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iris, in botany

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Red iris, Iris fulva iris, common name for members of the genus Iris of the Iridaceae, a family of perennial herbs that includes the crocuses, freesias, and gladioli. The family is characteriz...

Ponce de León, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Ponce de León, Juan pŏns də lēˈŏn, Span. hwän pōnˈthā dā lāōnˈ [key], c.1460–1521, Spanish explorer, first Westerner to reach Florida. He served against the Moors of Granada, and in 14...

Sánchez, Florencio

(Encyclopedia)Sánchez, Florencio flōrānˈsyō sänˈchās [key], 1875–1910, Uruguayan playwright. His many plays concern pastoral life in the region of the Río de la Plata. Sánchez's style owes much to the n...

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de zhôrzh lwē ləklĕrkˈ kôNt də büfôNˈ [key], 1707–88, French naturalist and author. From 1739 he was keeper of the Jardin du Roi (later the Jardin des ...

Halévy, Jacques François Fromental Élie

(Encyclopedia)Halévy, Jacques François Fromental Élie älāvēˈ [key], 1799–1862, French operatic composer. He studied with Cherubini at the Paris Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1827. Halévy's...

Graciosa

(Encyclopedia)Graciosa gräsēôˈzə [key], island, 24 sq mi (62 sq km), Angra do Heroísmo dist., in the ...

Pacheco, Johnny

(Encyclopedia) Pacheco, Johnny (Juan Azarías Pacheco Knipping), 1935-2021, Dominican-American salsa musician, bandleader, and recording executive, b. Santiago de lo...

Ramus, Petrus

(Encyclopedia)Ramus, Petrus pyĕr də lä rämāˈ [key], 1515–72, French humanist and philosopher. Attempting to break through Aristotelian and scholastic traditions, Ramus wrote a number of works that became in...

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de

(Encyclopedia)Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de äNrēˈ də to͞olo͞ozˈ lōtrĕkˈ [key], 1864–1901, French painter and lithographer, b. Albi. Son of a wealthy nobleman, Lautrec fell and broke both legs when he was a...

Regla

(Encyclopedia)Regla rāˈglä [key], municipality (1994 est. pop. 44,000), Ciudad de La Habana prov., W Cuba, a commercial and industrial suburb of Havana. It grew up around the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Regl...