Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 naphthol năfˈthôl [key], C10H7OH, either of two crystalline monohydric alcohols. The naphthols are position isomers, differing in the location of the hydroxyl group, –OH, on the carbon ske...

(Encyclopedia) New Hampshire Grants, early name (1749–77) for Vermont, given because most of the early settlers came in under land grants from Benning Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire. Although th...

(Encyclopedia) peyote pāōˈtē [key], spineless cactus (Lophophora williamsii), ingested by indigenous people in Mexico and the United States to produce visions. The plant is native to the SW United States, partic...

(Encyclopedia) pheasant, common name for some members of a family (Phasianidae) of henlike birds related to the grouse and including the Old World partridge, the peacock, various domestic and jungle fowls, and the t...

(Encyclopedia) Broadway, famous thoroughfare in New York City. It extends from Bowling Green near the foot of Manhattan island N to 262d St. in the Bronx. Throughout its length Broadway is chiefly a commercial stree...

(Encyclopedia) Powell, John Wesley, 1834–1902, American geologist and ethnologist, b. Mt. Morris (now part of New York City). The family moved to Illinois, where Powell joined the Natural History Society, making c...

(Encyclopedia) blister beetle, common name for certain soft-bodied, usually black or brown, mostly elongate and cylindrical beetles belonging to the family Meloidae. Blister beetles are common insects found feeding ...

(Encyclopedia) bowerbird, common name for any of several species of birds of the family Ptilonorhynchidae, native to Australia and New Guinea, which build, for courtship display, a bower of sticks or grasses. Usuall...

(Encyclopedia) Cantabria käntäˈbrēä [key], autonomous community and coextensive prov., 2,057 sq mi (5,328 sq ...

(Encyclopedia) Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) kətŭlˈəs [key], 84? b.c.–54? b.c., Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 b.c. to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sist...