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A prickly tropical shrub (Cæsalpinia, formerly Poinciana, pulcherrima), with bipinnate leaves, and racemes of showy orange-red flowers with long crimson filaments.

andard unit of measure for the size of type bodies, being one twelfth of the thickness of pica type. See Point system of type, under Type.

Any one of numerous species of tropical food fishes of the family Polynemidæ. They have several slender filaments, often very long, below the pectoral fin. Some of them yield isinglass of good quality. Called also threadfish.

Pertaining to the Pomacentridæ, a family of bright-colored tropical fishes having spiny opercula; -- often called coral fishes.

and an enormous root. It is common in sandy places in the United States. (b) A similar tropical American plant (I. fastigiata) which it is thought may have been the original stock of the sweet potato.

ss (Bot.), a name given to several slender grasses (as Aristida dichotoma, and Danthonia spicata) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.

Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically; as, a pretty trick; a pretty fellow.

ern Atlantic States is Opuntia vulgaris. In the South and West are many others, and in tropical America more than a hundred more. O. vulgaris, O. Ficus-Indica, and O. Tuna are abundantly introduced in the Mediterranean region, and O. Dillenii has become common in India. -- Prickly pole (Bot.), a West Indian palm (Bact…

re two species; one, called long primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica [see Long primer]; the other, called great primer, larger than pica.

The wood of two small tropical American trees (Hamelia ventricosa, and Cordia gerascanthoides). It is brownish, veined with lighter color.

The sixth joint of a typical leg of a crustacean; usually, the penultimate joint.

A strong, durable, and elastic wood of a purplish color, obtained from several tropical American leguminous trees of the genus Copaifera (C. pubiflora, bracteata, and officinalis). Used for decorative veneering. See Copaiba.

ry strong, being able to crack cocoanuts with the large claw. They chiefly inhabit the tropical islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, living in holes and feeding upon fruit. Called also palm crab. -- Purse net, a fishing net, the mouth of which may be closed or drawn together like a purse. Mortimer. Purse pride, p…

The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ, as Quassia amara, Picræna excelsa, and Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer.

Any one of numerous species of small passerine birds native of tropical America. See Banana quit, under Banana, and Guitguit.

A piece of hollow type metal, lower than type, and measuring two or more pica ems in length and breadth, used in the blank spaces at the beginning and end of chapters, etc. Quotation marks (Print.), two inverted commas placed at the beginning, and two apostrophes at the end, of a passage quoted from an author in his ow…

A tropical African asteraceous shrub (Guizotia abyssinica) cultivated for its seeds (called ramtil, or niger, seeds) which yield a valuable oil used for food and as an illuminant.

rent sizes, and designated by the name of the type that it matches; as, nonpareil reglet, pica reglet, and the like.

Serving or fitted to present the full characters of the type of a group; typical; as, a representative genus in a family.

t relatively the same; -- designated as the annual, anomalistic, nodical, sidereal, or tropical revolution, according as the point of return or completion has a fixed relation to the year, the anomaly, the nodes, the stars, or the tropics; as, the revolution of the earth about the sun; the revolution of the moon about…