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Daubenton, Louis Jean Marie

(Encyclopedia)Daubenton, Louis Jean Marie lwē zhäN märēˈ dōbäNtôNˈ [key], 1716–1800, French naturalist. He was a professor at the Collège de France from 1778; his work touched many fields—comparative ...

Doctrine of Signatures

(Encyclopedia)Doctrine of Signatures, the concept that the key to humanity's use of various plants was indicated by the form of the plant. The red sap of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), for instance, was be...

Grand Prairie

(Encyclopedia)Grand Prairie, city (2020 pop. 196,100), Dallas and Tarrant counties, N Tex., halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth; inc. 1909. Located in a highly urba...

Otis, Harrison Gray, 1837–1917, American soldier and journalist

(Encyclopedia)Otis, Harrison Gray, 1837–1917, American soldier and journalist, b. Marietta, Ohio. He was (1860) a member of the Republican national convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, served ...

Kafue

(Encyclopedia)Kafue käfo͞oˈā [key], river, c.600 mi (970 km) long, rising along the Zambia-Congo border, S central Africa, near Lubumbashi, and meandering through central Zambia to the Zambezi River. It provide...

strangler fig

(Encyclopedia)strangler fig, common name for a number of tropical plant species, most of them are in the family Moraceae (fig family). They include the golden fig, Ficus aurea, of the SE United States. The name str...

calycanthus

(Encyclopedia)calycanthus kălˌĭkănˈthəs [key], any plant of the genus Calycanthus, aromatic shrubs of N North America, Asia, and Australia. An American type, the Carolina allspice, is cultivated for the aroma...

Petrozavodsk

(Encyclopedia)Petrozavodsk pyĕtˌrəzəvôtskˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 269,500), capital of Karelia, NW European Russia, a port on Lake Onega. It produces lumbering equipment and has shipyards, fish canneries, saw...

mandrake

(Encyclopedia)mandrake, plant of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family), the source of a narcotic much used during the Middle Ages as a pain-killer and perhaps the subject of more superstition than any other pla...

St.-John's-wort

(Encyclopedia)St.-John's-wort, any species of the large and widespread herbaceous or shrubby genus Hypericum of the family Hypericaceae (St.-John's-wort family), usually found in moist, open places and often having...