NAUTILUS n.
genus of tetrabranchiate cephalopods. About four species are found living in the tropical Pacific, but many other species are found fossil. The shell is spiral, symmetrical, and chambered, or divided into several cavities by simple curved partitions, which are traversed and connected together by a continuous and nearly…
NEW ZEALAND n.
A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. New Zealand flax. (a) (Bot.) A tall, liliaceous herb (Phormium tenax), having very long, sword-shaped, distichous leaves which furnish a fine, strong fiber very valuable for cordage and the like. (b) The fiber itself. -- New Zealand tea (Bot.), a myrtaceous shrub (Leptosp…
PEARL n.
Indies (especially at Ceylon), in the Persian Gulf, on the coast of Australia, and on the Pacific coast of America. Called also pearl shell, and pearl mussel. -- Pearl powder. See Pearl white, below. -- Pearl sago, sago in the form of small pearly grains. -- Pearl sinter (Min.), fiorite. -- Pearl spar (Min.), a cry…