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ebony

(Encyclopedia)ebony, common name for members of the Ebenaceae, a family of trees and shrubs widely distributed in warmer climates and in the tropics. The principal genus, Diospyros, includes both ebony and persimmo...

De Vinne, Theodore Low

(Encyclopedia)De Vinne, Theodore Low də vĭnˈē [key], 1828–1914, American printer, b. Stamford, Conn. He learned his trade in the office of the Newburgh (N.Y.) Gazette and in 1848 entered the shop of Francis H...

Saint-Pierre, Charles Irénée Castel, Abbé de

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Pierre, Charles Irénée Castel, Abbé de shärl ērānāˈ kästĕlˈ äbāˈ də săN-pyĕrˈ [key], 1658–1743, French social philosopher. An advocate of natural religion and toleration, he ...

Nicholas Brothers

(Encyclopedia)Nicholas Brothers, African-American tap dance team consisting of Fayard Antonio Nicholas, 1914–2006, b. Mobile, Ala., and Harold Lloyd Nicholas, 1921–2000, b. Winston-Walem, N.C. Performing on sta...

nonsporting dog

(Encyclopedia)nonsporting dog, classification used by breeders and kennel clubs to designate dogs that may formerly have been bred to hunt or work but that are now raised chiefly as house pets and companions. The f...

bowls

(Encyclopedia)bowls, ancient sport (the bocce of Caesar's Rome is still played by Italians), especially popular in Great Britain and Australia, known as lawn bowls or bowling on the green in the United States. It w...

fern

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Life cycle of a fern fern, any plant of the division Polypodiophyta. Fern species, numbering several thousand, are found throughout the world but are especially abundant in tropical rain fores...

plant

(Encyclopedia)plant, any organism of the plant kingdom, as opposed to one of the animal kingdom or of the kingdoms Fungi, Protista, or Monera in the five-kingdom system of classification. (A more recent system, sug...

Kurokawa, Kisho Noriaki

(Encyclopedia)Kurokawa, Kisho Noriaki nôrēäˈkē kēˈshō ko͞orōˈkäwä [key], 1934–2007, Japanese architect, grad. Tokyo Univ. (Ph.D., 1964). The youngest founding member of the group of architects known ...

Horne, Lena

(Encyclopedia)Horne, Lena (Lena Mary Calhoun Horne), 1917–2010, American singer and actress, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Elegantly beautiful, Horne entered show business at 16 in the chorus line at Harlem's Cotton Club; sh...