More than one of these 7 encyclopedias carries each of the following subjects — but every one of them treats it in a sentence or two and then moves on. They are gathered here so the different accounts can sit side by side.
Calla
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a favorite house plant of African origin. Though called a calla lily it is not a lily at all, but a relative of jack-in-the-pulpit. A column of flowers, known as a spadix, rises in the center of a cupshaped leaf which is prolonged at one end to a tip. This leaf or spathe is really no part of the flower, but its spotless, lily-like whiteness, in most species, has given the name. One kind, very numerous in the Nile, is called the lily of the Nile. The spathe of one species is pink, and there is a black calla as well. A small greenish calla grows wild in the tamarack swamps and streams of eastern North America , as well as in Europe and Asia. Calla plants for the house should be started in late summer from dry tubers. Botanists do not class the house plants among the callas.
Collier's New Encyclopedia: a genus of plants of the order of Araceæ. The species are perennials. They are natives of North America and northern Europe. They are herbaceous marsh plants. The most familiar of the species is the beautiful calla lily.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Cambric
Aiton's Encyclopedia: properly a fine variety of plain woven linen. For more than a century, however, the name has been given to a thin calendered muslin, originally made in Scotland in imitation of the linen cambric. In 1520 a fine linen cloth was produced at Cambrai, or Cambray, France. It was called cambric from the name of the city. A sixteenth century historian tells us that it was "so fine that the greatest thread was not so big as the smallest hair that is." It was much used for fine ruffs, kerchiefs, shirts, and undergarments. The first cotton imitation was called cambric-muslin. Cambric is finished frequently with a luster. It is thinner and finer than common muslin. It is used for women's underwear, infants' clothing, etc. A cheap cotton fabric dyed in plain colors is also called cambric. It is used for linings and is of two varieties, kid-finished and glazed. The latter is called sometimes paper cambric. It is put up usually in rolls, as a fold is apt to form a permanent crease. See Calendering
Collier's New Encyclopedia: originally the name of a fine kind of linen which was manufactured principally at Cambrai (German Kambryk) in French Flanders, whence the name. It is now applied to a cotton fabric, which is very extensively manufactured in imitation of the true cambric, and which is in reality a kind of muslin.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and Collier's New Encyclopedia
Camomile
Collier's New Encyclopedia: or genus of composite. The species are annual and perennial herbs, all palæarctic. The most important species of the genus is Anthemis nobilis, which has long been known for the medicinal virtues of an infusion of its flowers (Flores Anthemidis) as a bitter stomachic and tonic. The plant is chiefly cultivated at Mitcham, Surrey, England, and at Kieritsch and elsewhere in Saxony. The largest, whitest, and most completely double flowers are British most esteemed. The other species are mere weeds; one of them, called stinking camomile (A. cotula), is so acrid as to blister the fingers. But the flowers of the Dyer's Camomile (A. tinctoria), a common on the Continent, yield a beautiful dye. Wild camomile (matricaria chamomilla) is the common camomile of German writers. A cultivated variety of M. Parthenium (Feverfew) has also to be distinguished.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: kam-o-mil, or Chamomile, a plant closely allied to the yarrow and ox-eye daisy. An exceedingly bitter medicine is obtained by drying the daisy-like flowers and steeping them in twenty times their weight of water. Camomile is an old-fashioned emetic and a remedy for fever. It is cultivated as a field crop in parts of England. A showy relative of the medicinal camomile, the golden marguerite, is used by florists as a border plant. May weed, an ill-scented occupant of roadsides, is a humbler and less acceptable relative. See Medicine
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Campanula
Collier's New Encyclopedia: the bell-flower, so called from the shape of its flowers. An CAMPANULACEÆ extensive genus of herbaceous plants, giving the name to the order Campanulaceæ. C. rapunculus is much cultivated for the roots, which are boiled tender and eaten hot with sauce, or cold with vinegar and pepper. The best known species is C. rotundifolia, the hare-bell, or blue-bell of Scotland. A blue ink is made of its juice. C. glauca is said by the Japanese to be a tonic. CAMPANULACEÆ, a natural order of plants, chiefly natives of this country, of the N. of Asia and Europe. More than 200 species of this family are known.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: . See Bellflower
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Campus Martius
Aiton's Encyclopedia: a famous level place in ancient Rome. It lay between the more northerly of the seven hills and the Tiber. It stretched along the river for a mile or so. It must have been at least half a mile in width. The name signifies "Plain of Mars"--military plain, we might translate it. It was used for military exercises and for popular assemblies. During the reign of Augustus public buildings, booths, circuses, theaters, and temples began to encroach upon the campus; but there was still room for chariot races, horse races, ball games, and other athletic sports. It is now occupied by the chief part of modern Rome. See Rome
1000 Classical Characters: A large plain without the walls of Rome, where the Roman youth were instructed in athletic exercises and learned to throw the discus, hurl the javelin, etc.
Covered by Aiton's Encyclopedia and 1000 Classical Characters
Canaan
Collier's New Encyclopedia: the country W. of the Jordan, called also Chanaan, and the Land of Canaan, after one of the sons of Ham. The Greeks applied the term Cana to the entire region between the Jordan and the Mediterranean up to Sidon, afterward termed by them Phœnicia, a name which by degrees came to be confined to the N. coast district, or Phoenicia proper. Canaan is generally considered equivalent to the Land of Israel or Palestine.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: ka'nan. See Palestine
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia
Candy
Collier's New Encyclopedia: or KANDY, a city of Ceylon, near the center of the island, 72 miles N. E. of Colombo (with which it is connected by railway), in a fertile valley surrounded by finely wooded hills. The residence of the governor at the N. E. extremity is among the finest structures in Ceylon. Other noteworthy places are the Buddhist temple, called le, called "the palace of the tooth," the old royal cemetery, the military magazine in the center of a lake, the government brick-works, etc. Pop. about 30,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia: . See Confectionery
Covered by Collier's New Encyclopedia and Aiton's Encyclopedia