(Encyclopedia) bird-of-paradise flower, large tropical herb (Strelitzia reginae) of the family Musaceae (banana family), native to S Africa. Its large blue and orange blossom resembles an exotic bird…
(Encyclopedia) birthmark, pigmented maldevelopment of the skin that varies in size, either present at birth or developing later. Birthmarks may appear as moles (melanocytic nevi) that vary in color…
(Encyclopedia) apatiteapatiteăpˈətīt [key], mineral, a phosphate of calcium containing chlorine or fluorine, or both, that is transparent to opaque in shades of green, brown, yellow, white, red, and…
(Encyclopedia) Field, Eugene, 1850–95, American poet and journalist, b. St. Louis. After working on several Midwestern newspapers, in 1883 he became a columnist for the Chicago Daily News (later the…
(Encyclopedia) heartwood, the central, woody core of a tree, no longer serving for the conduction of water and dissolved minerals; heartwood is usually denser and darker in color than the outer…
(Encyclopedia) Sommer, William, 1867–1949, American painter and lithographer, b. Detroit. He was apprenticed as a lithographer and studied drawing with Julius Melchers in Detroit and drawing and…
(Encyclopedia) Strauss, Levi, 1829–1902, American merchant, b. Buttenheim, Germany, as Löb Strauss. He moved with his mother and sisters to New York City in 1847 to join his brothers' wholesale dry-…
(Encyclopedia) Wad MadaniWad Madaniwäd mädäˈnē [key], city (1993 pop. 211,362), SE cental Sudan, on the Blue Nile River. It is linked by rail with Khartoum and is the chief center of the Al Gezira…
(Encyclopedia) waltz, romantic dance in moderate triple time. It evolved from the German Ländler and became popular in the 18th cent. The dance is smooth, graceful, and vital in performance. The…
(Encyclopedia) van Dyke, Henry, 1852–1933, American clergyman, educator, and author, b. Germantown, Pa., grad. Princeton, 1873, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1874. He was pastor of the Brick…
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