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bushmaster

(Encyclopedia)bushmaster, large venomous snake, Lachesis muta, of Central America and N South America. It is a member of the pit viper family, which also includes the rattlesnake. The largest New World snake, it re...

cassiterite

(Encyclopedia)cassiterite kəsĭtˈərīt [key], heavy, brown-to-black mineral, tin oxide, SnO2, crystallizing in the tetragonal system. It is found as short prismatic crystals and as irregular masses, usually in v...

cattail

(Encyclopedia)cattail or reed mace, any plant of the genus Typha, perennial herbs found in almost all open marshes. The cattail (also called club rush) has long narrow leaves, sometimes used for weaving chair seats...

tanzanite

(Encyclopedia)tanzanite tănzănˈīt [key], beautiful gemstone discovered in 1967 in the Umba Valley near the Usambara Mts. in Tanzania, a precious variety of the mineral zoisite, a calcium aluminum silicate. Zois...

Blenheim Park

(Encyclopedia)Blenheim Park, estate, Oxfordshire, central England, near Woodstock. The stately Blenheim Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and stands on spacious grounds that included entensive formal gardens...

Blunt, James Gilpatrick

(Encyclopedia)Blunt, James Gilpatrick, 1826–81, American physician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Hancock co., Maine. He practiced medicine in Ohio and later in Kansas, where he became associated with Joh...

birthmark

(Encyclopedia)birthmark, pigmented maldevelopment of the skin that varies in size, either present at birth or developing later. Birthmarks may appear as moles (melanocytic nevi) that vary in color from light brown ...

bat

(Encyclopedia)bat, winged mammal of the order Chiroptera, which includes 900–1,000 species classified in about 200 genera and 17 families. Bats range in size from a wingspread of over 5 ft (150 cm) to a wingsprea...

Hawkes, John

(Encyclopedia)Hawkes, John (John Clendennin Burne Hawkes, Jr.), 1925–98, American writer, b. Stamford, Conn., grad. Harvard, 1949. He taught English at Brown Univ. after 1958. Hawkes is considered one of the most...

Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Margaret, 1930–2002, British princess, second daughter of King George VI and sister of Queen Elizabeth II, b. Glamis, Scotland. In 1960 she married a commoner, the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jone...