Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Abercrombie, Lascelles

(Encyclopedia)Abercrombie, Lascelles lăsˈəlz [key], 1881–1938, English poet and critic. Complex and cerebral in style, his poetry often expresses his distaste for 20th-century industrialism. His volumes of poe...

growing season

(Encyclopedia)growing season, period during which plant growth takes place. In temperate climates the growing season is limited by seasonal changes in temperature and is defined as the period between the last killi...

Connemara

(Encyclopedia)Connemara kŏnəmärˈə [key], wild, mountainous region, Co. Galway, W Republic of Ireland, lying between the Atlantic Ocean and Loughs Corrib and Mask. Many mountains, lakes, streams, and glens help...

essential oils

(Encyclopedia)essential oils, volatile oils that occur in plants and in general give to the plants their characteristic odors, flavors, or other such properties. Essential oils are found in various parts of the pla...

Ramanujan, Srinivasa

(Encyclopedia)Ramanujan, Srinivasa shrēˌnĭväˈsə rämäˈno͝ojən [key], 1889–1920, Indian mathematician. He was a self-taught genius in pure mathematics who made original contributions to function theory, ...

Innes, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Innes, Michael, pseud. of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, 1906–94, British writer and scholar, b. near Edinburgh. From 1969 to 1973 he was a reader in English literature at Oxford. Under his own name...

Price, Leontyne

(Encyclopedia)Price, Leontyne lāˈəntēn [key], 1927–, American soprano, b. Laurel, Miss., as Mary Violet Leontine Price. She studied voice at Juilliard with Florence Page Kimball. Subsequently she appeared as ...

burnet

(Encyclopedia)burnet, hardy perennial herb of the family Rosaceae (rose) found in temperate regions, usually with white or greenish flowers. The European species are sometimes cultivated for the leaves, which are u...

globeflower

(Encyclopedia)globeflower, common name for any plant of the genus Trollius of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), hardy perennials of north temperate meadows and swamps. Their blossoms are larger than thos...

candytuft

(Encyclopedia)candytuft, any plant of the genus Iberis of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family), low-growing plants of the Old World. A number of half-hardy annuals and evergreen perennials are cu...