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Pertaining to, or resembling, pearl; pearly.

A mineral related to the micas, but low in silica and yielding brittle folia with pearly luster.

A ferruginous variety of shalerite or zinc blende, nearly black in color.

A subclass of Mammalia, including nearly all the mammals of Australia and the adjacent islands, together with the opossums of America. They differ from ordinary mammals in having the corpus callosum very small, in being implacental, and in having their young born while very immature. The female generally carries the yo…

incisor teeth. The species were mostly larger than elephants, and their romains occur in nearly all parts of the world in deposits ranging from Miocene to late Quaternary time.

Early; soon. [A Latinism, little used] Bentley.

Of or pertaining to the morning; early.

Congregation of Saint Maur, an offshoot of the Benedictines, originating in France in the early part of the seventeenth century. The Maurists have been distinguished for their interest in literature.

The early part or springtime of life. His May of youth, and bloom of lustihood. Shak.

g bird of the genus Anthus, as A. pratensis, of Europe. -- Meadow rue (Bot.), a delicate early plant, of the genus Thalictrum, having compound leaves and numerous white flowers. There are many species. -- Meadow saffron. (Bot.) See under Saffron. -- Meadow sage. (Bot.) See under Sage. -- Meadow saxifrage (Bot.), an…

Inclosed, or nearly inclosed, with land; as, the Mediterranean Sea, between Europe and Africa.

to mellow it [the ground], they do not plow it again till April. Mortimer. The fervor of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age. J. C. Shairp.

and Indian people living in parts of Tennessee and the Carolinas. They are descendants of early intermixtures of white settlers with natives. In North Carolina the Croatan Indians, regarded as descended from Raleigh's lost colony of Croatan, formerly classed with negroes, are now legally recognized as distinct.…

t are at first arranged in two layers, -- the ectoderm and endoderm. The group comprises nearly all animals except the Protozoa.

measure in the metric system of weights and measures. It was intended to be, and is very nearly, the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the north pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of a meridian. See Metric system, under Metric. Common meter (Hymnol.), four iambic verses, or lines,…

Situated most nearly in the middle; middlemost; midmost. [Obs.] " 'Mongst the middest crowd." Spenser.

Any coral of the genus Millepora, having the surface nearly smooth, and perforated with very minute unequal pores, or cells. The animals are hydroids, not Anthozoa. See Hydrocorallia.

n panicled cymes. P. coronarius, from Asia, has fragrant flowers; the American kinds are nearly scentless. -- Mock sun. See Parhelion. -- Mock turtle soup, a soup made of calf's head, veal, or other meat, and condiments, in imitation of green turtle soup. -- Mock velvet, a fabric made in imitation of velvet. See Moc…

A tribe of warlike Indians formerly inhabiting Northern California. They are nearly extinct.

nter upon a new keynote or tonic; the art of transition out of the original key into one nearly related, and so on, it may be, by successive changes, into a key quite remote. There are also sudden and unprepared modulations.