, and is most frequently planted in tracts that are not rich enough to support oth- er crops. It is extremely sensitive to cold, be- ing destroyed by the least frost, but it may be planted so late and reaped so early as to incur no danger from that source. Its flowering sea- son continues for a long time, so that it is im- possible for all the seeds to be in perfection when it is reaped, and the farmer must decide by careful observation at what period there is the greatest quantity of ripe seeds. Buckwheat does not exhaust the soil, and by its rapid growth and its shade it stifles weeds, prevents their going to seed, and leaves the field clean for the next year. It is sometimes ploughed into the ground in a green state for manure. The seeds of buckwheat furnish a white flour, from which a popular gruel is made in Germa- ny and Poland, and breakfast cakes in England and America. Cakes and a dark heavy bread Buckwheat (Polygonum bgopynun). are oiade from it also in the provinces of France, especially in Brittany. Its flowers secrete a large amount of honey, and are therefore al- ways covered with bees; and in the middle United States it is often cultivated for their food, but the honey is of inferior quality. The grain is superior to oats as nutriment for horses and poultry, and is especially efficacious in making the latter lay eggs. The green plant is said to greatly increase the milk of cows, but according to Thaer and Hauter it produces cramps and a sort of intoxication in swine and sheep which feed largely upon it. There is an- other kind of buckwheat, distinguished from the preceding by the sharper angles of its seeds and by its tougher stocks. It is earlier and taller, less sensitive to cold, and produces grain in larger quantity, but of an inferior and bitter quality. It was introduced from Tartary into Russia in the beginning of the 18th century, and it has thence been dispersed all over Eu- rope. Hence its name of Siberian buckwheat, or polygonwn Tartariaum. BCCQITOY, Jean Albert d'Archambaud, count and abb6 de, a French writer, born in Champagne about 1650, died in November, 1740. He was by turns a soldier, a gallant, a churchman, a foun- der of seminaries, a teacher, a revolutionist, a skeptic, and a moral philosopher. He was im- prisoned in the Bastile, but escaped (1709) and fled to Switzerland, thence to Holland, and then to Hanover, where he spent some time at the court of George I., who liked his wit and gave him a pension. His principal work, te- nements des plus ram, &c. (1719), relates to his experiences in prison. He also wrote on poli- tics, religion, and toward the close of his life on the malignity of women and on death. He figures in G6rard de Nerval's gallery of eccen- tric personages (Les illumines, ou leg precur- senrs du socialisme, Paris, 1852). BCCYRIS, a town and the capital of Craw- ford co., Ohio, on the Sandusky river, 60 in. N". of Columbus ; pop. in 1870, 3,066. The Pitts- burgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad passes through it. There are several churches, good schools, a bank, a number of manufactories, and two weekly newspapers. In the vicinity are mineral springs and a well of inflammable gas. In 1848 a specimen of the mastodon in good preservation was found near the town. BUCZACZ, a town of Austria, in eastern Gali- cia, 83 m. S. E. of Lemberg; pop. in 1869. 8,173. It has a gymnasium, which is conduct- ed by the Basilian monks. On Oct. 18, 1672, a peace was concluded here between Turkey and Poland, in which the latter country ceded Podolia and the Ukraine. BCDA (Ger. Ofen), the capital of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube, in lat. 47 30' N., Ion. 19 3' E., 133 m. E. S. E. of Vienna; pop. in 1870, 53,998, mostly Germans. On the opposite bank of the Danube, here 1,400 feet wide, is the larger city of Pesth, the two being connected by a suspension bridge and regular steam ferry boats. The two cities are some- times spoken of as one, under the name of Buda-Pesth (Hun. Budapest), the joint popula- tion being more than 250,000. The German name Ofen, "oven" or "stove," was probably given to Bnda on account of the hot springs in the neighborhood. Buda is the official resi- dence of the emperor of Austria as king of Hungary, and the seat of the principal govern- ment offices of the kingdom, as distinguished from the other parts of the Austrian em- pire. The city, about 9 m. in circuit, is built around the Schlossberg, an isolated shelving rock, crowned by a castle built in 1748 by the empress Maria Theresa from the ruins of an old fortress. The Schlossberg is the finest part of the city, and is surrounded by walls, from which the suburbs extend toward the river. The principal buildings on the Sehlossberg are the royal palace, a quadrangular structure 564