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A genus of malvaceous plants common in the tropics. All the species are mucilaginous, and some have tough ligneous fibers which are used as a substitute for hemp and flax. Balfour (Cyc. of India).

f or pertaining to signals, or the use of signals in conveying information; as, a signal flag or officer. The signal service, a bureau of the government (in the United States connected with the War Department) organized to collect from the whole country simultaneous raports of local meteorological conditions, upon comp…

cking away green fodder for winter use so as to exclude air and outside moisture. See Ensilage.

ining to simony; guilty of simony; consisting of simony. -- Sim"o*ni`a*cal*ly, adv. The flagitious profligacy of their lives, and the simoniacal arts by which they grasped at the popedom. J. S. Harford.

A mucilaginous carbohydrate, resembling achroödextrin, extracted from squill as a colorless amorphous substance; -- so called because it is levorotatory.

An order of pelagic Hydrozoa including species which form complex free-swimming communities composed of numerous zooids of various kinds, some of which act as floats or as swimming organs, others as feeding or nutritive zooids, and others as reproductive zooids. See Illust. under Physallia, and Porpita.…

nd pelvis, and having permanent external gills as well as lungs. They inhabit the swamps, lagoons, and ditches of the Southern United States. The more common species (Siren lacertina) is dull lead-gray in color, and becames two feet long.

The bony and cartilaginous framework which supports the soft parts of a vertebrate animal.

head of a vertebrate animal, including the brain case, or cranium, and the bones and cartilages of the face and mouth. See Illusts. of Carnivora, of Facial angles under Facial, and of Skeleton, in Appendix.

To languish; to fail; to flag.

late (Min.), a slaty rock, consisting essentially of hornblende and feldspar, useful for flagging on account of its toughness. -- Slate ax or axe, a mattock with an ax end, used in shaping slates for roofs, and making holes in them for the nails. -- Slate clay (Geol.), an indurated clay, forming one of the alternatin…

Any mucilaginous substance; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive.

loose in morals. Shak. Slippery elm. (Bot.) (a) An American tree (Ulmus fulva) with a mucilagenous and slightly aromatic inner bark which is sometimes used medicinally; also, the inner bark itself. (b) A malvaceous shrub (Fremontia Californica); -- so called on the Pacific coast.

mith; a smithery; a stithy. [Written also smiddy.] Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands. Lonfellow.

ngth resolved into a powdery sooty mass. It is caused by parasitic fungi of the genus Ustilago. Ustilago segetum, or U. Carbo, is the commonest kind; that of Indian corn is Ustilago maydis.

Having the fin rays cartilaginous or flexible; without spines; -- said of certain fishes.

ith numerals, but formerly also with a singular substantive of time or distance; as, a village of some eighty houses; some two or three persons; some hour hence. Shak. The number slain on the rebel's part were some two thousand. Bacon.

a little. His giantship is gone, somewhat crestfallen. Milton. Somewhat back from the village street. Longfellow.

color like soot; fuliginous; dusky; dark. "The grisly legions that troop under the sooty flag of Acheron." Milton. Sooty albatross (Zoöl.), an albatross (Phoebetria fuliginosa) found chiefly in the Pacific Ocean; -- called also nellie. -- Sooty tern (Zoöl.), a tern (Sterna fuliginosa) found chiefly in tropical seas.…

A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.] "A sort of shepherds." Spenser. "A sort of steers." Spenser. "A sort of doves." Dryden. "A sort of rogues." Massinger. A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. Chapman.…