NAUTILUS n.
existing 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 a…
NEGRO n.
; especially, one of a race of black or very dark persons who inhabit the greater part of tropical Africa, and are distinguished by crisped or curly hair, flat noses, and thick protruding lips; also, any black person of unmixed African blood, wherever found.
PAPAW n.
A tree (Carica Papaya) of tropical America, belonging to the order Passifloreæ. It has a soft, spongy stem, eighteen or twenty feet high, crowned with a tuft of large, long-stalked, palmately lobed leaves. The milky juice of the plant is said to have the property of making meat tender. Also, its dull orange-colored, me…
PEACH n.
e large edible berry of the Sarcocephalus esculentus, a rubiaceous climbing shrub of west tropical Africa. -- Palm peach, the fruit of a Venezuelan palm tree (Bactris speciosa). -- Peach color, the pale red color of the peach blossom. -- Peach-tree borer (Zoöl.), the larva of a clearwing moth (Ægeria, or Sannina, ex…
PEARL n.
ccount of its pearly color. -- Pearl oyster (Zoöl.), any one of several species of large tropical marine bivalve mollusks of the genus Meleagrina, or Margaritifera, found in the East Indies (especially at Ceylon), in the Persian Gulf, on the coast of Australia, and on the Pacific coast of America. Called also pearl sh…
PINA CLOTH; PINYA CLOTH n.
erchiefs, etc., made from the fiber of the pineapple leaf, and perhaps from other fibrous tropical leaves. It is delicate, soft, and transparent, with a slight tinge of pale yellow.