Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gagra gäˈgrē [key], city, Abkhazia, W Georgia, on the Black Sea and at the foot of the Gre...

(Encyclopedia) locust, in botany, any species of the genus Robinia, deciduous trees or shrubs of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) native to the United States and Mexico. The locusts have pendent clusters of flo...

(Encyclopedia) Merton, Robert Carhart, 1944–, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970. He has taught at MIT (1970–88, 2010–) and Harvard (1988–2010). Merton in...

(Encyclopedia) Odessa , Rus. ədyĕˈsə [key], Ukr. Odesa, city (1989 pop. 1,115,000), capital of Odessa region, in Ukraine, a port on Odessa Bay of the Black Sea. The third largest Ukrainian city after Kiev and Kh...

(Encyclopedia) Motley, Archibald John, Jr., 1891–1981, African American artist, b. New Orleans, grad. Art Institute of Chicago (1918). He was an important figure in the early Harlem Renaissance, though he spent mo...

(Encyclopedia) Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre or Alexandre dümäˈ, älĕksäNˈ– [key] 1762–1806, French revolutionary general, b. Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) as Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, father of Ale...

(Encyclopedia) ebony, common name for members of the Ebenaceae, a family of trees and shrubs widely distributed in warmer climates and in the tropics. The principal genus, Diospyros, includes both ebony and persimmo...

(Encyclopedia) Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, 1882–1944, British astronomer and physicist. He was chief assistant (1906–13) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and was from 1913 Plumian professor of astronomy a...

(Encyclopedia) condor, common name for certain American vultures, found in the high peaks of the Andes of South America and the Coast Range of S California. Condors are the largest of the living birds, nearly 50 in....

(Encyclopedia) chipmunk, rodent of the family Sciuridae (squirrel family). The chipmunk of the E United States and SE Canada is of the genus Tamias. The body of the common Eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus, is about...