Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) rocket, in botany, popular name for several plants of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family). The dame's, or damask, violet, damewort, or sweet rocket is Hesperis matronalis, a hardy,...

(Encyclopedia) Saumur sōmürˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 30,150), Maine-et-Loire dept., W France, on the Loire River. Saumur is noted for its religious-medal industry (dating from the 17th cent.) and for its sparkling...

(Encyclopedia) Levine, James Lawrence, 1943–2021, American conductor, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. . Levine’s parents were both performers; his father had been a bandleade...

(Encyclopedia) bushbuck, either of two small, delicate, spiral-horned antelopes of sub-Saharan Africa, the imbabala (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) and the kéwel (T. scriptus), formerly classified as a single species. Bus...

(Encyclopedia) heron hĕrˈən [key], common name for members of the family Ardeidae, large wading birds including the bittern and the egret, found in most temperate regions but most numerous in tropical and subtrop...

(Encyclopedia) Springsteen, Bruce Frederick, 1949–, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, nicknamed “The Boss,” b. Long Branch, N.J. Springsteen established himself as a singer and songwriter, as well as...

(Encyclopedia) Luxembourg or Luxemburg, city (1991 pop. 75,377), capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, S Luxembourg, at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers. It is a commercial, banking, industrial...

(Encyclopedia) Martini, Simone dē märtēˈnō [key], c.1283–1344, major Sienese painter. His art is admired for its Gothic spirituality combined with a vibrancy and a great elegance of line. A follower of Duccio...

(Encyclopedia) Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

(Encyclopedia) Böll, Heinrich hīnˈrĭkh böl [key], 1917–85, German novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Böll presents a critical, antimilitarist view of modern society in a collection of masterful sh...