Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cone, in botany

(Encyclopedia)cone or strobilus strŏbˈələs [key], in botany, reproductive organ of the gymnosperms (the conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes). Like the flower in the angiosperms (flowering plants), the cone is actual...

cone, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Cone cone or conical surface, in mathematics, surface generated by a moving line (the generator) that passes through a given fixed point (the vertex) and continually intersects a given fixed c...

Sachs, Julius von

(Encyclopedia)Sachs, Julius von fə zäks [key], 1832–97, German botanist. A professor at the Univ. of Würzburg from 1868, he was a founder of experimental plant physiology. He demonstrated the importance of tra...

botany

(Encyclopedia)botany, science devoted to the study of plants. Botany, microbiology, and zoology together compose the science of biology. Humanity's earliest concern with plants was with their practical uses, i.e., ...

conic section

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Conic sections conic section or conic kŏnˈĭk [key], curve formed by the intersection of a plane and a right circular cone (conical surface). The ordinary conic sections are the circle, the ...

Gray, Asa

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Asa, 1810–88, one of America's leading botanists and taxonomists, b. Oneida co., N.Y. As professor of natural history at Harvard from 1842, he was the teacher of many eminent botanists. Throug...

Sabalan

(Encyclopedia)Sabalan or Savalan säˌvəlänˈ [key], volcanic cone, 15,592 ft (4,752 m) high, NW Iran, near Ardebil. The prophet Zoroaster reputedly wrote the Avesta there. ...

Botany Bay

(Encyclopedia)Botany Bay, inlet, New South Wales, SE Australia, just S of Sydney. It was visited in 1770 by James Cook, who proclaimed British sovereignty over the east coast of Australia. The site of the landing i...

Clark, William Smith

(Encyclopedia)Clark, William Smith, 1826–86, American educator, b. Ashfield, Mass., grad. Amherst, 1848, and studied chemistry and botany at Göttingen (Ph.D., 1852). He taught at Amherst until the Civil War, fou...
 

Browse by Subject