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Saint-Cyr-l'École

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Cyr-l'École săN-sēr-lākôlˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 14,832), Yvelines dept., N central France. A school for the daughters of impoverished noblemen was founded there in 1685 by Louis XIV and ...

Beaujolais

(Encyclopedia)Beaujolais bōzhôlāˈ [key], hilly region, Rhône dept., E central France, W of the Saône between Mâcon and Lyons. It is one of the great wine areas of France, famous for its red wine. Villefranch...

Cahors

(Encyclopedia)Cahors käôrˈ [key], town, capital of Lot dept., S central France, in Quercy, on the Lot Ri...

Free State

(Encyclopedia)Free State, formerly Orange Free State, province, 50,126 sq mi (129,825 sq km), E central South Africa. It was renamed Free State shortly after the 1994...

saxifrage

(Encyclopedia)saxifrage săkˈsĭfrĭj [key], common name for several members of the Saxifragaceae, a family of widely varying herbs, shrubs, and small trees of cosmopolitan distribution. They are found especially ...

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...

Siegen, Ludwig von

(Encyclopedia)Siegen, Ludwig von lo͝otˈvĭkh fən zēˈgən [key], c.1609–1680, German engraver, b. Holland, educated in Germany. He is said to have invented (c.1640) the mezzotint process of engraving. Among h...

Blackwell, Alice Stone

(Encyclopedia)Blackwell, Alice Stone, 1857–1950, American feminist, b. East Orange, N.J., grad. Boston Univ., 1881; daughter of Henry Brown Blackwell and Lucy Stone. She was an editor (1881–1917) of the Woman's...

oriole

(Encyclopedia)oriole, common name applied to various perching birds of the Old (family Oriolidae) and New (family Icteridae) Worlds. The European orioles are allied to the crows, while the American orioles, of the ...

sunbittern

(Encyclopedia)sunbittern, common name for a graceful, stout-bodied, bitternlike bird, Eurypyga helias. It is named for its wing markings, an orange-chestnut shield set in an orange-buff circle, which looks like a s...