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cer. -- Rock cress (Bot.), a name of several plants of the cress kind found on rocks, as Arabis petræa, A. lyrata, etc. -- Rock crystal (Min.), limpid quartz. See Quartz, and under Crystal. -- Rock dove (Zoöl.), the rock pigeon; -- called also rock doo. -- Rock drill, an implement for drilling holes in rock; esp.,…

not in figures, as I., IV., i., iv., etc.; -- said of numerals, as distinguished from the Arabic numerals, 1, 4, etc. Roman alum (Chem.), a cubical potassium alum formerly obtained in large quantities from Italian alunite, and highly valued by dyers on account of its freedom from iron. -- Roman balance, a form of bala…

aris, in which the flowers grow in dense spikes. -- Sweet rush, a sweet-scented grass of Arabia, etc. (Andropogon schoenanthus), used in Oriental medical practice. -- Wood rush, any plant of the genus Luzula, which differs in some technical characters from Juncus.

Of or pertaining to Saba in Arabia, celebrated for producing aromatic plants.

A plant of the genus Ziziphus (Z. lotus); -- so called by the Arabs of Barbary, who use its berries for food. See Lotus (b).

wind that sometimes blows, in Turkey, from the desert. It is identical with the simoom of Arabia and the kamsin of Syria.

Tracts of land consisting of sand, like the deserts of Arabia and Africa; also, extensive tracts of sand exposed by the ebb of the tide. "The Libyan sands." Milton. "The sands o'Dee." C. Kingsley.

Anciently, an Arab; later, a Mussulman; in the Middle Ages, the common term among Christians in Europe for a Mohammedan hostile to the crusaders. Saracen's consound (Bot.), a kind of ragewort (Senecio Saracenicus), anciently used to heal wounds.

h curved blade having the edge on the convex side, -- in use among Mohammedans, esp., the Arabs and persians. [Written also cimeter, and scymetar.]

Note under Planet. -- Secondary qualities, those qualities of bodies which are not inseparable from them as such, but are dependent for their development and intensity on the organism of the percipient, such as color, taste, odor, etc. -- Secondary quills or remiges (Zoöl.), the quill feathers arising from the forea…

A short piece of land in arable ridges and furrows, of uncertain quantity; also, a ridge of land lying between two furrows. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Of or pertaining to the square root of the cube of a quantity. Semicubical parabola, a curve in which the ordinates are proportional to the square roots of the cubes of the abscissas.

m or his descendants; belonging to that division of the Caucasian race which includes the Arabs, Jews, and related races. [Written also Shemitic.] Semitic language, a name used to designate a group of Asiatic and African languages, some living and some dead, namely: Hebrew and Phoenician, Aramaic, Assyrian, Arabic, Eth…

Benne. Open Sesame, the magical command which opened the door of the robber's den in the Arabian Nights' tale of "The Forty Thieves;" hence, a magical password. -- Sesame grass. (Bot.) Same as Gama grass.

That which follows or attends a person or thing like a shadow; an inseparable companion; hence, an obsequious follower. Sin and her shadow Death. Milton.

The head of an Arab family, or of a clan or a tribe; also, the chief magistrate of an Arab village. The name is also applied to Mohammedan ecclesiastics of a high grade. [Written also scheik, shaik, sheikh.]

A member of an Arab princely family descended from Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali and daughter Fatima. The Grand Shereef is the governor of Mecca.

rs in the constellation Leo. See Illust. of Leo. Sickle pod (Bot.), a kind of rock cress (Arabis Canadensis) having very long curved pods.

A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind, that blows occasionally in Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.

so snapping beetle. -- Snap flask (Molding), a flask for small work, having its sides separable and held together by latches, so that the flask may be removed from around the sand mold. -- Snap judgment, a judgment formed on the instant without deliberation. -- Snap lock, a lock shutting with a catch or snap. -- Sn…