BUT 



BUT 



be obtained from the cocoa nut ; and the 

 celebrated Parke found in Africa a tree, 

 called by the natives shea, from the fruit 

 of which a tolerably pure butter was ob- 

 tained. 



BuTTER~7ra7fr, a kind of serum that re- 

 mains behind, after the butter is made. 



BUTTERFLY, the English name of a 

 numerous genus of insects, called by zoo- 

 logists papilio. See PAPILIO. 



BUTTERY, a room in the houses of 

 noblemen and gentlemen belonging to 

 the butler, where he deposits the uten- 

 sils belonging to his office, as table linnen, 

 napkins, pots, tankards, glasses, cruets, 

 salvers, spoons, knives, forks, pepper, 

 mustard, &c. 



BUTTNERIA, in botany, so named 

 from David Sigismunda Augustus Butt- 

 ner : a genus of the Pentandria Monogy- 

 nia class and order. Natural order of 

 Columniferse. Malvaceae, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential diameter : corolla five-petalled ; 

 filaments at the top connate with the pe- 

 tals ; capsule five-grained, muricate. 

 There are three species; viz. B. scabra, 

 is a pernenial plant, from three to five 

 feet high, with alternate, long, angular 

 branches, armed with cartilagi nous pric- 

 kles ; at the axils of the leaves, stem and 

 branches, the flowers are produced sin- 

 gly on short peduncles : it is found at 

 Cayenne. B. earth aginensis is a shrub, 

 branching and spreading on every side, in 

 manner of the common bramble ; ra- 

 cemes short, aggregate, and axillary on the 

 young branches ; flowers without smell, 

 white, and very numerous : native of 

 Carthagena and St. Domingo ; flowering 

 in September and October: and B. 

 microphylla differs but little from the 

 foregoing, in having the trunk and 

 branches larger and round, the pedun- 

 cles one-flowered, and the corolla pur- 

 ple and white, variegated : it was found 

 in the island of St. Domingo by Jacquin, 

 and brought into Europe. 



BUTTOCK of a ship, is that part of her 

 which is her breadth right a-stern, from 

 the tack upwards ; and a ship is said to 

 have a broad or a narrow buttock, ac- 

 cording as she is built broad or narrow at 

 the transum. 



BUTTOMUS, in botany, a genus of the 

 Enneandria Hexagynia. Natural order of 

 Tripetaloideze. June), Jussieu. One of 

 the connecting links between lilies and 

 rushes. Essential character : calyx none ; 

 petals six ; capsule six, many-seeded. 

 There is but one species ; viz. B. umbel- 

 hitus, flowering rush or gladiole, has a 

 perennial root ; leaves ensiform, long, 

 triangular, smooth, quite entire, spongy, 



at bottom sheathing, at top flat and twist- 

 ed ; flowers to thirty, each on a single, 

 round, smooth peduncle, from an inch to 

 about a finger's length, forming an up- 

 right umbel, surrounded at bottom by an 

 involucre of three withering membranous 

 sheaths, besides a smaller stipule to each 

 peduncle; corolla very handsome and 

 large, of a bright flesh colour ; filaments 

 placed on a regular circle on the recepta- 

 cle ; the pollen is of a bright yellow co- 

 lour, germ nearly triangular. This is the 

 only plant of the class Enneandria which 

 grows wild in Britain. 



BUTTON, an article of dress, serving 

 to fasten clothes tight about the bodjr, 

 made of metal, silk, mohair. &c. in va* 

 rious forms. Metal buttons are either 

 cast in moulds, in the manner of other 

 small works, or made of thin plates of 

 gold, silver, or brass, whose structure is 

 very ingenious. 



Of the manufacture of metal buttons. 

 These are originally formed in two differ- 

 ent ways ; the blanks are either pierced 

 out of a large sheet of metal with a punch 

 driven by a fly-press, or cast in a pair of 

 flasks of moderate size, containing 10 or 

 12 dozen each. In this latter case, the 

 shanks are previously fixed in [the sand, 

 exactly in the centre of the impression 

 formed by each pattern, so as to have 

 their extremities immersed in the melt- 

 ed metal when poured into the flask, by 

 which means they are consequently firm- 

 ly fixed in the button when cooled. The 

 former process is generally used for yel- 

 low buttons, and the latter for those of 

 white metal. We shall first give an in- 

 stance of the former mode of procedure, 

 as used in the manufacture of gilt but- 

 tons. The gilding metal is an alloy of 

 copper and zinc, containing a smaller pro- 

 portion of the latter than ordinary brass, 

 and is made either by fusing together the 

 copper and zinc, or by fusing brass with 

 the requisite additional proportion of cop- 

 per. This metal is first rolled into sheets 

 of the intended thickness of the button, 

 and the blanks are then pierced out as be- 

 fore mentioned. The blanks thus formed 

 are, when intended for plain buttonSj usu- 

 ally planished by a smgle stroke of a plain 

 die driven by the some engine, the fly- 

 press; when for ornamental buttons, the fi- 

 gure is also frequently struck in like man- 

 ner by an appropriate die, though there 

 are others which are ornamented by hand. 

 The shanks, which are made withjwonder- 

 ful facility and expedition by means of a 

 very curious engine, are then temporarily 

 attached to the bottom of each button by 



