Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Patchen, Kenneth, 1911–72, American poet and novelist, b. Niles, Ohio. His writings, characterized by complete freedom of form, embrace genres as diverse as satire, fantasy, and metaphysical love po...

(Encyclopedia) Ivrea ēvrĕˈä [key], city, Piedmont, NW Italy, on the Dora Baltea River. It is a commercia...

(Encyclopedia) National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., a division of the Smithsonian Institution. Devoted to the collection, presentation, and preservation of the culture of Africa...

(Encyclopedia) oyster catcher, common name for members of the family Haematopodidae, ploverlike shorebirds, cosmopolitan in distribution. Their distinctive red bills are long, blunt, and flattened, efficient for cat...

(Encyclopedia) Perim pārēmˈ, pērˈĭm [key], Arab. Barim, island, c.5 sq mi (13 sq km), off the SW Arabian peninsula in the Bab el Mandeb strait; it is part of Yemen. A rocky and barren island rising to c.215 ft...

(Encyclopedia) phenolphthalein fēˈnôlthălˈēən [key], or 2,2-Bis(p-hydroxyphenyl) phthalide, C20H14O4, crystalline organic compound. It is used medicinally as a laxative and is widely employed in the laborator...

(Encyclopedia) De Mézières y Clugny, Athanase ätänäzˈ də māzyĕrˈ ē klünēˈ [key], c.1715–1779, explorer and Indian agent in Spanish Louisiana, b. Paris. He went to Louisiana c.1733. When France ceded ...

(Encyclopedia) bougainvillea or bougainvillaea both: bo͞oˌgənvĭlˈēə [key] [for L. A. de Bougainville], any plant of the genus Bougainvillea of the family Nyctaginaceae (four-o'clock family); chiefly tropical ...

(Encyclopedia) Cornplanter, c.1740–1836, chief of the Seneca. The son of a Native American mother and a white father, he acquired great influence among the Seneca and in the American Revolution led war parties for...

(Encyclopedia) fescue fĕsˈkyo͞o [key], any of some 100 species of introduced Old World grasses of the genus Festuca. Meadow fescue and tall, or reed, fescue are excellent forage crops and the Chewing's, red, and ...