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A mineral consisting of the hydrous sulphate of lime (calcium). When calcined, it forms plaster of Paris. Selenite is a transparent, crystalline variety; alabaster, a fine, white, massive variety.

tussock moth (Ocneria dispar) native of the Old World, but accidentally introduced into eastern Massachusetts about 1869, where its caterpillars have done great damage to fruit, shade, and forest trees of many kinds. The male gypsy moth is yellowish brown, the female white, and larger than the male. In both sexes the…

but bearing drupes with scanty, but often edible, pulp. C. occidentalis is common in the Eastern United States. Gray.

or as with the hands. See Handle, v. t. The heavens and your fair handling Have made you master of the field this day. Spenser.

ritten by hand; manuscript. The handwriting on the wall, a doom pronounced; an omen of disaster. Dan. v. 5.

e or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.

A harbor master. [Obs.]

gee, or To haw and gee about, to lead this way and that at will; to lead by the nose; to master or control. [Colloq.]

all board, with a handle on the under side, to hold mortar. Hawk boy, an attendant on a plasterer to supply him with mortar.

Principal; chief; leading; first; as, the head master of a school; the head man of a tribe; a head chorister; a head cook.

Of a single and sincere heart. If he keeps heart-whole towards his Master. Bunyan.

nized by Richard III. in 1483, consisting of the three Kings-at-Arms and the Chester, Lancaster, Richmond, Somerset, Windsor, and York Heralds, together with the Earl Marshal. This retains from the Middle Ages the charge of the armorial bearings of persons privileged to bear them, as well as of genealogies and kindred…

ing two or more kinds of flowers which differ in regard to stamens and pistils, as in the aster.

commemorating the expulsion of the Danes, formerly observed on the second Tuesday after Easter; -- called also hocktide. [Eng.] [Written also hokeday.]

agrimony. -- Holy Saturday (Eccl.), the Saturday immediately preceding the festival of Easter; the vigil of Easter. -- Holy Spirit, same as Holy Ghost (above). -- Holy Spirit plant. See Dove plant. -- Holy thistle (Bot.), the blessed thistle. See under Thistle. -- Holy Thursday. (Eccl.) (a) (Episcopal Ch.) Ascens…

An ornamental fold at the back of an academic gown or ecclesiastical vestment; as, a master's hood.

hoop petticoat. -- Hoop snake (Zoöl.), a harmless snake of the Southern United States (Abaster erythrogrammus); -- so called from the mistaken notion that it curves itself into a hoop, taking its tail into its mouth, and rolls along with great velocity. -- Hoop tree (Bot.), a small West Indian tree (Melia semperviren…

A convent or monastery which is also a place of refuge or entertainment for travelers on some difficult road or pass, as in the Alps; as, the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard.

ouses were regarded as fixed in respect to the horizon, and numbered from the one at the eastern horizon, called the ascendant, first house, or house of life, downward, or in the direction of the earth's revolution, the stars and planets passing through them in the reverse order every twenty- four hours.…

The master or head of a family; one who occupies a house with his family. Towns in which almost every householder was an English Protestant. Macaulay. Compound householder. See Compound, a.