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Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra

(Encyclopedia)Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra bəngˈkĭm chŭnˈdrə chäˈtərjē [key], 1838–94, Indian nationalist writer, b. Bengal. He popularized a Bengali prose style that became the vehicle of the major natio...

annual rings

(Encyclopedia)annual rings, the growth layers of wood that are produced each year in the stems and roots of trees and shrubs. In climates with well-marked alternations of seasons (either cold and warm or wet and dr...

horse chestnut

(Encyclopedia)horse chestnut, common name for some members of the Hippocastanaceae, a family of trees and shrubs of the north temperate zones and of South America. The horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum, a...

hay fever

(Encyclopedia)hay fever, seasonal allergy causing inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes. It is characterized by itching about the eyes and nose, sneezing, a profuse watery nasal discharge, and t...

gutta-percha

(Encyclopedia)gutta-percha gŭtˈə-pûrˈchə [key], natural latex obtained from Palaquium gutta and several other evergreen trees of East Asia. The latex, collected by felling or girdling the tree, is allowed to ...

groundsel

(Encyclopedia)groundsel groundˈsəl [key], any plant of the very large genus Senecio, widely distributed herbs and (in the tropics) shrubs or trees of the family Asteraceae (aster family). Many grow as vines. Most...

guayule

(Encyclopedia)guayule wīyo͞oˈlē, gwä– [key], multibranched flowering evergreen shrub, Parthenium argentatum, native to the deserts of the SW United States and N Mexico. Growing to 3 ft (1 m) in height, the g...

loosestrife

(Encyclopedia)loosestrife, common name for the Lythraceae, a widely distributed family of plants most abundant as woody shrubs in the American tropics but including also herbaceous species (chiefly of temperate zon...

Arte Povera

(Encyclopedia)Arte Povera [Ital.,=poor art], influential art movement that arose in Italy in the late 1960s. It was championed by the Italian art critic Germano Celant, who also named (1967) the movement. It was ch...

palmetto palm

(Encyclopedia)palmetto palm or palmetto pălmĕtˈō [key] [Span.,=little palm], common name for palm trees of the genera Sabal and Serenoa, ranging from the sandy pinelands of the S United States to Colombia. Saba...