Araliaceae

The ginseng family of flowering plants, in the order Apiales, comprising approximately 700 species centred in Southeast Asia and tropical America. Most members are shrubs or trees, though there are a number of climbers and a few herbs. The family has large, usually alternate, compound leaves, five-parted flowers arranged in compound umbels (flat-topped clusters), and a

Norfolk Island Pine

The wood of large trees is used in construction, furniture,

Hancock, Thomas

English inventor and manufacturer who founded the British rubber industry. His chief invention, the “masticator,” worked rubber scraps into a shredded mass of rubber that could be formed into blocks or rolled into sheets. This process, perfected in 1821, led to a partnership with the Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof

Gippsland

Region of southeastern Victoria, Australia, extending northeast from Western Port (near Melbourne) to the New South Wales border and south from the Eastern Highlands to the coast, with an area of 13,600 square miles (35,200 square km). Fertile and well watered (34 inches [860 mm] annually), Gippsland is the focus of the state's dairy industry, supplying most of Melbourne's liquid milk. Lignite

Armillaria

Genus of about 40 species of fungi of the order Agaricales (q.v.), in the class Basidiomycetes, found throughout northern North America and Europe, principally in forests of hardwoods or mixed conifers. In suitable environments, members of this genus may live for hundreds of years, and certain specimens have been identified as among the largest and oldest living

Mauermayer, Gisela

Mauermayer began participating in track-and-field competitions at the age of 13. By 1930 she was competing internationally, and in 1934 she won the first women's pentathlon, at the Women's

Kyogen

Brief farce or comic interlude played during a Japanese No (lyric drama) cycle, expressed in the vernacular of the second half of the 16th century. Its effect is to relieve the tension of the drama. It is performed in ordinary dress and without masks (unless these are used in parody). There are normally four kyogen interspersed among the usual five No pieces.