Arabic Gum
Gum-arabic is a gum which flows from the acacia tree on the banks of the Nile, Arabia, and in some other parts. It forms a clear, transparent mucilage with water, and is insoluble in alcohol or ether.
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Single-source entries: A (77)
These 12 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Arabic Gum, Aracacha, Aracan.
Aracacha
or ARRACACHA (ar-akä'cha), a genus of umbelliferous plants of South and Central America. The root of A. esculenta is divided into several lobes, each of which is about the size of a large carrot. These are boiled like potatoes and largely eaten in South America.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Aracan
or ARAKAN, the most northern division of lower Burma, on the Bay of Bengal; area, 18,- 540 square miles; pop. about 800,000. It was ceded to the English in 1826, as a result of the first Burmese war. ARACEÆ (ar-as'ē-i), an order of endogenous plants having for their inflorescence a spadix placed within a spathe. They have neither calyx nor corolla. The leaves are frequently cordate. The fruit is succulent, with many seeds. They are acrid in character, and often poisonous. The caladium sequinum, or dumb cane of the West Indies and South America, when chewed, causes the tongue so to swell as to cause temporary dumbness. There is one species known as the arum maculatum. ARACHIDIC ACID (C20H4002 C19 H30: COOH), a monatomic fatty acid, obtained by the saponification of the oil of the earth nut (arachis hypogæa). It crystallizes in minute scales, which melt at 75°. It is soluble in boiling alcohol and in ether.
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Arachis
a genus of leguminous plants belonging to the sub-order cæsalpiniaceæ. The A. hypogæa, the underground arachis (Greek hupogeios=subterranean), is thus called because the legumes are produced and matured beneath the soil. The plant is now cultivated in the warmer parts both of Asia and America. The legumes are eatable. The seeds have a sweet taste and furnish a valuable oil used for lamps and as a substitute for olive oil. In South Carolina they are employed for chocolate.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arachnida
the class of animals which contains spiders, scorpions, and mites. It is placed between the crustacea on the one hand, and the insecta on the other. The highest crustacea have 10 feet, the arachnida 8, and the insecta 6. The arachnida are wingless, have no antennæ, breathe by means of tracheal tubes or pulmonary sacs performing the function of lungs. As a rule, they have several simple eyes. They have no proper metamorphosis. They live in a predatory manner. Huxley separates the arachnida into six orders: (1) Arthrogastra, including scorpio, chelifer, phrynusne phalangiumdergaledes, accina, etc.; (2) (3) or mites and ticks; (4) fresh-water arctisca or tardigrada, called water-bears; (5) pycnogonida (marine animals); and (6) pentastomida (parasites).
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arad
capital of a district in eastern Hungary; on the right bank of the Maros, an affluent of the Theiss; pop. about 65,000. It is an important railway center, and is 95 miles S. E. of Budapest. It carries on a large trade in corn, spirits, wine and tobacco, and is one of the greatest cattle markets of Hungary. During the 17th century it was often captured, and at last destroyed by the Turks. During the Revolutionary War of 1849 it was occupied for a time by the Austrians, who capitulated to the Hungarians in July. In August Arad was surrendered to the Russians by Görgei. New Arad on the other side of the river, has about 7,500 inhabitants.
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Arafat
or JEBEL ER RAHMEH, a hill in Arabia, about 200 feet high, with stone steps reaching to the summit, 15 miles S. E. of Mecca; one of the principal objects of pilgrimage among Mohammedans, who say that it was the place where Adam first received his wife, Eve, after they had been expelled from Para Paradise and separated from each other 120 years. A sermon delivered on the mount constitutes the main ceremony of the Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and entitles the hearer to the name and privileges of a Hadji or pilgrim.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Aragonite
or ARRAGONITE (from ARAGON, in Spain, where it was first found), a mineral with orthorhombic crystals, generally six-sided prisms, though the rectangular octohedron is considered its regular form. It occurs also globular, reniform, coralloidal, columnar, stalactitic, and incrusting. Its color is white, gray, yellow, green, or violet; it is transparent or translucent, and brittle. Ordinary: (a) vides it: Var. 1. Crystallized in simple or compound crystals, or in radiating groups of acicular crystals; (b) Columnar, including Satin- Spar; (c) Massive. 2. Scaly massive. 3. Stalactitic or Stalagmitic. 4. Coralloidal. 5. Tarnovicite. Mossottite and Oserskite also rank with Aragonite. It occurs in Spain, Austria, Italy, England, America, and elsewhere.
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Aragonite Group
Dana's second group of anhydrous carbonates, comprising aragonite, manganocalcite, witherite, bromlite, strontianite, and cerussite.
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Araguay
or ARA- GUAYA, or RIO GRANDE, a large river of Brazil, which rises in about 19° S. lat., near the Parana, flowing to about 6° S. lat., where it joins the Tocantins. The united stream, after a course of about es, falls into the delta of the 1,300 miles, Amazon in S. lat. 1° 40′.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Arakan Yoma Mountains
a range of 700 miles long, stretching from the mountains of the Naga City downward along the E. of Chittagong division, Bengal, and and Arakan division, Lower Burma, and through the Irawadi division, and terminating in Cape Negrais; highest peak, Blue Mountain, 7,100 feet.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Aral
ar'al, a vast inland sea of Asia, situated in Russian Turkestan. It is a shallow body of salt water with an area of 35,000 square miles. It is fourteen times as large as Great Salt Lake . The Aral receives several tributaries, the principal being the Oxus, but it has no outlet, and owing to the excessive evaporation of the hot country in which it lies, it is shrinking in size. At one time it may have been an arm of the Caspian Sea , now 200 miles distant. Its surface is 160 feet above the ocean and 245 feet above the Caspian. Its waters are full of fish. The shores are for the most part salty wastes. Being without harbors and subject to violent storms, the Aral is not safe for navigation. A few fishing craft and Russian steamships venture on its waters. 2026 Editor's Note: The entry notes the Aral shrinking; the twentieth century turned that into catastrophe. Soviet planners diverted its feeding rivers to grow cotton, and by 2000 the Aral Sea had lost some 90 percent of its water — rusting fis hing boats stranded in a new salt desert, one of history's worst man-made environmental disasters. A dam has since revived its small northern remnant. (Ed: BR 2026-07-15)
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