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Jos

(Encyclopedia)Jos jôs [key], city (1991 est. pop. 182,000), central Nigeria, on the Jos Plateau. It is a mining center for tin ore, which is processed in the city, and a collection point for hides and skins and fo...

coneflower

(Encyclopedia)coneflower, name for several American wildflowers of the family Asteraceae (aster family). The purple coneflowers (genus Echinacea), found E of the Rockies, have purple to pinkish petallike rays; some...

columbine, in botany

(Encyclopedia)columbine kŏlˈəmbīn [key], any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. Columbines...

Nur Jahan

(Encyclopedia)Nur Jahan, 1577–1645, empress (1611–27) of Mughal India. Born Mehrunnisa in Kandahar (now in Afghanistan), she was the daughter of Persian nobility and had been widowed before she became the favor...

Bassani, Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Bassani, Giorgio jôrˈjō bäsäˈnê [key], 1916–2000, Italian novelist. The recurrent background for his complex, analytic narratives about Jewish bourgeois life in Italy was the growth of fascis...

Zlín

(Encyclopedia)Zlín zlēn [key], city (1991 pop. 84,522), E Czech Republic, in Moravia, on the Dřevnice River. It is the center of the Czech shoe industry, which was founded in 1913 by Thomas Bata. Under the Bata ...

Lemonnier, Pierre Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lemonnier, Pierre Charles pyĕr shärl ləmônyāˈ [key], 1715–99, French astronomer. For many years he was professor of physics at the Collège de France. He studied the moon and the influence of ...

froghopper

(Encyclopedia)froghopper or spittlebug, small, hopping insect of the order Homoptera. The adult, under 1⁄2 in. (1.2 cm) long in most species, is triangular in shape and usually gray or dull green to brown. Most f...

Tippett, Sir Michael

(Encyclopedia)Tippett, Sir Michael, 1905–98, English composer, b. London. Tippett studied at the Royal College of Music. During World War II he was briefly imprisoned as a conscientious objector. His strongly hel...

Pyle, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Pyle, Howard, 1853–1911, American illustrator and writer, b. Wilmington, Del., studied at the Art Students League, New York City. His illustrations appeared regularly in Harper's Weekly, and in many...