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American Kennel Club

(Encyclopedia)American Kennel Club (AKC), national organization in the United States devoted to the advancement and welfare of pure-bred dogs. It is comprised of approximately 500 autonomous clubs. A delegate repre...

Kit-Cat Club

(Encyclopedia)Kit-Cat Club, London political and literary club, active c.1700–1720. The membership of some four dozen included leading Whig politicians and London's best young writers. Among them were Charles Sey...

Moss, city, Norway

(Encyclopedia)Moss môs [key], city (1995 pop. 25,253), capital of Østfold co., SE Norway, a port on the Oslofjord. It is a commercial, industrial, and tourist center, with shipyards, sawmills, textile factories, ...

Moss, Sir Stirling Craufurd

(Encyclopedia)Moss, Sir Stirling Craufurd, 1929–2020, British auto racing driver. Known for his sportsmanship, speed, and courage, Moss became a full-time driver on the Grand Prix circuit in 1953. He subsequently...

sphagnum

(Encyclopedia)sphagnum sfăgˈnəm [key] or peat moss, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Sphagnum, economically the most valuable moss. Sphagnums, the principal constituent of peat, typically gr...

book clubs

(Encyclopedia)book clubs. As a phenomenon in American cultural life, book clubs have made an impact in two periods of history. During the 18th and 19th cent. book clubs were formed for the purposes of discussion an...

liverwort

(Encyclopedia)liverwort, any plant of the class Marchantiopsida. Mosses and liverworts together comprise the division Bryophyta, primitive green land plants (see moss; plant); some of the earliest land plants resem...

agate

(Encyclopedia)agate ăgˈĭt [key], translucent, cryptocrystalline variety of quartz and a subvariety of chalcedony. Agates are identical in chemical structure to jasper, flint, chert, petrified wood, and tiger's-e...

Hedwig, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Hedwig, Johann yōˈhän hātˈvĭkh [key], 1730–99, German botanist, b. Transylvania. He was an authority on the lower plants, especially mosses, and was professor at the Univ. of Leipzig from 1786...

Cordeliers

(Encyclopedia)Cordeliers kôrdəlyāˈ [key], political club of the French Revolution. Founded (1790) as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it was called after its original meeting ...