BUDDLEA. 
BUDDLEA. A genus of ornamental shrubs, 
of the figwort tribe. The species longest known 
-in Britain grows indigenously in Jamaica and 
most of the American islands. Its stem rises to 
the height of ten or twelve feet, and is thick, 
woody, and covered with a grey bark ; its 
branches deflect from the upper part of the 
stem, are numerous, and come out in opposites ; 
its leaves also come out in opposites, and are 
oval, serrated, and covered on their under sur- 
face with a brown hairy down; and its flowers 
have a yellow colour, and are produced at the 
ends of the branches in long close spikes, branch- 
ing out into clusters. One deciduous and hardy 
species, about 15 feet in height, and producing 
orange-coloured flowers in May and June, was 
brought, in the latter part of last century, from 
Chili; and nine tender evergreen species have 
| been introduced, principally during the last 
twenty-five years, from Nepaul, Java, Madagas- 
car, the Cape of Good Hope, Brazil, and Mexico. 
BUFFALO, — scientifically Bos Bubalus. A 
quadruped of the ox tribe. It has, for a long 
period, been domesticated in India; and it has 
been diffused thence into various countries of 
Asia and Africa, and into Greece, Italy, and 
Spain. It is at once a heavier, a clumsier, and a 
stronger animal than the Bos Taurus or common 
European ox. Its limbs are short, thick, and mas-_ 
sive; its body is bulkier than that of our bull; 
its hide is coarse, thick, and clothed with black 
wiry hair; its head is large, its forehead convex, 
and its muzzle projecting ; its ears are large and 
pendulous; its eyes are sparkling and fierce; its 
horns are long, compressed, and turned so far 
back as to be unfit for forward goring; and its 
tail is slender and long. It is so bold in temper 
as not to be easily tamed or managed; and yet 
is so athletic and enduring as, in some countries, 
to be of great domestic value. It often fights 
and sometimes vanquishes the tiger in India ; 
it exists in both a wild and a domesticated state 
in many parts of continental Asia, in some of the 
East India Islands, and in the Calabrian high- 
lands and pestiferous marshes of southern Italy ; 
it acts a valuable part in the splashy agricul- 
tural labours of China, and in the wet and dreary 
rice cultivation of the Ghauts; it forms herds of 
high price in hot pestiferous marshes, and in 
some other repulsive situations where no other 
description of agricultural stock can exist ; and 
it acts as an invaluable beast of burden and of 
draught in trackless districts of Asia, in wild 
wastes of Africa, and in marshy plains of Cala- 
bria which, but for its aid, would be impervious 
to traffic and almost untraversable by man. Its 
flesh is hard and unsavoury, and yet is much re- 
lished in many parts of the Hast; and the milk 
of the female is singularly rich, and yields a con- 
siderable proportion of butter. 
“The common buffalo,” remarks Professor Low, 
“was early known in Egypt and Greece. He was 
introduced, it is supposed, about the seventh 
BUFFALO. 
atl 
century into Italy, and is now an important ani- 
malin the rural economy of that country. He 
is used by the Italians as food, and as the beast 
of labour, and may be said to form the riches of 
the inhabitants in many parts of the country. 
He prefers moisture and the rank herbage of 
marshes. The milk of the female is good ; but 
the flesh is held in less esteem than that of the 
common ox. The pace of the animal is slow; 
but from the low manner in which he carries his 
head, throwing the weight of his great body for- 
ward when pulling, he is well suited for heavy 
draught. But this is not a property sufficiently 
important to cause the introduction of the buf- 
falo into the agriculture of Northern Europe ; 
and he is not likely, therefore, to be carried be- 
yond the countries where he is now reared.” 
breed of buffalo cattle was introduced, about 
twenty-five years ago, to the Duke of Northum- 
berland’s beautiful park at Alnwick; and, though 
the bull died soon after his arrival, a fine cross 
with the Highland kyloe, strongly characterized 
with the peculiarities of the buffalo race, con- 
tinues to be preserved. The flock is usually kept 
_up to the number of about thirty individuals ; 
and is not permitted to have, at any one time, | 
more than one or two bulls. “They have pro- 
miscuously bred among each other, care being 
taken to preserve those for breeders which most 
resembled the originals, the size of the character- 
istic hump on the shoulder being the principal 
guide. They are treated in a great measure like 
the other cattle, only, from their wild nature, no | 
attempt has been made to handle them. During 
severe weather, or a storm in winter, they have 
a hovel to run into; and although they do not 
seem to bear the cold climate so well as one of 
i 
their progenitors, the kyloes, they are usually | 
very healthy. When the calves are dropped, the 
mother endeavours to secrete them among the 
long grass for a few days, like other wild cattle, 
so that the herdsman has to watch the place, and 
a favourable opportunity, to castrate or spay 
them. They are good graziers ; the young ones 
getting into excellent condition in the summer ; 
and although they evidently lose flesh in the 
winter, yet by the time they are killed in the | 
fall of the year, when four or five years old, they | 
are very good beef. The meat is finely marbled, 
and well-flavoured,” 
The Cape buffalo, Bos caffer, has sometimes 
been mistaken for the common buffalo, but is | 
very different both in appearance and in disposi- 
tion. It has never been domesticated nor tamed 
to labour. Its horns are very remarkable, not 
for their extraordinary length, but for their roots 
and base, rugged and uneven, being so unusually 
broad as to cover the whole forehead, and to im- 
part to it, says Burchell, the appearance of a 
mass of rock. The expression of the animal is 
savage and malevolent. Its bulk exceeds that of 
the ox; for though its height is not much great- 
er, it is more robust and strongly built. Its 
