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trefoil

(Encyclopedia)trefoil trēˈfoil [key] [O.Fr.,=three-leaf], in botany, name for several plants, chiefly of the pulse family, having trifoliate leaves. Best known of the trefoils is clover. The bird's-foot trefoil (...

Fernald, Merritt Lyndon

(Encyclopedia)Fernald, Merritt Lyndon fûrˈnəld [key], 1873–1950, American botanist, b. Orono, Maine, grad. Harvard, 1897. He taught at Harvard (1902–49) and was director of the Gray Herbarium there from 1937...

pipsissewa

(Encyclopedia)pipsissewa pĭpsĭsˈəwä [key], any plant of the genus Chimaphila, perennial herbs of dry wooded regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The pipsissewas, closely related to the wintergreens, have thick,...

cryptogam

(Encyclopedia)cryptogam, in botany, term used to denote a plant that produces spores, as in algae, fungi, mosses, and ferns, but not seeds. The term cryptogam, from the Greek kryptos, meaning “hidden,” and gamo...

nastic movement

(Encyclopedia)nastic movement, in botany, the movement of plant parts in response either to certain external stimuli or to internal growth stimuli. Nastic movements, which are generally slow, can be observed by tim...

Bailey, Liberty Hyde

(Encyclopedia)Bailey, Liberty Hyde, 1858–1954, American botanist and horticulturist, b. South Haven, Mich., grad. Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State Univ.), 1882. At Cornell he was professor of hor...

eider, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)eider: see duck.

diet, in nutrition

(Encyclopedia)diet, food and drink regularly consumed for nourishment. Nutritionists generally recommend eating a wide variety of foods; however, some groups of people survive on a very limited diet. The traditiona...

dike, in technology

(Encyclopedia)dike, in technology: see levee.

dimension, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)dimension, in mathematics, number of parameters or coordinates required locally to describe points in a mathematical object (usually geometric in character). For example, the space we inhabit is three...