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A mammal of tropical America of the genus Nasua, allied to the raccoon, but with a longer body, tail, and nose.

A palm tree producing the cocoanut (Cocos nucifera). It grows in nearly all tropical countries, attaining a height of sixty or eighty feet. The trunk is without branches, and has a tuft of leaves at the top, each being fifteen or twenty feet in length, and at the base of these the nuts hang in clusters; the cocoanut tr…

wing in Abyssinia, Arabia, Persia, and other warm regions of Asia and Africa, and also in tropical America.

A genus of sterculiaceous trees, natives of tropical Africa, esp. Guinea, but now naturalized in tropical America, esp. in the West Indies and Brazil.

A genus of univale shells, abundant in tropical seas. Some species, as Columbella mercatoria, were formerly used as shell money.

A tropical humming bird of the genus Lophornis, with very elegant neck plumes. Several species are known. See Illustration under Spangle, v. t.

. (b) A small, harmless, South American snake (Tortrix scytale). -- Coral tree (Bot.), a tropical, leguminous plant, of several species, with showy, scarlet blossoms and coral-red seeds. The best known is Erythrina Corallodendron. -- Coral wood, a hard, red cabinet wood. McElrath.

A genus of euphorbiaceous plants belonging to tropical countries. Croton oil (Med.), a viscid, acrid, brownish yellow oil obtained from the seeds of Croton Tiglium, a small tree of the East Indies. It is a most powerful drastic cathartic, and is used externally as a pustulant.

a; in med., Cubeba officinalis), native in Java and Borneo, but now cultivated in various tropical countries. The dried unripe fruit is much used in medicine as a stimulant and purgative.

A soft grass (Pennisetum typhoideum) found in all tropical regions, used as food for men and cattle in Central Africa.

lk and eggs, sweetened, and baked or boiled. Custard apple (Bot.), a low tree or shrub of tropical America, including several species of Anona (A. squamosa, reticulata, etc.), having a roundish or ovate fruit the size of a small orange, containing a soft, yellowish, edible pulp. -- Custard coffin, pastry, or crust, wh…

A tropical aroid (of the genus Caladium, syn. Colocasia) having an edible farinaceous root. It is related to the taro and to the tanier, but is much superior to it in quality and is as easily cooked as the potato. It is a staple food plant of the tropics, being prepared like potatoes, and has been introduced into the S…

A genus consisting mostly of tropical perennial herbs (Commelina), having ephemeral flowers.

of climate; extreme weather, whether hot or cold. [Obs.] Those countries . . . under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable. Sir W. Raleigh.

tory of undefined extent; a region; a country; a tract. These districts which between the tropics lie. Blackstone. Congressional district. See under Congressional. -- District attorney, the prosecuting officer of a district or district court. -- District court, a subordinate municipal, state, or United States tribuna…

A small tree of tropical America (Cæsalpinia coriaria), whose legumes contain a large proportion of tannic and gallic acid, and are used by tanners and dyers.

lly an auxiliary. -- Donkey's eye (Bot.), the large round seed of the Mucuna pruriens, a tropical leguminous plant.

ic, horned beetles, including Dynastus Neptunus, and the Hercules beetle (D. Hercules) of tropical America, which grow to be six inches in length.

(Sterna fuliginosa) of the West Indies. In the Bahama Islands the name is applied to the tropic bird, Phaëthon flavirostris.

A fragrant gum resin obtained chiefly tropical trees of the genera Amyris and Canarium. A. elemifera yields Mexican elemi; C. commune, the Manila elemi. It is used in the manufacture of varnishes, also in ointments and plasters.