BUTTERFIELD, WILLIAM (1814-1900), English architect, was born in London, and educated for his profession at Worcester, where he laid the foundations of his knowledge of Gothic architecture. He settled in London and became prominent in connexion with the Cambridge Camden Society, and its work in the improvement of church furniture and art. His first important building was St Augustine's, Canterbury (1845), and his reputation was made by All Saints', Margaret Street, London (1859), followed by St Alban's, Holborn (1863), the new part of Merton College, Oxford (1864), Keble College, Oxford (1875), and many houses and ecclesiastical buildings. He also did much work as a restorer, which has been adversely criticized. He was a keen churchman and intimately associated with the English church revival. He had somewhat original views as to colour in architecture, which led to rather garish results, his view being that any combination of the natural colours of the materials was permissible. His private life was retiring, and he died unmarried on the 23rd of February 1900.
BUTTERFLY AND MOTH (the former from "butter" and "fly," an old term of uncertain origin, possibly from the nature of the excrement, or the yellow colour of some particular species; the latter akin to O. Eng. mod, an earth-worm), the common English names applied respectively to the two groups of insects forming the scientific order Lepidoptera (q.v.).
BUTTER-NUT, the product of Caryocar nuciferum, a native of tropical South America. The large nuts, known also as saowari or suwarow nuts, are the hard stone of the fruit and contain an oily nutritious seed. The genus Caryocar contains ten species, in tropical South America, some of which form large trees affording a very durable wood, useful for shipbuilding.
A, leaf of Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) with left margin inflected over a row of small flies. (After Darwin.) B, glands from surface of leaf by which the sticky liquid is secreted and by means of which the products of digestion are absorbed.
BUTTERWORT, the popular name of a small insectivorous plant, Pinguicula vulgaris, which grows in wet, boggy land. It is a herb with a rosette of fleshy, oblong leaves, 1 to 3 in. long, appressed to the ground, of a pale colour and with a sticky surface. Small insects settle on the leaves and are caught in the viscid excretion. This, like the excretion of the sundew and other insectivorous plants, contains a digestive ferment (or enzyme) which renders the nitrogenous substances of the body of the insect soluble, and capable of absorption by the leaf. In this way the plant obtains nitrogenous food by means of its leaves. The leaves bear two sets of glands, the larger borne on usually unicellular pedicels, the smaller almost sessile (fig. B). When a fly is captured, the viscid excretion becomes strongly acid and the naturally incurved margins of the leaf curve still further inwards, rendering contact between the insect and the leaf-surface more complete. The plant is widely distributed in the north temperate zone, extending into the arctic zone.
BUTTERY (from O. Fr. boterie, Late Lat. botaria, a place where liquor is stored, from butta, a cask), a place for storing wine; later, with a confusion with "butter," a pantry or storeroom for food; especially, at colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the place where food other than meat, especially bread and butter, ale and wines, &c., are kept.
BUTTMANN, PHILIPP KARL (1764-1829), German philologist, was born at Frankfort-On-Main in 1764. He was educated in his native town and at the university of Göttingen. In 1789 he obtained an appointment in the library at Berlin, and for some years he edited Speners Journal. In 1796 he became professor at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, a post which he held for twelve years. In 1806 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, and in 1811 was made secretary of the Historico-Philological Section. He died in 1829. Buttmann's writings gave a great impetus to the scientific study of the Greek language. His Griechische Grammatik (1792) went through many editions, and was translated into English. His Lexilogus, a valuable study on some words of difficulty occurring principally in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, was published in 1818-1825, and was translated into English. Buttmann's other works were Ausführliche griechische Sprachlehre (2 vols., 1819-1827); Mythologus, a collection of essays (1828-1829); and editions of some classical authors, the most important being Demosthenes in Midiam (1823) and the continuation of Spalding's Quintilian.
BUTTON (Fr. bouton, O. Fr. boton, apparently from the same root as bouter, to push), a small piece of metal or other material which, pushed through a loop or button-hole, serves as a catch between different parts of a garment, &c. The word is also used of other objects which have a projecting knob-like character, e.g. button-mushrooms, the button of an electric bell-push, or the guard at the tip of a fencing foil; or which resemble a button in size and shape, as the button of metal obtained in assaying operations. At first buttons were apparently used for purposes of ornamentation; in Piers Plowman (1377) mention is made of a knife with "botones ouergylte," and in Lord Berner's translation of Froissart's Chronicles (1525) of a book covered with crimson velvet with "ten botons of syluer and gylte." While this use has continued, especially in connexion with women's dress, they began to be employed as fastenings at least as early as the 15th century. As a term of comparison for something trivial or worthless, the word is found in the 14th century. Buttons of distinctive colour or pattern, or bearing a portrait or motto, are often worn, especially in the United States, as a decoration, or sign of membership of a society or of adherence to a political party; among the most honoured of such buttons are those worn by members of the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, organized in 1865 by officers who had fought in the Civil War. Chinese officials wear a button or knob on their hats as a mark of rank, the grade being denoted by its colour and material (see Mandarin).