Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) characin –sĭd [key], common name for members of the Characidae, a large and diverse family comprising 700 species of freshwater fishes. The characins are related to the carp and the catfish. They a...

(Encyclopedia) Russell, Morgan, 1886–1953, American painter, b. New York City. Russell, together with Stanton Macdonald-Wright, founded synchromism in Paris in 1913. Structuring his paintings on interlocking plane...

(Encyclopedia) Ladd-Franklin, Christine, 1847–1930, American scientist, b. Windsor, Conn., grad. Vassar 1869. She was the first woman student to enter Johns Hopkins (1878), her special studies being directed towar...

(Encyclopedia) sky, apparent dome over the earth, background of the clouds, sun, moon, and stars. The blue color of the clear daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays by the minute particles o...

(Encyclopedia) Evarts, William Maxwell ĕvˈərts [key], 1818–1901, American lawyer and statesman, b. Boston; grandson of Roger Sherman. After attending Harvard Law School he began (1841) to practice law in New Yo...

(Encyclopedia) aquamarine ăkˌwəmərēnˈ, äkˌ– [key] [Lat.,=seawater], transparent beryl with a blue or bluish-green color. Sources of the gems include Brazil, Siberia, the Union of Myanmar, Madagascar, and p...

(Encyclopedia) khaki kăkˈē, käˈkē [key] [Hindi,=dust-colored], closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton, dyed a dust color. It was first used (1848) for uniforms for the English regiment of Sir Harry Burnett L...

(Encyclopedia) Beltsville swine, two breeds of swine developed at the agricultural research center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md. The breeds are designated Beltsville No. 1 and Beltsville N...

(Encyclopedia) Toyokuni tōyōˈko͞onē [key], 1769–1825, Japanese color-print artist, whose name in full was Toyokuni Utagawa. He was one of the leading masters of the period of the popular ukiyo-e school. After...

(Encyclopedia) vestments, garments worn by ecclesiastics in ceremonial functions. The cassock, a close-fitting gown buttoning down the front and reaching to the feet, is not a vestment so much as the daily uniform o...