Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) stock, in botany, common name for any species of the genus Matthiola, for Malcomia maritima (Virginia stock), and for the wallflower, all belonging to the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard f...

(Encyclopedia) labor, term used both for the effort of performing a task and for the workers engaged in the activity. In ancient times much of the work was done by slaves (see slavery). In the feudal period agricult...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Red iris, Iris fulva iris, common name for members of the genus Iris of the Iridaceae, a family of perennial herbs that includes the crocuses, freesias, and gladioli. The family is characteriz...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Sassafras, Sassafras albidum, a member of the laurel family laurel, common name for the Lauraceae, a family of forest trees and shrubs found mainly in tropical SE Asia but also abundant in tro...

(Encyclopedia) joint, in anatomy, juncture between two bones. Some joints are immovable, e.g., those that connect the bones of the skull, which are separated merely by short, tough fibers of cartilage. Movable joint...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Valerian, Valeriana officinalis valerian, common name for some members of the Valerianaceae, a family chiefly of herbs and shrubs of temperate and colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere; a ...

(Encyclopedia) bighorn or Rocky Mountain sheep, wild sheep, Ovis canadensis, of W North America, formerly plentiful in mountains from SW Canada to N Mexico. Indiscriminate hunting, disease, and scarcity of food enor...

(Encyclopedia) America, in music, a patriotic hymn of the United States. The words (beginning “My country, 'tis of thee”) were written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith while he was a theological student in Andove...

(Encyclopedia) tang, common name for certain members of the Acanthuridae, a family of mostly small, mainly reef-dwelling tropical fishes with compressed bodies and small mouths and teeth. Other members of the family...

(Encyclopedia) spring, in mechanics, any of several elastic devices used variously to store and to furnish energy, to absorb shock, to sustain the pressure between contacting surfaces, and to resist tensional or com...