BUTTON-FLOWER. 
country people as an aperient ; an ointment made 
from it is used for healing the bite of adders and 
excoriations of the hands; and the plant itself 
is sometimes boiled up with garden vegetables 
as a remedy for colds.—The large-flowered species, 
Pinguicula grandiflora, is a very beautiful plant, 
of three or four inches in height, and producing 
blue flowers in April and May.—The two species 
which have been introduced from America also 
possess much beauty, but are somewhat tender. 
BUTTON-FLOWER,—botanically Gomphia. A 
genus of evergreen, ornamental, tropical shrubs, 
of the ochna tribe. Five species have been in- 
troduced to Great Britain from the West Indies, 
and one from Ceylon; and about twenty other 
species are known to botanists. Their leaves are 
lucid, their flowers yellow, and their germens 
club-shaped ; and the last of these characteristics 
is alluded to in the name Gomphia, which signi- 
fies “a club.” The bark of Gomphia hexasperma 
is used in Brazil for healing sores in cattle, in- 
flicted by the stings of insects. 
BUTTON-TREE,—botanically Conocarpus. A 
small genus of evergreen hothouse shrubs, of the 
combretum tribe. The upright species, Conocar- 
pus erectus, was introduced to Great Britain from 
Jamaica, about the middle of last century. It 
grows plentifully in sandy bays in all parts of the 
West Indies. Its stem is upright, ramified, and 
from ten to sixteen feet high ; its leaves are spear- 
shaped and alternate, and stand on broad short 
footstalks; its flowers grow on ligneous foot- 
stalks from the wings of the leaves, are produced 
in six or eight conical heads at the end of each 
branch, and present a considerable resemblance 
to the flowers of acacia; and its fruit is a cone 
of scales, enclosing single seeds, and giving rise 
to the botanical name conocarpus, which signi- 
fies “a conical fruit.” The wood of this species 
is used as timber.—The procumbent or maritime 
trailing species, Conocarpus procumbens, has short 
crooked branches, which divide and spread out 
on all sides athwart the ground ; and it was in- 
troduced from Cuba in the former half of last 
century. Two species, with white flowers, and 
about twelve feet high, were recently introduced 
from South America. 
BUTTON-WEED,—botanically Spermacoce. A 
genus of herbaceous plants, of the madder family. 
Upwards of twenty species have been introduced 
to Great Britain,—principally from the West In- 
dies; and upwards of forty other species are known 
to botanists. The smooth, the slender, and the 
lanceolate species are hardy ornamental annuals; 
the Roxburgh species is an ornamental hothouse 
biennial ; and all the other introduced species 
are destitute of interest,—most of them tender 
annuals. Miller thus describes one of the earli- 
est-known ornamental sorts: “It grows to the 
height of 25 feet; the stalks are stiff, a little 
angular, and covered with a brown bark ; the | 
branches come-out by pairs. There are two 
leaves at each joint placed opposite, which are 
BUTYRINE. 
599 
two inches long, and almost a quarter of an inch 
broad; and between these come out three or four 
smaller, which stand in whorls round the stalks ; 
they are smooth, and have one strong vein or 
midrib in the middle. The flowers grow in slen- 
der whorls toward the top of the stalks; they 
are small, white, and sit close to the stalks, hav- 
ing a whorl of small leaves close under them ; 
these are succeeded by two oblong seeds, having 
small horns which ripen in the empalement.” 
BUTTON-WOOD,—botanically Cephalanthus. 
A small genus of plants of the madder family. 
The western species, Cephalanthus occidentalis, 
is a hardy, deciduous, ornamental shrub; and 
was introduced to Great Britain from North 
America in 1735. It usually grows in this 
country to the height of about six or seven 
feet ; its branches are few and open proportion- 
ally to the foliage, and do not render it a very 
bushy plant; its leaves are three inches long 
and one and a half broad,—they stand oppo- 
site by pairs, and sometimes by threes, and are 
of a light green colour,—they are smooth in their 
upper surface,—they have several strong nerves, 
one from base to point, and the others from this 
to the borders,—and these nerves, as well as the 
footstalks, become reddish in autumn; its flow- 
ers are produced in globular heads or aggregates, 
at the ends of the branches, in July or August ; 
and the florets which compose the flowers are 
whitish-yellow, funnel-shaped, and fastened to a 
central axis. The botanical name cephalanthus 
is compounded of two words which signify “a 
head” and “a flower ;” and alludes to the globu- 
lar aggregation of the floral growth. ‘The elder 
Michaux found in the island of Ohio a button- 
wood plant which, at five feet from the ground, 
measured 40 feet 4 inches in girth; and the 
younger Michaux saw, on the right bank of the 
Ohio river, 36 miles from Marcetta, one which, 
at four feet from the surface, measured 47 feet in 
circumference, which appeared to preserve the 
same dimensions to the height of 15 or 20 feet, 
and which then divided into many limbs of pro- 
portional size. The western button-wood can be 
propagated in Britain from layers and cuttings,— 
but not without considerable care; and is better 
and more commonly propagated from seeds. Two 
other species are known to botanists, but have 
not been introduced to Britain. 
BUTYR OF ANTIMONY. See Antimony. 
BUTYRINE. The fatty principle which con- 
stitutes butter. Like other animal fats and oils, 
it consists of the simple elements of carbon, oxy- 
gen, and hydrogen; and, like the latter, it com- 
prises the proximate elements of stearine and 
elaine. But, unlike the common animal fats, it 
becomes quite fluid at 70° of Fahrenheit; and 
when converted into soap, it yields, in addition 
to the usual products, three volatile odoriferous 
compounds, called the butyric, the caproic, and 
the capric acids. 
BUXUS. See Box-TRrez. 
