More than one of these 7 encyclopedias carries each of the following subjects — but every one of them treats it in a sentence or two and then moves on. They are gathered here so the different accounts can sit side by side.
Buckeye
Aiton's Encyclopedia: the sweet horse-chestnut. It is a fine tall forest tree of the soapberry family, akin to the maple and box elder. The leaf resembles that of the chestnut. The fruit is a leathery pod containing a large seed, or rather nut, with a shiny coat and a round, pale scar. The nut resembles the soft, lustrous eye of the Virginia deer, whence the name. The buck-eye is found in rich woods from the Ohio Valley southward. Ohio has been nicknamed the "Buckeye State." In addition to the Ohio buckeye, there are others, as the red buckeye, the shrubby sweet buckeye, and the white buckeye of the mountains. There are several similar species in Asia. 2026 Editor's Note: A correction: the buckeye is not sweet and not really edible — the nuts and young growth contain a toxin, and livestock are poisoned by them, though squirrels manage. Ohio embraced it anyway: the state tree, the state nickname, the university's teams and mascot are all Buckeye , and the chocolate-and-peanut-butter candy made to look like the nut is an Ohio institution. (Ed: BR 2026-07-07)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: the American horse chestnut tree, the æsculus ohioticus of botanists.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Buckram
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a coarse, heavily sized linen or cotton fabric. It is used for stiffening collars, belts, and certain portions of men's garments. A light weight buckram is used in bookbinding, and for covering carriage cushions. During the Middle Ages a costly linen fabric, used for church vestments and banners, and to a lesser extent for personal wear, was called buckram. 2026 Editor's Note: The stiff cloth owes its fame to a lie. In Shakespeare's Henry IV , Falstaff's tale of the "two rogues in buckram suits" who attacked him swells to four, then seven, then nine, then eleven as he tells it — one of the most beloved comic scenes in English, and the reason "men in buckram" means an invented enemy. (Ed: BR 2026-06-21)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a coarse textile fabric stiffened with glue and used in garments and bookbinding to give them or keep them in the form intended.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Buckskin
Aiton's Encyclopedia: the dressed hide of a deer. The American Indians were expert in dressing the skin, especially of the Virginia red deer. The green hide was stretched by poles, cleaned of fat and flesh and rubbed with the brains of the deer itself. Buckskin was used for moccasins, leggings, and other articles of clothing not only by the Indians, but by the early settlers as well. The provincial troops were sometimes called "buckskins" on account of their clothing, a custom to which Burns refers humorously in a poem on the American Revolution: Cornwallis fought as lang's he dought, An did the Buckskins claw, man. See Deer ; Leather
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a kind of soft leather, generally yellow or grayish in color, prepared originally by treating deerskins in a particular way, but now in general made from sheepskins. This may be done by oil, or by a second method, in which the skins are grained, brained, and smoked.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Budding
Collier's New Encyclopedia: the art of multiplying plants by causing the leaf bud of one species or variety to grow upon the branch of another. The operation consists in shaving off a leaf bud, with a portion of the wood beneath it, which portion is afterward removed by a sudden 1850. jerk of the operator's finger and thumb, aided by the budding knife. An incision from in the bark of the stock is then made in the form of a T; the two side lips are " pushed aside, the bud is thrust between the bark and the wood, the upper end of its bark is cut to a level with the cross arm of the T, and the whole is bound up with worsted or other soft fastening, the point of the bud being left exposed. In performing the operation, a knife with a thin, flat handle and a blade with a peculiar edge is required. The bud must be fully formed; the bark of the stock must separate readily from the wood below it; and young branches should always be chosen, as having beneath the bark the largest quantity of cambium or viscid matter out of which tissue is formed. The maturer shoots of the year in which the operation is performed are the best. The autumn is the best time for budding, though it may also be practiced in the spring.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: . See Grafting
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Bulbul
Aiton's Encyclopedia: the Persian name of a sweet singing rock thrush heard at night in oriental countries. It is a species of nightingale. It has been brought to notice by the Arabian Nights' Entertainments , and by the poems of Moore and Byron. There are several brilliantly colored species. The bulbul of India is familiar in gardens. The males fight with such pugnacity that they are trained by the natives and exhibited in sparring matches. See Nightingale 2026 Editor's Note: The entry conflates two birds: the poetic bulbul of Persian verse is really the nightingale, while the true bulbuls are a large family of some 150 tropical songbirds. One of them has made itself unwelcome — the red-vented bulbul, introduced to Pacific islands, is now listed among the world's worst invasive species. (Ed: BR 2026-06-06)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: the Indian name of any bird belonging to the pycnonotinæ, a sub-family of turdidæ, or thrushes. The bulbuls are admired in the East for their song, as are the nightingales. Some species are found in Africa. P. jocosus, spe which can be easily tamed, is kept for this end, and P. hæmorrhous for fighting purposes.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bullet
Aiton's Encyclopedia: the leaden projectile of small arms . Bullets were originally spherical. It is in this sense that the term bullet-headed is applied to a person with a short, round head. The elongated minie bullet was introducd by the French in 1846, and has been succeeded by still more elongated bullets. The modern bullet of the cartridge for a breech-loader, as of the Mauser, is about three inches long, with a diameter about one-tenth of the length, and a weight of 216 grains. It is usually coated with steel, copper, nickel, or german silver. The dum-dum bullet, condemned by rules of modern warfare, has an unprotected lead point that flattens on striking, and produces a ragged wound. 2026 Editor's Note: The bullet the entry describes as new caused a slaughter: the soft, expanding Minié ball , fired from a rifled musket, shattered bone instead of piercing it, which is why Civil War surgery meant amputation so often. Expanding bullets were later banned in warfare by the Hague Declaration of 1899 — though they remain standard for police and hunting. (Ed: BR 2026-07-21)
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a ball, generally of lead, made to fit the bore of a rifle, pistol, or similar weapon, and designed to be proforce as an ofpelled thence with great fensive instrument or weapon. Bullets conical are now usually cylindrical, with or conoidal points.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia