These 10 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Ascian, Ascidia, Ascidiade.
plural ASCIANS, in the plural, those who at midday of one or two days of the year are destitute of a shadow. Those living in the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are so at midday once a year, and those living between those circles are so twice a year.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
or ASCIDIE, the first order of the tunicated class of mollusca. It contains four families, the ascidiada, or simple ascidians; the clavellinidæ, or social ascidians; the botryllidæ, or compound ascidians; and the pyrosomatida, an aberrant family tending to the order biphora.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
simple ascidians; the typical family of the ascidian order of tunicated mollusca. The animals are simple and fixed; they are solitary and gregarious, with their branchial sac simple or disposed in 8-18 deep and regular folds. Their external integument is provided with two apertures, making them look like double-necked jars. When touched they squirt a stream of water to some distance. They look like shapeless cartilaginous masses. Some are highly colored. In Brazil, China, and the Mediterranean they are eaten as food.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Important: Safety Warning This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text. In addition, this page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here. This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon. a genus of plants, the typical one of the order asclepiadaceæ. The species are found chiefly along the eastern portion of North America, in Bermuda, etc. Though all more or less poisonous, they are used medicinally. A. decumbens, excites general perspiration without in any perceptible degree increasing the heat of the body. It is used in Virginia as a remedy against aga pleurisy. Another variety, A. tuberosa, is a mild cathartic and diaphoretic. The root and tender stalks of A. volubilis create sick- A. tuberosa ness and expectoration. (butterfly weed) and A. curassavica, sometimes but incorrectly called ipecacuanha, are also medicinal plants, while A. lactifera yields a sweet, copious milk used by the Indians, etc.; hence the ordinary name milkweed. A. aphylla and stipitacea are eatable.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
frontier town of central Italy, in the Marches, 73 miles S. of Ancona. It is a handsome place, well built and strongly fortified. Ascoli is the ancient Asculum Picenum, described by Strabo as a place of almost inaccessible strength. It sustained a memorable siege against the Romans under Pompey. Ascoli manufactures majolica ware, glass, wax, silks, leather, hats, and cloth, and is com commercially very active. Pop. about 30,000. ASCOLIO SATRIANO (sat-re-ä'nō) a very ancient town of south Italy, in the province of Foggia, 13 miles S. E. of Bovino. It was here that Pyrrhus encountered for a second time the Roman legion, but with no decisive result to either side. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1400. Pop. about 10,000. ASCOMYCETES. See FUNGUS.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
a race-course in Berkshire, England, 29 miles W. S. W. of London, and 6 miles S. W. of Windsor. It is circular, only 66 yards short of 2 miles in length; the races take place early in June and include the famous Ascot Gold Cup, instituted in 1771. The course was laid out in 1711 by order of Queen Anne.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
or ASDOUD, a small seaport of Palestine, on the Mediterranean, 35 miles W. of Jerusalem. It was the Ashdod of Scripture, one of the five confederate cities of the Philistines, and one of the seats of the worship of Dagon. It occupied a commanding position on the high road from Palestine to Egypt, and was never subdued by the Israelites. It sustained against Psammetichus a siege of 29 years B. C. 630; was destroyed by the Maccabees, and restored by the Romans, B. c. 55. It is now an insignificant village called Esdud, from which the sea is constantly receding.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
or ASHES, the incombustible residue of organic bodies (animal or vegetable) remaining after combustion. As a commercial term, the word generally means the ashes of vegetable substances, from which are extracted the alkaline matters called potash, pearlash, kelp, barilla, etc.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
a genus of deciduous trees belonging to the natural order oleaceæ, having imperfe flowers and a seed vessel prolonged into a thin wing at the apex (called a samara). There are a good many species, chiefly indigenous to Europe and North America. The common ash (F. excelsior), indigenous to Great Britain, has a smooth bark, and grows tall and rather slender. The flowers are produced in loose spikes from the sides of the branches, and are succeeded by flat seeds which ripen in autumn. It is one of the most useful of British trees on account of the excellence of its hard, tough wood and the rapidity of its growth. There are many varieties of it, as the weeping ash, the curled-leaved ash, the entire-leaved ash, etc. The flowering or manna ash (F. ornus), by some placed in a distinct genus (ornus), is a native of the S. of Europe and Palestine. It yields the substance called manna, which is obtained by making incisions in the bark, when the juice exudes and hardens. Among American species are the white ash (F. americana), with lighter bark and leaves; the red or black ash (F. pubescens), with a brown bark; the black ash, (F. sambucifolia), the blue ash, the green ash, etc. They are all valuable trees. The mountain ash, or rowan, belongs to a different order.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
The Ash had a wonderful influence. The old Christmas log was of ash wood, and the use of it at this time was helpful to the future prosperity of the family. Venomous animals, it was said, would not take shelter under its branches. A carriage with its axles made of ash wood was believed to go faster than a carriage with its axles made of any other wood; and tools with handles made of this wood were supposed to enable a man to do more work than he could do with tools whose handles were not of ash. Hence the reason that ash wood is generally used for tool handles. It was upon ash branches that witches were enabled to ride through the air; and those who ate on St. John's eve the red buds of the tree, were rendered invulnerable to witches' influence.
Only in An Encyclopaedia of Occultism