Ice Plant
in botany, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum. It is called ice plant from the many watery pustules covering its leaves and shining like ice. It grows on sandy seashores at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Canary Islands, and in Greece near Athens. There are two varieties, M. crystallinum and M. in glaciale; the latter is that cul juice is said to cultivated gardens. The be diuretic, has been given in liver complaints. and The burnt ashes are used by the Spaniards like barilla in glass works. Called from its luster also diamond plant.
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Iceboat
a triangular framework of with wood, running by means of a sailskates or broad end forward-on three runners 3 feet long by 8 inches deep. tri- There is but one large sail, usually and yard angular, fastened to a boom , 30 feet in length. which may be over by the Such an iceboat may be steered direction not rudder-skate in almost any may attain in the teeth of the wind, and miles an an average speed of 30 or 40 hour, and sometimes as much as 65. rivers The Hudson and the Shrewsbury headmay be regarded as the Eastern are quarters of this sport, and there several iceboat clubs.
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Iceland Moss
in botany, Cetraria islandica, formerly called Lichen islandicus. It is found in small quantities on the ground in exposed places in Scotland. It is slightly bitter as well as mucilaginous. An aqueous decoction of it, when cooled, makes a thick jelly. It is used as a tonic and nutrient.
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Iceland Spar
a transparent calespar, or calcite, CaCO3; it may be split along its cleavage-planes into an obtuse rhombohedron and is doubly refracting.
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Icelandic Literature
. See Literature
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Ichabod Crane
a Yankee schoolmaster in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in Irving's Sketch Book. Ichabod is a suitor for the hand and inheritance of Miss Katrina Van Tassel. He has a startling adventure with the Headless Horseman and disappears forever from the neighborhood of Sleepy Hollow. See Irving The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a corn-field.--Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book.
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Ichang
a walled town in the Chinese province of Hu-pei; on the Yang-tsze-Kiang, where it escapes from the limestone gorges and ravines of its middle course; 1,000 miles from Shanghai. In 1877 it was declared open to foreign trade, but in consequence of the difficulties connected with the navigation of the river, the competition of the Chinese, and official jealousy it advanced but slowly. Pop. (1917) 55,000. Lin-
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Ichneumon
ik-nu'mon, a weasel-shaped animal of tropical countries. The name is Greek, meaning the tracker. The Egyptian species is somewhat longer than a cat, but is much more slender. It is an active, yellowish animal with black muzzle and paws. It is exceeding valuable for the destruction of the rats and mice that infest a grain-raising country, and especially for the deadly warfare it carries on with poisonous snakes. It follows along the shores, and limits the increase of the crocodile by digging up its eggs. It is known also as Pharaoh's rat. See Mongoose
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Ichneumon (Genus of digitigrade)
a genus of digitigrade carnivorous quadrupeds of the family fa Viverridæ, having a much elongated sharp muzzle, rounded body, small head, ears, and short legs. The species, which are pretty numerous, are natives of Africa and the warmer parts of Asia. One, the Andalusian ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon), occurs in the S. of Spain. They feed on small quadrupeds, reptiles, eggs, and insects. Some of them, particularly the Egyptian ichneumon and the mangouste, mongoose, or mungoose of India, have been greatly celebrated as destroyers of serpents. The Egyptian ichneumon, the ichneumon of the ancients, is larger than a cat, gray, with black paws and muzzle. It was a sacred animal among the ancient Egyptians. The ichneumon is easily domesticated, and is useful in keeping houses free from rats and other vermin.
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Ichneumon (N an genus of insects now)
a næan genus of insects, now constituting a family or tribe, Ichneumonida, of the order Hymenoptera, section Terebrantia They are extremely numerous in species. are Many of them are minute, others are large insects; the species of Physsa They have among the largest of insects. abdomen united to the thorax by a the pedicle, which is very often slender. , The abdomen itself is slender and . All the Icelanders had discovered Greenland the whole form attenuated Ichneumonidæ deposit their eggs either (983) and part part of America (about in or on-generally in- in-the bodies, eggs, or larvæ of insects, or in spiders. Some of them deposit their eggs in aphides. to the They are thus extremely useful farmer and gardener. Particular species of Ichneumonidæ are the natural enemies of particular kinds of other insects. Many caterpillars are infested by three or four species of ichneumons.
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Ichneumon Fly
a family of two-winged insects. There are over 1,000 species of ichneumon flies, differing very considerably, but having in common a family characteristic of depositing their eggs in or on the larvae of other insects. Some species deposit their eggs on the bodies of caterpillars. The body of the female usually terminates in an awl-shaped egg depositor, which, in some species, is much longer than the body of the fly itself. Many species use the ovi-depositor as a drill. One in particular is able to locate larvae in a dead tree or twig accurately. It throws its drill up over its body in a long curve and hammers away on the wood until it has reached the larva within. It then deposits an egg in the body of the unfortunate grub, and leaves it to hatch out and feed on its host. In this way ichneumon flies destroy countless millions of insect pests. They are as useful in their way as are the ichneumons of Egypt from which they are named.
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