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elaxed or exhausted; convulsive; intermittent; as, spasmodic zeal or industry. Spasmodic croup (Med.), an affection of childhood characterized by a stoppage of brathing developed suddenly and without fever, and produced by spasmodic contraction of the vocal cords. It is sometimes fatal. Called also laryngismus stridulu…

A group of individuals agreeing in common attributes, and designated by a common name; a conception subordinated to another conception, called a genus, or generic conception, from which it differs in containing or comprehending more attributes, and extending to fewer individuals. Thus, man is a species, under animal as…

e that produce seeds; the seed plants, or flowering plants. They form the most numerous group, including over 120,000 species. In general, the group is characterized by the marked development of the sporophyte, with great differentiation of its parts (root, stem, leaves, flowers, etc.); by the extreme reduction of the…

cted spot or circle of light used to illuminate brilliantly a single person or object or group on the stage; leaving the rest of the stage more or less unilluminated; hence, conspicuous public notice. [Cant or Colloq.]

A group of castings made in the same mold and connected by sprues formed in the runner and its branches. Knight. Spray drain (Agric.), a drain made by laying under earth the sprays or small branches of trees, which keep passages open.

Any one of a group of fishes having the dorsal and anal fins partially covered with scales.

l of a brown to black color occurring in prismatic crystals, often twinned so as to form groups resembling a cross. It is a silicate of aluminia and iron, and is generally found imbedded in mica schist. Called also granatite, and grenatite.

An extensive group of echinoderms, comprising the starfishes and ophiurans.

rized by the impregnation of the mass of rock with many small veins or nests irregularly grouped. This kind of deposit is especially common with tin ore. Such deposits are worked in floors or stories.

A disease in horses and swine, in which the upper part of the throat, or groups of lymphatic glands elsewhere, swells.

A group of small insects having the anterior wings rudimentary, and in the form of short and slender twisted appendages, while the posterior ones are large and membranous. They are parasitic in the larval state on bees, wasps, and the like; -- called also Rhipiptera. See Illust. under Rhipipter.

an boor driving his stridulous cart. Longfellow. Stridulous laryngitis (Med.), a form of croup, or laryngitis, in children, associated with dyspnoea, occurring usually at night, and marked by crowing or stridulous breathing.

the humming birds, swifts, and goatsuckers. It is now generally considered an artificial group.

A metallic element of the calcium group, always naturally occurring combined, as in the minerals strontianite, celestite, etc. It is isolated as a yellowish metal, somewhat malleable but harder than calcium. It is chiefly employed (as in the nitrate) to color pyrotechnic flames red. Symbol Sr. Atomic weight 87.3. A rad…

In a wider sense, an extensive group of birds including the ostriches, cassowaries, emus, moas, and allied birds incapable of flight. In this sense it is equivalent to Ratitæ, or Dromæognathæ.

ects parasitic, in their larval state, on bees and wasps. It is the typical genus of the group Strepsiptera, formerly considered a distinct order, but now generally referred to the Coleoptera. See Strepsiptera.

One of the natural groups, more important than an order, into which some classes are divided; as, the angiospermous subclass of exogens.

The incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent.

A division of an order; a group of genera of a little lower rank than an order and of greater importance than a tribe or family; as, cichoraceous plants form a suborder of Compositæ.

A group somewhat lessdistinct than speciesusually are, but based on characters more important than those which characterize ordinary varieties; often, a geographical variety or race.