Collier's New Encyclopedia

A complete general encyclopedia of 1921 — the world as it was understood just after the Great War, from Aachen to Zwingli, across twelve volumes and six thousand pages.

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Blood Rain

rain nearly of the color of blood, and which many of the unscientific suppose to be actual blood.

It arises either from minute plants, mostly of the order algæ, or from infusorial animalculæ. It is akin to red snow, which is similarly produced. The word also applies to a bright scarlet alga or fungus, called palmella prodigiosa, sometimes developed in very hot weather on cooked vegetables or decaying fungi.

BLOOD ROOT (sanguinaria canadensis), a plant of Canada and the United BLOOD STONE States, belonging to the poppy order, and so named from its root stock yielding a sap of a deep orange color. Its leaves are heart-shaped and deeply lobed, the flower grows on a scape and is white or tinged with rose. The plant has acrid narcotic properties, and has been found useful in various diseases. Geum canadense, another American plant used as a mild tonic, is also known as blood root.

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