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Polyandry – Polypus

Polyandry

the marriage of one woman to several men at once. The custom is still widely spread in the East. Cæsar found it in Britain on his arrival.

Tacitus has been cited as an authority that the ancient Germans practiced polyandry.

Polyanthus

a beautiful and favorite variety of the common primrose (Primula vulgaris), a native of most parts of Europe, growing in woods and copses in a moist clayey soil.

Polybasic Acids

acids which possess more than one hydrogen atom capable of being replaced by a metal equivalent.

Polychromy

the art of coloring statuary to imitate nature, or particular buildings in harmonious, prismatic, or compound tints.

POLYCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS, those plants of which the embryos have more than two cotyledons or seed lobes.

Polycystina

or POLYCISTINA, in zoölogy, a sub-order of Radiolaria, placed by Wallich in his Herpnemata.

Polygamy

the practice or condition of having a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time. It is commonly applied to polygyny, but, strictly speaking, it should include polyandry as well. It is forbidden by law in all Christian countries, but existed among the Mormons. mons. See MORMONS.

Polygynia

an order in Linnæus' artifical classification, containing plants with many pistils.

Polyhymnia

one of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, who presided over singing and rhetoric, and was deemed the inventress of harmony.

Polymorphism

the property possessed by certain bodies of crystallizing in two or more forms not derivable one from the other.

Polyphone

a musical instrument of the music-box type, used principally in connection with the graphophone.

Also POLYTHEISM sents more than one sound.

Polyphonic

having, or consisting of many sounds or voices. In music, consisting of several tone series or parts, progressing simultaneously according to the rules of counterpoint; contrapuntal.

Polypus

a morbid growth attached to the interior of any of the mucous canals. It is generally a fleshy tumor with many branches. Polypi sometimes grow in the nose, larynx, heart, rectum, uterus and vagina. In zoölogy, in the plural, a , a class of radiated animals defined as having many prehensile organs radiating from around the mouth only.