Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

BUCKMINSTER-BUDDHA.. 313
collected, and, published in an octavo vol- ture, compared with that of other grain,
time, to which is prefixed a well-written is attended with little expense.
memoir of his life and character. These BucoLics. (See Pastoral Poetry.)
remains have been extensively circulated. BUDA (in German, Ofen) is the Hu-ngaThey are highly valuable in every re- rian name of the capital of Hungary, sitspect, and fitted to excite universal regret uated on the west bank of' the Danube,
at the premature fate of the accomplished opposite Pest. It consists of the Upper
and virtuous author. A second volume Town, which is fortified, and lies, with the
has appeared very recently (Boston, castle, on a hill:; of the Lower Town, or
1829). Waterstadt, which lies at the foot of the
BUCKWHEAT, or BRANK, is a black and hill, and is connected with Pest by a
triangular grain, produced by a plant of bridge of boats; of the Neustift, in which
the persicarica tribe (polygonum fagopy- is the remarkable Trinity pillar, 52 feet
rmn), with sonmewhat arrow-shaped leaves, high; and of the Taban, called, in Gerand purplish-white flowers. —Buckwheat man, Raitzenstadt, fiom being almost enwas first brought to Europe from the tirely occupied by the Rascians, a Sclanorthern parts of Asia, and first cultivat- vonian race. There are three other parts
ed in England about the year 1600. The inhabited by Germans and Hungariflowers appear about July, and the seeds ans. The population is i8,500, exclusive
ripen in October; and so tender are the of the court of the palatine, the officers
p]ants, that a single night's sharp frost of government, the military and the clerwill destroy a whole crop. As a grain, gy. Among the public buildings are the
buckwheat has been: principally cultivat- royal fortress,.in which the crown is kept,'d for oxen, swine and poultry; and, the arsenal, the cannon foundery, the new
tlthough some farmers state, that a single observatory on the Blocksberg. The
)ushel of it is equal in quality to two trade in wine, which the environs prorushels of oats, others assert, that it is a duce of an excellent quality, is the chief
elry unprofitable food. Mixed with bran, occupation of the inhabitants. There'hafT or grain, it is sometimes given to are also manufactures of silk, leather,
-iorses. The flower of buckwheat is oc- tobacco, copper and iron. The baths
casionally used for bread, but more fre-. are efficacious in palsy, weakness of limbs,
quently for the thin cakes called crutm- and similar complaints. The castle was
pets. In Germany, it serves as an ingre- chosen as a place of residence by the
dient in pottage, puddings, and other food, emperor Louis I; and king Matthias I
In Pennsylvania, it is very extensively founded the library, which was destroyed
used, throughout the winter, in cakes, by the Turks, in whose hands B. remainwhich are cooked upon a griddle. Beer ed from 1530 till 1686, when it was taken
may be brewed from it; and by distilla- by storm by the duke of Lorraine. The
tion it yields an excellent spirit.-The castle was then destroyed, but was rebuilt
best mode of harvesting this grain is said by the empress Maria Theresa for the
to be by pulling it out of the ground like university, which was removed from
flax, stripping off the seeds with the hand, Tyrnau to Buda in 1777, and which has
and-collecting these into aprons or cloths, subsequently been removed to Pest. Lon.
tied round the waist. —Buckwheat is much 19~ 2' E.; lat. 470 30' N.; distant 120
cultivated in the domains of noblemen, miles S. E. from Vienna.
possessed of landed property, as a food BUDDHA, the founder of a very ancient
for pheasants. With some ifarmers, it is religion, called after him. His worship,
the practice to sow buckwheat for the after the Bramins had put a stop to it in
purpose only of ploughing it into the India, spread to Japan, Thibet and Chiground, as a manure fir thle land. Whilst na, where, as well as in Ceylon, it exists
green, it serves as food for sheep and at the present day. Ritter, in his Foroxen; and, mixed witih other provender, it hallen Europischer V1ilkergeschichten (Inmay also be given with advantage to horses. troduction to the Histories of the EuroThe blossoms may be used for dyeing a pean Nations), advances the opinion, that
brown color. It is frequently cultivated in the Buddhists also migrated to tile N. W.
the Middle U. States as food for bees, who to the shores of the Black sea, to Colchis,
are very fond of it, and to whose honey to the modern Mingrelia, and thence to
it imparts a flavor by no means unpleas- Thrace, where they laid the foundation
ant.-The principal advantage of buck- of the civilization of the Pelasgi and Helwheat is, that it is capable of being culti- lenes. Even in the doctrine of Asa, in
vated upon land which will produce the extreme north, traces of Buddhism
scarcely any tling else, and that its cul- have been thought to apptear. According
VOL, 1. 27