• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

ANTHERS The summits of the stamens of flowers, in which the pollen or fertilising dust is produced.

APLACENTALIA, APLACENTATA OR APLACENTAL MAMMALS See Mammalia.

ARCHETYPAL Of or belonging to the Archetype, or ideal primitive form upon which all the beings of a group seem to be organised.

ARTICULATA A great division of the Animal Kingdom characterised generally by having the surface of the body divided into rings called segments, a greater or less number of which are furnished with jointed legs (such as Insects, Crustaceans and Centipedes).

ASYMMETRICAL Having the two sides unlike.

ATROPHIED Arrested in development at a very early stage.

BALANUS The genus including the common Acorn-shells which live in abundance on the rocks of the sea-coast.

BATRACHIANS A class of animals allied to the Reptiles, but undergoing a peculiar metamorphosis, in which the young animal is generally aquatic and breathes by gills. (Examples, Frogs, Toads, and Newts.)

BOULDERS Large transported blocks of stone generally imbedded in clays or gravels.

BRACHIOPODA A class of marine Mollusca, or soft-bodied animals, furnished with a bivalve shell, attached to submarine objects by a stalk which passes through an aperture in one of the valves, and furnished with fringed arms, by the action of which food is carried to the mouth.

BRANCHIAE GILLS or organs for respiration in water.

BRANCHIAL Pertaining to gills or branchiae.

CAMBRIAN SYSTEM A Series of very ancient Palaeozoic rocks, between the Laurentian and the Silurian. Until recently these were regarded as the oldest fossiliferous rocks.

CANIDÆ The Dog-family, including the Dog, Wolf, Fox, Jackal, &c.

CARAPACE The shell enveloping the anterior part of the body in Crustaceans generally; applied also to the hard shelly pieces of the Cirripedes.

CARBONIFEROUS This term is applied to the great formation which includes, among other rocks, the coal-measures. It belongs to the oldest, or Palaeozoic, system of formations.

CAUDAL Of or belonging to the tail.

CEPHALOPODS The highest class of the Mollusca, or Soft-bodied animals, characterised by having the mouth surrounded by a greater or less number of fleshy arms or tentacles, which, in most living species, are furnished with sucking-cups. (Examples, Cuttle-fish, Nautilus. )

CETACEA An order of Mammalia, including the Whales, Dolphins, &c., having the form of the body fish-like, the skin naked, and only the forelimbs developed.

CHELONIA An order of Reptiles including the Turtles, Tortoises, &c.

CIRRIPEDES An order of Crustaceans including the Barnacles and Acorn-shells. Their young resemble those of many other Crustaceans in form; but when mature they are always attached to other objects, either directly or by means of a stalk, and their bodies are enclosed by a calcareous shell composed of several pieces, two of which can open to give issue to a bunch of curled, jointed tentacles, which represent the limbs.

Coccus The genus of Insects including the Cochineal. In these the male is a minute, winged fly, and the female generally a motionless, berry-like mass.

COCOON A case usually of silky material, in which insects are frequently enveloped during the second or resting-stage (pupa) of their existence. The term “cocoon-stage” is here used as equivalent to “pupa-stage.”

COELOSPERMOUS A term applied to those fruits of the Umbelliferae which have the seed hollowed on the inner face.

COLEOPTERA Beetles, an order of Insects, having a biting mouth and the first pair of wings more or less horny, forming sheaths for the second pair, and usually meeting in a straight line down the middle of the back.

COLUMN A peculiar organ in the flowers of Orchids, in which the stamens, style and stigma (or the reproductive parts) are united.

COMPOSITE OR COMPOSITOUS PLANTS Plants in which the inflorescence consists of numerous small flowers (florets) brought together into a dense head, the base of which is enclosed by a common envelope. (Examples, the Daisy, Dandelion,