Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) beach grass or marram grass mârˈəm [key], any species of the genus Ammophila, perennial grasses used to control the shifting of sand dunes, thereby protecting sandy coastal areas. The European beac...

(Encyclopedia) radish, herbaceous plant (Raphanus sativus) belonging to the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family), with an edible, pungent root sliced in salads or used as a relish. It is thought to be...

(Encyclopedia) Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1...

(Encyclopedia) tropism trōpˈĭzəm [key], involuntary response of an organism, or part of an organism, involving orientation toward (positive tropism) or away from (negative tropism) one or more external stimuli. ...

(Encyclopedia) biennial, plant requiring two years to complete its life cycle, as distinguished from an annual or a perennial. In the first year a biennial usually produces a rosette of leaves (e.g., the cabbage) an...

(Encyclopedia) Chuquet, Nicolas nēkôläˈ shükāˈ [key], c.1450–1500, French mathematician, probably b. Paris. Little is known of Chuquet's life. At Lyons in 1484 he composed a manuscript on the science of num...

(Encyclopedia) abscess, localized inflammation associated with tissue necrosis. Abscesses are characterized by inflamation, which is due to the accumulation of pus in the local tissues, and often painful...

(Encyclopedia) cyclosis sīklōˈsĭs [key], streaming of cytoplasm within a living cell without deformation of the external cell membrane. In some plant cells there is a rapid rotatory cytoplasmic movement, which i...

(Encyclopedia) Racine rəsēnˈ [key], industrial city (1990 pop. 84,298), seat of Racine co., SE Wis., on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Root River; inc. 1848. It is a port of entry, and its manufactures includ...

(Encyclopedia) Burmese, language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages). It is spoken by about 30 million people in Myanmar, where it is both th...