Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

White, E. B.

(Encyclopedia)White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks White), 1899–1985, American writer, b. Mt. Vernon, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1921. A witty, satiric observer of contemporary society, White was a member of the staff of the ear...

Burroughs, John

(Encyclopedia)Burroughs, John, 1837–1921, American naturalist and author, b. Roxbury, N.Y.; son of a farmer. He was a journalist, a treasury clerk in Washington, and a bank examiner, before settling in 1874 on a ...

state flowers

(Encyclopedia)state flowers. Each state of the United States has designated, usually by legislative action, one flower as its floral emblem; the rose has been designated by Congress as the national flower of the Un...

spikenard

(Encyclopedia)spikenard spīkˈnärd [key], name for several plants. The biblical spikenard, or nard, was a costly aromatic ointment, preserved in alabaster boxes, whose chief ingredient is believed to have been de...

Casement, Sir Roger David

(Encyclopedia)Casement, Sir Roger David, 1864–1916, Irish revolutionary. While in British consular service, he exposed (1904) the atrocious exploitation of wild-rubber gatherers in the Congo (thus helping to brin...

quebracho

(Encyclopedia)quebracho kābräˈchō [key], name for a tanning substance and for the trees from which it comes, chiefly the red quebracho, or quebracho colorado (Schinopsis lorentzii), of the family Anacardiaceae ...

circus

(Encyclopedia)circus [Lat.,=ring, circle], historically, the arena associated with the horse and chariot races and athletic contests known in ancient Rome as the Circensian games. The Roman circus was a round or ov...

Apache

(Encyclopedia)Apache əpăchˈē [key], Native North Americans of the Southwest composed of six culturally related groups. They speak a language that has various dialects and belongs to the Athabascan branch of the...

gourd

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Wild balsam apple, Echinocystis Jobata, a member of the gourd family gourd gôrd, go͝ord [key], common name for some members of the Cucurbitaceae, a family of plants whose range includes all ...

plum, in botany

(Encyclopedia)plum, common name for a tree of any of many species of the genus Prunus of the family Rosaceae (rose family) and for its fruit, a drupe. The plum is generally cultivated in the temperate zones, though...