Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Brongniart, Alexandre brôNyärˈ [key], 1770–1847, French geologist, mineralogist, and chemist. As director of the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1800, he was responsible for its international fam...

(Encyclopedia) herbarium, collection of dried and mounted plant specimens used in systematic botany. To preserve their form and color, plants collected in the field are spread flat in sheets of newsprint and dried, ...

(Encyclopedia) land tax, impost levied upon real property. It is sometimes called a real estate tax, especially when assessed against both improved and unimproved land. Probably the earliest direct tax and formerly ...

(Encyclopedia) Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz) ăgˈəsē [key], 1807–73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, b. Môtiers-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen ...

(Encyclopedia) species, in biology, a category of classification, the original and still the basic unit in the demarcation of plant and animal types. The species marks the boundary between populations of organisms r...

(Encyclopedia) proverb, short statement of wisdom or advice that has passed into general use. More homely than aphorisms, proverbs generally refer to common experience and are often expressed in metaphor, alliterati...

(Encyclopedia) Avicenna ăvĭsĕnˈə [key], Arabic Ibn Sina, 980–1037, Islamic philosopher and physician, of Persian origin, b. near Bukhara. He was the most renowned philosopher of medieval Islam and the most in...

(Encyclopedia) Southeast Asian languages, family of languages, sometimes also called Austroasiatic, spoken in SE Asia by about 80 million people. According to one school of thought, it has three subfamilies: the Mon...

(Encyclopedia) Afrikaans ăfˌrəkänsˈ [key], member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Although its classification is still dis...

(Encyclopedia) Bantu bănˈto͞oˌ [key], ethnic and linguistic group of Africa, numbering about 120 million. The Bantu inhabit most of the continent S of the Congo River except the extreme southwest. The classifica...