|
The fabellae are small sesamoid bones situated behind the condyles of the femur, in some mammals.
 Research Fabella
The Fabrianese is a breed of sheep found in Ancona Province, Marche Region of Italy. The Fabrianese is a course wool breed kept for both meat and milk production. The breed is polled and exhibits a Roman nose. It originated from local Apennine crossed to Bergamasca.
Research Fabrianese
Fabrosaurus was a tiny dinosaur of the Jurassic period. A herbivore, Fabrosaurus was about 1 metre long, walking on its hind legs and standing about 309 cm tall. It was a lightly built animal with strong arms and hands. The first remains of
Fabrosaurus were found in 1964 and comprised a piece of jaw and a few teeth.
Research Fabrosaurus
The face mite (Demdex folliculorum) is a small, elongated mite which is parasitic in the hair follicles of the human face.
Research Face Mite
In zoology, the term facet refers to a single segment of a compound eye.
Research Facet
The term facies is used to describe the face of a bird, or the front of the head, excluding the bill.
Research Facies
Fairy bird is a popular name for the European little tern (Sterna minuta).
Research Fairy Bird
The fairy martin (Hirrundo ariel) is a European swallow that builds flask- shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs.
Research Fairy Martin
The fairy shrimp (Chirocephalus diaphanus) is a European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean. It is so called from its delicate colours, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is also sometimes applied to similar American species.
Research Fairy Shrimp
The fairy-ring mushroom (Marasmius oreades) is a pale red coloured mushroom with white gills.
Research Fairy-ring Mushroom
The Falabella is an Argentine breed of pony developed during the 19th century. They are miniature horses, standing 9 hands high, and are friendly and intelligent but liable to be temperamental at times.
Research Falabella
Falagria is a genus of rove beetles, Staphylinidae. Most of the species live under rotting vegetation and have a characteristic ant-like form.
Research Falagria
Falanaka is the native name for the falanouc (Eupleres Goudotii), a viverrine mammal of Madagascar allied to the civet.
Research Falanaka
A falcer is one of the mandibles of a spider.
Research Falcer
Falconidae is the Falcon family of the Accipitres order of birds of prey. The beak is hooked and generally furnished with a sharp projection or tooth on each side. The head is wholly covered with feathers apart from the cere. The feet are strong and armed with curved, retractile, sharp talons.
The family includes the different species of eagles as well as the hawks and falcons properly so called, comprising the sub-families Buteoninae (buzzards), Polyborinae (caracaras), Aquilinae (eagles), Falconinae (falcons), Milvinae (kites), Accipitrinae (hawks), and Circinae (harriers).
Research Falconidae
The Falconinae are the Merlin, Hobby and Kestril sub-family of the Falconidae family of birds. They are characterised by a short, strong beak curved from the base. The upper mandible is strongly toothed, the lower notched. The nostrils are round. The tarsi is short and strong. The wings are long and pointed, with the second primary longest, the first and third equal in length and having the inner web notched near the extremity.
Research Falconinae
In zoology, a falcula is a curved and sharp-pointed claw.
Research Falcula
In zoology, the term falculate refers to something being curved and sharp-pointed, like a falcula, or the claw of a falcon.
Research Falculate
Fall is the collective noun for a group of woodcock.
Research Fall
The fallow-deer (Cervus dama) is a medium-sized species of deer, standing about one metre tall and distinguished by the end of the antler being palmated (flattened and expanded). It is found wild in Asia Minor, but was introduced into Britain in the early part of the 15th century. Two varieties are found in Britain, one which is fawn coloured with white spots and the other dark brown.
Research Fallow-deer
False acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) is a highly poisonous deciduous tree of the family Leguminosae, native to North America, with stout paired spines on the branches. The bark is brown at first, turning a grey colour later, furrowed and twisted. The leaves are alternate, bluish-green beneath, and odd pinnate with between seven and fifteen oval, stalked, entire leaflets with small spines at their tips. The flowers are fragrant, white in colour and arranged in pendulous racemes which grow from the leaf axils of young shoots. The fruit is a smooth, flat, brown coloured pod with black or dark brown seeds. False acacia was introduced into France in the 17th century, being grown as an ornamental tree, especially in towns. It spreads aggressively by way of suckers, and is sometimes planted to form thickets. The timber is hard and close-grained, formerly used for ship building, now used for floors and turned objects.
Research False Acacia
The False Grayling (Arethusana arethusa) is a butterfly of the family Satyridae found in steppes in southern and central Europe and western Asia.
Research False Grayling
False Helleborine, also known as White Hellebore and White Veratrum (Veratrum album) is a highly poisonous perennial bulbous herb of the family Liliaceae, native to southern and central Europe where it grows in damp meadows in the hills and mountains, often forming spreading masses. It has a massive root system, a short vertical rhizome covered with remnants of old leaf stalks, and a robust, unbranched stem. The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to elliptic and have sheathing bases and are longitudinally grooved along the prominent veins. The flowers are numerous, yellowish-green in colour and arranged in compound panicles, the lower-most flowers being bisexual and the upper ones usually male. The fruit is a downy capsule.
The rhizome and roots of False Helleborine contain several toxic alkaloids including veratrine, protoveratrine A and protoveratrine B which widen the lumen of blood vessels, and lower blood pressure. The roots and rhizome are used in medicine to prepare anti-hypersensitivity and heart medicines. Although formerly used in herbal medicine, the practise is now banned in Britain due to the extreme toxicity of the plant, only one or two grams being sufficient to cause collapse, severe vomiting, diarrhoea, breathing difficulties and death.
Research False Helleborine
The False Powder-post Beetles are the Bostrychidae family of insects of the order Coleoptera. The members of the family have a cylindrical body and often resemble bark beetles. The pronotum covers the head like a hood. They tunnel in wood and live to a fair age. The one British species is now thought to be extinct.
Research False Powder-post Beetles
Family is the collective noun for a group of sardines.
Research Family
Fan-palm is a name sometimes given to the taliput palm or Corypha umbraculifera, a native of Sri Lanka and Malabar. The name is also applied to the Mauritia palm (Mauritia flexuosa), a tree which grows in great abundance on the banks of the Orinoco river in South America, and which yields the natives of these regions food, wine (made from its sap), and cordage, besides serving them for housing during the inundations to which the country is subject.
Research Fan-Palm
The fantail is a variety of domestic pigeon, so called from the shape of the tail. The name fantail is applied in Australia to birds of the genus Rhipidura, in which the tail is spread in the form of a fan during flight. They belong to the family of flycatchers.
Research Fantail
Farsetia is a genus of hardy and half-hardy cruciferous plants, mostly natives of Southern Europe and North Africa. The stems and leaves of all species are covered in a fine down.
Research Farsetia
Fasciola is a member of the order Digenea.
Research Fasciola
Fatsia is a genus of half-hardy shrubs belonging to the family Araliaceae.
Research Fatsia
Fatsia Papyrifera is a Taiwanese shrub growing to about 2.5 metres tall, with noble heart-shaped leaves upwards of 30 centimetres in length. It bears drooping clusters of small greenish-white flowers. The Chinese rice paper is prepared from the pith the which fills the stem.
Research Fatsia Papyrifera
Fauna (from the Latin faun), is a collective word signifying all the animals of a certain region, and also the description of them, corresponding to the word flora in respect to plants.
Research Fauna
The Faverolle is a breed of chicken.
Research Faverolle
The Fea Viper (Azemiops feae) is a venomous snake of the subfamily Azemiops of the Viper family (Viperidae) found in northern Burma, northern Vietnam, south and central China and south-eastern Tibet.
Research Fea Viper
Feathers are the form which the dermal appendages assume in birds, agreeing in mode of development, but differing in form from hairs and scales. The feather consists of a stem, horny, round, strong, and hollow in the lower part, called the quill, and in the upper part, called the shaft, filled with pith. On each side of the shaft is a web composed of a series of regularly-arranged fibres called barbs. The barbs and shaft constitute the vane. On the edges of the barbs are set the barbules, which interlock with those of adjacent barbs, and thus give strength to the vane.
Feathers are generally divided into two kinds, quill feathers in the wing or tail, and plumes or clothing feathers generally diffused. The feathers of birds are periodically changed, generally once, but in some species twice a year. This is called moulting. When feathers have reached their full growth they become dry, and only the tube, or the vascular substance which it contains, continues to absorb moisture or fat. When, therefore, part of a feather is cut off, it does not grow out again;
and a bird whose wings have been clipped remains in that situation until the next moulting season, when the old stumps are shed and new feathers grow out. If, however, the stumps are pulled out sooner the feathers will be renewed in a few weeks or even days.
The feather is a very strong formation, not readily damaged, the arch of the shaft resisting pressure, while the web and fine fibres yield without suffering. Being a bad conductor of heat it preserves the high temperature of the bird, while it is so light as to be easily carried in flight. It is rendered almost impervious to wet by the oily fluid which most birds secrete at the base of the tail. Feathers traditionally formed a considerable article of commerce, particularly those of the ostrich, heron, swan, peacock, goose, etc, for plumes, ornaments, filling of beds, pens, etc.
Research Feather
Feather-grass is the popular name of Stipa pennnta, a native of dry places in the south of Europe. The leaves are rigid, setaceous, grooved; the awns exceedingly long, feathering to the point. It is an attractive garden plant in the summer, and is used for flower arranging in the winter when gathered before the seed is ripe, when the long feathering awns remain.
Research Feather-Grass
The feather-star, (Comatula rosacea) is a beautiful crinoid star-fish occurring on the British coasts, consisting of a central body or disc, from which proceed five radiating arms, each dividing into two secondary branches, so that ultimately there are ten slender rays. Each arm is furnished on both sides with lateral processes so as to assume a feather-like appearance. It is fixed when young by a short stalk, but exists in a free condition in its adult state.
Research Feather-Star
The Feathered Ear (Pachetra sagittigera) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 35 and 45 mm found in the warmer parts of Europe and east through Asia to southern Siberia where it can be found in steppes and forest-steppes producing usually a single generation that flies from May to June, and rarely a second generation in August.
Research Feathered Ear
The Feathered Gothic (Tholera decimalis) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 32 and 45 mm found in temperate Europe and Asia flying from August to September.
Research Feathered Gothic
The Feathered Horn (Colotois pennaria) is a moth of the family Geometridae with a wing span of between 35 and 45 mm found in Europe and western and central Asia in deciduous forests and forest-steppes flying from September to November.
Research Feathered Horn
Felidae is the cat family of mammals of the order Carnivora (the carnivores) in which the predaceous instincts reach their highest development. They are among the quadrupeds what the Falconidae are among the birds. The teeth and claws are the principal instruments of the destructive energy in these animals. The incisor teeth are equal; the third tooth behind the large canine in either jaw is narrow and sharp, and these, the carnassial or sectorial teeth, work against each other like scissors in cutting flesh; the claws are sheathed and retractile. They all approach their prey stealthily, seize it with a spring, and devour it fresh. The species are numerous in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, but none are found native in Australia.
Research Felidae
The Fell Pony is a native English pony found around the Pennines and in Cumbria. The Fell Pony stands 14 hands high, is black, dark brown, bay or grey in colour and has a placid and good natured temperament. They are a versatile, surefooted and sensible pony making them ideal as riding horses for children and the nervous.
Research Fell Pony
The fennec (Fennecus verda) is a small nocturnal desert fox found in north Africa and Arabia. The fennec is whitish or buff-coloured, with a short, black-tipped tail and large ears. It is nocturnal, and lives in burrows, and feeds on jerboas, lizards, small birds and the like.
Research Fennec
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a perennial plant of the family Umbelliferae. It has an erect stem 80 - 100 cm high, numerous leaves deeply divided into soft hair-like segments and large terminal umbels of yellow flowers. The plant is aromatic, and the leaves are used in cooking.
Research Fennel
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is an annual herb of the family Leguminosae native to the Mediterranean region, with an erect or prostrate, smooth, little-branched stem and trifoliate leaves, the leaflets oblanceolate to rectangular and slightly toothed. The unstalked flowers are yellowish-white with a violet tinge and are solitary or arranged in pairs in the upper leaf axils. The fruit is a hairless, slender, slightly curved pod with an extended tip. Fenugreek has been cultivated since ancient times as fodder, for medicinal and for culinary purposes. In medicine the seeds are used as a tonic, to ease coughing and to stimulate milk flow.
Research Fenugreek
The Fer de Lance or Rat-tailed Snake (Bothrops atrox) is one of the species of pit vipers found in the West Indies and tropical America. It grows to about two metres in length, has a deadly bite, and is variously coloured but usually reddish-yellow with irregular dark bands and spots. The tail ends in a horny spine which scrapes harshly against rough objects but does not rattle.
Research Fer de Lance
The Ferns (Filices) are a natural order of cryptogamous or flowerless plants, forming the highest group of the acrogena or summit-growers. They are leafy plants, the leaves, or more properly fronds, arising from a rhizome or root-stock, or from a hollow arborescent trunk, and being circinate in vernation, a term descriptive of the manner in which the fronds are rolled up before they are developed in spring, having then the appearance of a bishop's crosier. On the veins of their lower surface, or their margins, the fronds bear small vessels named sporangia, containing spores. These spore-cases are arrangod in clusters, named sori, which are either naked or covered with a layer of the epidermis, which forms an involucre or indusium. When the spores germinate they produce a cellular structure of a leafy description, called the pro-embryo, or prothallus, upon which are developed organs which have received the names of antheridia and archegonia. When produced upon the prothallus these organs do not immediately give origin to a germinating spore, but from their mutual action proceeds a distinct cellular body, destined at a later period to develop into a fruit-bearing frond.
Ferns have a wide geographical range, but are most abundant in humid, temperate, and tropical regions. In the tropical forests the tree-ferns rival the palms, rising sometimes to a height of 15 or 18 metres. Ferns are very abundant as fossil plants. The earliest-known forms occur in Devonian rocks. Various systems of classification for ferns have been proposed over time. The order is usually divided into six or eight suborders or tribes distinguished by differences in the structure of the sporangium. The generic characters are founded on the position and direction of the sori and on the venation. The largest division is that of the Polypodiaceae, to which nearly all British ferns belong, such as the polypody, the lady-fern, the bracken, the hard-fern, the spleenwort, the maiden-hair, the hart's-tongue fern, etc. The royal fern, however, belongs to the Osmundaceae. A few of the ferns are used medicinally, mostly as demulcents and astringents. Some yield food. Pteris esculenta is the edible bracken of New Zealand.
Research Ferns
Ferraria is a genus of dwarf bulbous Cape plants belonging to the family Iridaceae. The leaves are glaucous, and more or less encircle the stems, surmounting which are many-flowered spathes, the stigmas of which are petaloid and fringed.
Research Ferraria
The Ferret (Mustela furo) is the albino variety of domesticated polecat used for driving rabbits from their burrows. The ferret, being albino, is generally white in colour with pink eyes, but they often cross-breed with polecats to produce other coloured variations.
Research Ferret
Ferula is a genus of umbelliferous plants, whose species often yield a powerful stimulating gum resin, employed in medicine. The species are natives of the shores of the Mediterranean and Iran, and are characterized by tall-growing pithy stems, and deeply-divided leaves, the segments of which are frequently linear. Ferula communis of English gardens is called giant fennel. Ferula orientalis and Ferula tingitana are said to yield African ammoniacum, a gum resin like asafetida, but less powerful.
Research Ferula
Fescue is the popular name of a genus of grasses (Festuca) belonging to the division with many-flowered spikelets on long stalks. Amongst the numerous species are some of the most valuable meadow and pasture grasses of Britain. Festuca pratensis, or meadow fescue, and Festuca duriuscula, or hard fescue, are both highly prized for agricultural purposes. Festuca ovina, or sheep's fescue, is much smaller than either of these, and is useful for lawns. It is abundant in mountain pastures. Festuca elatior, the tall fescue, is a coarse reedy grass with stems usually about 140 cm high. All these species are perennial.
Research Fescue
Fesnyng is the collective noun for a group of ferrets.
Research Fesnyng
The Festoon Moth (Apoda limacodes) is a moth of the family Limacodidae with a wing span of between 20 and 30 mm found in the deciduous forests of Europe and the Middle East and south Asia. A single generation is produced flying from May to August, usually in oak forests.
Research Festoon Moth
Feverfew (Pyrethrum Parthenium) is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Compositae common on waste land and near hedges. It bears numerous small heads of flowers on an erect stem, with the lower flowers borne on longer stalks so that the whole inflorescence reaches the same level. The flowers have white ray florets. The leaves are stalked, repeatedly cut, curled and delicate green. The plant possesses tonic and bitter qualities, and was supposed to be a valuable febrifuge, whence its name.
Research Feverfew
Fevillea is a genus of tropical climbing shrub belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae.
Research Fevillea
Fiddle-wood is the common name of Citharoxylon, a genus of trees or shrubs with some twenty species, natives of tropical America, of the natural order Verbenaceae. Some of the species are ornamental timber trees; several yield a hard wood valuable for cabinet making.
Research Fiddle-wood
The Fiddler Crab of Calling Crab (Gelasimus arcuatus) is a genus of crustacean of the order Decapoda, family Ocypodidae. It gets its name from the male's distinctive larger claw which it has the habit of holding up as though beckoning or calling and makes him look as though he is carrying a fiddle and bow. Fiddler Crabs are solitary, shore-living animals which inhabit burrows around the coast of Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East and Australasia. In Africa and Japan they are called the Calling Crab.
Research Fiddler Crab
The Field Tiger Beetle (Cicindela campestris) or Green Tiger Beetle, is a beetle of the ground beetle family, Carabidae, found in Britain and Europe, and ranging from about ten to fifteen millimetres in length with a bright, emerald-green body.
Research Field Tiger Beetle
The field-cricket (Acheta campestris) is one of the most noisy of all the crickets. It is larger, but rarer than the house-cricket. It frequents hot, sandy districts, in which it burrows to the depth of between 15 and 30 cm, and sits at the mouth of the hole watching for prey, which consists of insects.
Research Field-Cricket
Field-madder (Sherardia arvensis) is a common little branching weed of the family Rubiaceae, with pointed leaves arranged in whorls, and bearing in late summer little umbels of tiny pinkish flowers with funnel shaped corollas.
Research Field-madder
The Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is a native European and Asian thrush. It has a brown back, mottled breast and a grey head. It lives in woodland and farmland where it eats fruit, insects, worms and slugs.
Research Fieldfare
Figs are plants of the genus Ficus, woody trees and shrubs of the order Moraceae from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. The common edible fig is the fruit of Ficus carica, a small tree with large, rough, leathery leaves lobed like a hand, rough green branches and almost sessile fruits of peculiar internal structure, consisting of a large, much curved receptacle on which are borne numerous unisexual flowers interspersed with hairs.
The common fig bears two crops in a season, one in the early summer from the buds of the last year; the other (which is the chief harvest) in the autumn, from those on the spring growth.
Research Fig
The fig-shells (Pyrula) are gastropods mostly living in tropical seas. They have elongated pear-shaped shells with a short spire and a long canal. The foot is broad and truncated in front, the mantle lobed, the lobes being reflected over the shell, and nearly meeting above.
Research Fig-shells
The fighting-fish is a name given to Betta pugnax, a small bony fish of the Anabasidae family (climbing perch) found in the streams of Thailand, on account of its pugnacious habits. In Thailand these fishes are traditionally kept in glass globes for the purpose of fighting, and an extravagant amount of gambling takes place about the result of the fights. When the fish is quiet its colours are dull, but when it is irritated it glows with metallic splendour.
Research Fighting-fish
The Figure of Eighty is a moth of the family Thyatiridae with a wing pan of between 32 and 38 mm found in Europe and Asia in damp localities. Two generations are produced flying from May to August.
Research Figure Of Eighty
The Figure-Of-Eight (Diloba caeruleocephala) is the only species of moth of the family Dilobidae. It is found in the warmer parts of Europe, particularly around the Mediterranean. It flies during October.
Research Figure-Of-Eight
Figwort (Scrophularia) is a genus of flowering plants of the family Scrophulariaceae.
Research Figwort
Filaria is a Phylum nematoda.
Research Filaria
The File-fish (Trigger-fish) are bony fishes found mostly in tropical and warm seas, distinguished by their hard mail-like scales, powerful jaws, and teeth adapted for biting through the shells of molluscs and stripping off pieces of coral to get at the soft parts for food. They are also called trigger-fish from the way the first spine of the dorsal fin snaps back when elevated.
Research File-fish
The Filibranchiata are an order of the Lamellibranchs in which the gills consist of filaments only loosely connected, instead of forming the plate- like structures characteristic of the higher Lamellibranchs.
Research Filibranchiata
A filly is a female, young horse (foal).
Research Filly
Fins are the projecting- wing-like organs which enable fishes to balance themselves and assist in regulating their movements in the water. The fin consists of a thin elastic membrane supported by rays or little bony or cartilaginous ossicles. The pectoral or breast fins are never more than two; they are placed immediately in the rear of the gill-opening on the shoulder. In a state of rest these fins are parallel with the body, and have the apex towards the tail. The ventrals, or abdominal fins, are placed under the throat or belly, and point downwards and backwards. They are smaller, in general, than the pectorals, and have sometimes long appendages. Those of the back, or the dorsal fins, point upwards and backwards, and vary in number from one to four, to which sometimes are added several finlets or pinnuioe - small appendages which are seen in the mackerel. The anal fins are situated behind the vent, varying in number from one to three, placed vertically, and, like the dorsal, generally deeper on the anterior margin. The caudal, or tail fin, terminates the body, and both propels the fish and serves as the rudder by which it steers itself. The pectoral and ventral are known as paired fins, and represent the fore and hind limbs of other vertebrates; the dorsal, anal, and caudal are median, vertical, or unpaired fins, and are organs peculiar to fishes.
Research Fin
The finch is a popular name for birds of the family Fringillidae.
Research Finch
The finfoot is a water-bird native to Central America, South Africa and southern Asia. It is slender with a long pointed bill and toes with side lobes. It lives fresh or brackish water margins where it eats small animals and some plant material.
Research Finfoot
The Finnish Draft is a Finnish breed of heavy horse standing 15 hands high used for hard agricultural work. They are chestnut in colour and have a fast-stepping stride.
Research Finnish Draft
The Finnish Spitz is a Finnish breed of hound, standing about 45 cm tall, with a shaggy reddish coat. The Finnish Spitz is the national dog of Finland and has an alert demeanour, pricked ears and a tail that extends forward over the back. The breed was developed for flushing game birds and tracking bears and elks. As a pet the Finnish Spitz is an excellent family dog or guard dog though it has a tendency to bark a lot.
Research Finnish Spitz
The Finnish Universal is a Finnish breed of versatile horse endowered with pulling power, speed, endurance and agility. The Finnish Universal stands 15.2 hands high and is mostly chestnut in colour, though they can also be bay, grey, black or brown in colour. Many Finnish Universal horses have a white blaze on their face and long, coarse forelocks and mane.
Research Finnish Universal
The firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus) is a small bird native to Europe, north Africa and Madeira. The head has an orange stripe and white markings above the eyes resembling eyebrows. It lives in woodland or scrubland where it eats insects. It is Europe's smallest breeding bird.
Research Firecrest
Firefly is a popular name for winged insects possessing much luminosity. Except the lantern-fly, the fireflies are all coleopterous, and are members of two nearly allied families, the Elateridae or skipjacks, and Lampyridae, to which the glowworm belongs. The British glow-worm haa too little luminosity to entitle it to the name of firefly, but the Lampyris italica, and Lampyris corusca of Canada are allied to it. True fireflies are found only in the warmer regions of the earth. The Slater or Pyrophorus noctilucus of South America and the West Indies is one of the most brilliant, giving out its light from two eye-like tubercles on the thorax. Their light is so powerful that small print may be read by it, and in Haiti, Jamaica and elsewhere they are sometimes used to give light for domestic purposes, eight or ten confined in a phial emitting sufficient light to enable a person to write.
Research Firefly
The Firolidae are a family of gasteropodous molluscs, belonging to the order Nucleobranchiata or Heteropoda. The members of the typical genus Firola are very common in tropical seas and in the Mediterranean, but are so transparent that sometimes they can scarcely be seen. They swim with their foot upwards. They have no shell. The individuals of Carinaria, another genus, have a small delicate shell inclosing the gills.
Research Firolidae
Fish (Pisces) are an aquatic class of vertebrates, the lowest class of vertebrates. Fish may be briefly described as vertebrate animals living in water and respiring the air therein contained by means of gills or branchiae, having cold red blood, and a heart consisting of one auricle and one ventricle; and having those organs which take the form of limbs in the higher vertebrata represented by fins.
There are more kinds of fish than all other kinds of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates put together. The smallest fish is the Trimmaton nanus, a goby of the Indian Ocean, which grows to about one centimetre long. The largest fish is the whale shark, which may grow more than 12 metres long and weigh over 14 metric tons. It feeds on plankton and is completely harmless to most other fish and to human beings. The most dangerous fish weigh only a few kilograms. They include the deadly stonefish, whose poisonous spines can kill a human being in minutes.
Fish live almost anywhere there is water. They are found in the near- freezing waters of the Arctic and in the steaming waters of tropical jungles. They live in roaring mountain streams and in quiet underground rivers. Some fish make long journeys across the ocean. Others spend most of their life buried in sand on the bottom of the ocean. Most fish never leave water. Yet some fish are able to survive for months in dried-up riverbeds.
Fish have enormous importance to human beings. They provide food for millions of people. Fishing enthusiasts catch them for sport, and people keep them as pets. In addition, fish are important in the balance of nature. They eat plants and animals and, in turn, become food for plants and animals.
Fish thus help keep in balance the total number of plants and animals on the earth. All fish have two main features in common. (1) They have a backbone, and so they are vertebrates. (2) They breathe mainly by means of gills. Nearly all fish are also cold-blooded animals - that is, they cannot regulate their body temperature, which changes with the temperature of their surroundings. In addition, almost all fish have fins, which they use for swimming. All other water animals differ from fish in at least one of these ways. Dolphins, porpoises, and whales look like fish and have a backbone and fins, but they are mammals. Mammals breathe with lungs rather than gills. They are also warm-blooded - their body temperature remains about the same when the air or water temperature changes. Some water animals are called fish, but they do not have a backbone and so are not fish. These animals include jellyfish and starfish. Clams, crabs, lobsters, oysters, scallops, and shrimps are called shellfish. But they also lack a backbone.
The first fish appeared on the earth about 500 million years ago. They were the first animals to have a backbone. Most scientists believe that these early fish became the ancestors of all other vertebrates.
Research Fish
Fish hawk is an American name for the Osprey.
Research Fish hawk
The fish-crow (Corvus. Ossifragus) is an American crow, resembling the American Crow but smaller, and is abundant in the coast districts of the Southern States. Its favourite food is fish, but it also eats all kinds of garbage, mollusca, etc. In winter its food is chiefly fruit, and it is then fat and considered good eating.
Research Fish-Crow
The fish-louse are several crustaceans of the order Ichthyophthira which are parasitic on fish.
Research Fish-louse
The fisher or pekan (Martes pennanti) is a mammal related to the marten and native to North America. It is about one metre long with a thick brown-black coat and lives in dense forest where it eats small animals, birds and carrion.
Research Fisher
In the classification of birds, Fissirostal refers to members of the Fissirostres tribe of Passerine birds.
Research Fissirostal
The Fissirostres are the wide-gaped tribe of passerine birds. They are characterized by a broad bill, more or less flattened horizontally, and often hooked at the tip, with the mouth very deeply cleft. The upper mandible is not notched. The feet are small and feeble. Most of the species feed on insects, which they catch on the wing, but at least one genus eats fish. The species are mostly natives of tropical regions, visiting temperate regions as migratory visitors.
Research Fissirostres
Fissurellidae (keyhole limpets) is a family of gastropod molluscs resembling the limpets in appearance and habits, but differing in structure. They are generally too large for their shell, and so it appears that the shell is rudimentary.
Research Fissurellidae
Fistularia is a genus of acanthopterygious fish characterized by the elongation of the facial bones into a long fistula or tube at the extremity of which the mouth opens.
Research Fistularia
Fistulina is a genus of Fungi, allied to Boletus, found on old oak, walnut, ash, beech and horse chestnut trees. It is eaten in Europe grilled and is said to taste like broiled meat.
Research Fistulina
Fitzroya is a genus of small, evergreen, hardy and half-hardy coniferous trees.
Research Fitzroya
The Five Spot Ladybird (Coccinella quinquepunctata) is a species of ladybird similar to the Seven Spot Ladybird, but smaller at between three and five millimetres in length, and with a more variable pattern of spots on the elytra.
Research Five Spot Ladybird
The Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena trifolii) is a moth of the family Zygaenidae with a wing span of between 28 and 33 mm found in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia flying from May to August.
Research Five-Spot Burnet
Flabellum is a genus of solitary corals related to fungi, some of whose species show well-marked alternation of generations.
Research Flabellum
Flag is a popular name for many endogenous plants with sword-shaped leaves, mostly growing in moist situations; but sometimes particularly appropriated to Iris Pseudacorus, of the natural order Iridaceae; also termed Flower de lis or Flower de luce. It has sword-shaped leaves and yellow flowers, grows in marshy places and by the sides of streams and lakes. The stout creeping root-stock has been recommended for alleviating the toothache, and was used for dyeing black in the Hebrides. The leaves make excellent thatch, and were also employed for making bottoms to chairs.
Research Flag
The Flame Moth (Axylia putris) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 27 and 32 mm distributed throughout the temperate Palaearctic, producing a single generation that flies from May to August.
Research Flame Moth
The Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) is a European moth of the family Noctuidae, now found all other world. The moth, with a wing span measuring 25 to 30 mm, produces two generations flying from May to July and July to September.
Research Flame Shoulder
The flamingo is a bird of the genus Phoenicopterus formerly placed in the order of wading birds, but now generally ranked among the Natatores or swimmers, and constituting a family Phoenicopteridae, allied to the Anatidae or ducks. Its body is rather smaller than that of the stork, but owing to the great length of the neck and legs it stands from 5 to 6 feet high. The beak is naked, lamellate at the edges, and bent as if broken; the feet are palmated and four-toed.
The common flamingo (Phoenicopterus antiquorum) occurs abundantly in various parts of Southern Europe, Northern Africa, etc. It is entirely pink, except the quill-feathers, which are jet-black. The tongue is fleshy, and one of the extravagances of the Romans during the later period of the empire was to have dishes composed solely of flamingoes' tongues. The flamingoes live and migrate in large flocks, frequenting desert sea-coasts and salt-marshes. They are extremely shy and watchful. While feeding they keep together, drawn up artificially in lines, which at a distance resemble those of an army; and, like many other gregarious birds, they employ some to act as sentinels, for the security of the rest.
Their food comprises molluscs, spawn, crustaceans, etc, which they fish up by means of their long neck, turning their head in such a manner as to take advantage of the crook in their beak. They breed in companies in inundated marshes, raising the nest to a certain height by heaping up the mud with their feet into a small hillock, which is concave at the top. In this the female lays her eggs, and it was formerly believed that she sat on them with her legs hanging down, like those of a man on horseback. But the nests are not so high as to allow of this, and the birds really sit with their legs doubled up under them. An American species of flamingo is Phoenicopterus ruber.
Research Flamingo
The Flat-Coated Retriever is a breed of dog originating in Newfoundland and introduced to Britain in 1860. Until the Great War the Flat- Coated Retriever was the most popular retriever breed in Britain, but then the Golden Retriever and Labrador Retriever took over the popularity. They are a hardy breed, responsive to training and make good house pets.
Research Flat-Coated Retriever
A flat-fish is a fish which has its body of a flattened form, swims on the side, and has both eyes on one side, for example as the flounder, turbot, halibut, and sole. The sense is sometimes extended to other fishes which have the body much compressed, such as the skate and other members of the ray family.
Research Flat-Fish
Flatworm is a common name for the Phylum platyhelminthes division of animals.
Research Flatworm
Flax or linseed is a popular name of plants of the genus Linum, family Linaceae of which there are roughly 100 species. They are herbs or small shrubs with narrow leaves and yellow, blue or white flowers arranged in variously formed cymes. They occur in warm and temperate regions over the world. The cultivated species is Linum usitatissimum. The fibre which is used for making thread, and cloth called linen, cambric, lawn, lace, etc, consists of the woody bundles of the slender stalks. The fine fibres may be so separated as to be spun-into threads as fine as silk. A most useful oil is expressed from the seeds, and the residue, called linseed-cake, is one of the most fattening kinds of food for cattle. When the plant is ripe it is pulled up by the roots, tied together in little bundles, and usually left upright on the field until it becomes dry, when the seeds are separated, either by beating on a cloth or by passing the stems through an iron comb. The process of removing the seeds is called rippling. The stalks are then retted or rotted in water to free the flaxen fibre from the woody core or boon of the stem. Two operations are necessary to separate the fibres from the woody part of the stem. Traditionally the flax was first broken by means of a wooden handle and grooved board, or by revolving grooved rollers, and then the boon or woody part was entirely separated from the fibre by a broad flat wooden blade called a scutching blade, or later by a machine in which a number of knives' attached to the arms of a vertical wheel hit the flax in the direction of its length. The flax was next heckled, or combed with a sort of iron comb, and was then ready for spinning.
Research Flax
The Flax Tortrix (Cnephasia interjectana) is a moth of the family Tortricidae with a wing span of between 10 and 15 mm found in forest steppes in Europe and Asia and also on agricultural land flying from June to July.
Research Flax Tortrix
The flea is several insects constituting the order Aphaniptera. They are small with two eyes, six feet and piercing stilets and a suctorial proboscis which is used to feed on the blood of animals. They can leap amazing distances.
Research Flea
Flea-beetles are a group of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) with stout hind femora that enable them to jump long distances. They are a significant pest as hibernating beetles often emerge in the spring and may destroy an entire crop.
Research Flea-Beetle
Fleutiauxellus is a genus of small click beetle (Elateridae), about three millimetres in length.
Research Fleutiauxellus
Flight is the collective noun for a group of dunlins.
Research Flight
Flindersia is a genus of tropical and sub-tropical evergreen trees. They are mostly Australian trees.
Research Flindersia
Fling is the collective noun for a group of oxbirds.
Fling is the collective noun for a group of sandpipers.
Research Fling
Float is the collective noun for a group of crocodiles.
Research Float
Flock is the collective noun for a group of sheep.
Flock is the collective noun for a group of birds.
Flock is the collective noun for a group of swifts.
Research Flock
A floret is a single small flower in a compact inflorescence, as in the compound flower of the Compositae, or in the spikelet of grasses.
Research Floret
The Florida Cracker Horse is an American breed of horse registered since 1989, but tracing its ancestry back to the original Spanish horses introduced to the Florida are in the 16th century. The Florida Cracker Horse stands between 14 and 15 hands high and is renowned for its endurance, being able to carry a man all day, which led to their adoption by early cowboys. They occur in many colours.
Research Florida Cracker Horse
The Flounced Chestnut (Agrochola helvola) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 30 and 35 mm found in Europe and Western and Central Asia flying from August until October.
Research Flounced Chestnut
The Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 30 and 35 mm found in mild parts of Europe and western Asia flying from July to September.
Research Flounced Rustic
The flounder (Pleuronectes) is one of the flat-fishes of the family Pleuronectidae. The common flounder (Pleuronectes flesus) is found in the sea and near the mouths of large rivers around the British coast. Flounders have been successfully transferred to fresh-water ponds. They feed upon Crustacea, worms, and small fishes, and are much used as food. The Argus-flounder is the Pleuroncetes argus, a native of the American seas.
Research Flounder
In popular language, a flower is the blossom of a plant, consisting chiefly of delicate and gaily-coloured leaves or petals; in botany, the term is restricted to the organs of reproduction in a phenogamous plant,.
A complete flower consists of stamens and pistils together with two sets of leaves which surround and protect them, the calyx and corolla. The stamens and pistils are the essential organs of the flower. They occupy two circles or rows, the one within the other, the stamens being in the outer row.
The stamens consist of a stalk or filament supporting a roundish body, the anther, which is filled with a powdery substance called the pollen.
The pistil consists of a closed cell or ovary at the base, containing ovules, and covered by a style which terminates in the stigma.
These organs are surrounded by the corolla and calyx, which together are called the floral envelope, or when they both display rich colouring the perianth. The leaves of the corolla are called petals, and those of the calyx sepals.
Some flowers lack the floral envelope, and are called achlamydeous; others have the calyx but are without the corolla, and are called monochlamydeous.
Flowers are generally bisexual, but some plants have unisexual flowers; that is, the pistils are in one flower and the stamens in another.
Research Flower
 More pictures of Flower
Flowering-fern is the popular name of Osmunda regalis, a plant of the natural order Osmundaceae. It is the noblest and most striking of the British ferns, and grows in boggy places and wet margins of woods. It derives its name from the upper pinnae of the fronds being transformed into a handsome panicle covered with sporangia.
Research Flowering-Fern
Flowering-rush (Butoinus umbellatus), us a plant of the natural order Butomaceae. It is a beautiful plant found in pools and wet ditches of England and Ireland, but rare in Scotland. The leaves are about 85 cm long, linear, triangular, their sharp edges sometimes cutting the mouths of cattle, whence their generic name Butomus (ox-cutting). The scape or flowering stem terminates in a large umbel of rose-coloured flowers.
Research Flowering-Rush
Flukes, or fluke-worms is a name given to certain parasitic Scolecida (tape-worms, etc), belonging to the division of Platyelmia or Flat-worms, and included in the order Trematoda. They inhabit various situations in different animals - mostly in birds and fishes. The Distoma hepaticum exists in large numbers in the livers of sheep, and causes the disease known as 'rot' . Like the tape-worms the flukes pass through an elaborate development.
Research Fluke
Flustra is a genus of Ployzoa, often called the sea-mats.
Research Flustra
Fly is the term for a winged insect of various genera and species, whose distinguishing characteristics are that the wings are transparent and have no cases or covers. By these marks flies are distinguished from beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers, etc
.
The true flies or Diptera have only two wings, the anterior pair. In common language, fly is the house-fly, of the genus Musca. The house-fly is found wherever man is, and in hot weather causes a good deal of annoyance. It is furnished with a suctorial proboscis, from which, when feeding on dry substances, it exudes a liquid, which, by moistening them, fits them to be sucked. From its feet being beset with hairs, each terminating in a disc which is supposed to act as a sucker, it can walk on smooth surfaces, as a ceiling, even with its back down. The female lays her eggs in dung or refuse; the larvas are small white worms (mahhots). They change into pupae without casting their skins, and in from eight to fourteen days the perfect fly emerges. The very small flies and the very large ones often seen about houses belong to other species.
Research Fly
The fly-catcher is several species of insectivorous birds of the genus Muscicapa, tribe of Dentirostres, with a bill flattened at the base, almost triangular, notched at the upper mandible and beset with bristles. Two species are British - the spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa grisula) and the pied fly-catcher (Muscicapa (or ficedula) atricapilla), both about the size of a sparrow. They perch on branches and wait motionless for passing insects which they dart at and catch with a snap of the bill. The white-collared fly-catcher (Muscicapa albicollis) is a native of southern Europe. Numerous other birds receive the name of fly-catchers, and some, as the paradise flycatchers of the Old World, are brilliantly coloured. In America some of the tyrant birds (Tyrannidae) are named fly-catchers.
Research Fly-Catcher
Flying fish is a name for several species of bony fishes in which the pectoral fins are lengthened and wing-like and serve to sustain the fish in its short flights through the air. Generally, however, the name is limited to the species of the genus Exocoetus, which belongs to the family Scomberesocidae (mackerel-pikes). The pectoral tins, which are very large, are the principal instruments in their flight, serving to sustain the fish temporarily in the air after it has acquired an initial velocity in its rush through the water. After taking off the flying fish flex their tail from side to side to provide extra propulsion. Flying fish can pass through the air to a considerable distance, sometimes as much as 180 metres, which it does to escape from the attacks of other fishes, especially the dolphin. It is most common between the tropics. The best-known species are Exocoetus volitans, abundant in the warmer parts of the Atlantic, and Exocoetus exiliens of the Mediterranean. Some naturalists subdivide the genus into several, characterized by the presence or absence of barbels. Flying fish lay their eggs on floating debris, spawning in large groups and producing masses of eggs which can sink small boats if they remain stationary for several hours.
Research Flying Fish
The Flying Gurnard (Trigla volitans) is a Mediterranean fish of the Gurnard genus.
Research Flying Gurnard
The flying lemur (Cologus) is an insectivorous mammal not related to the lemurs, but more nearly akin to the Insectivores, differing however, sufficiently to be placed in a distinct order, the Dermoptera. Flying lemurs are found from the Malay Peninsular to the Philippine Islands, are represented by several species, all arboreal in habit and feeding on leaves and fruit.
Research Flying Lemur
The flying-fox or fox-bat is a fruit-eating bat of the family Pteropidae including some of the largest of the bats, one species reaching 140 centimetres in length across the wings! Flying-foxes are found in Australia, Asia and Africa.
Research Flying-fox
Flying-squid is a popular name of a genus of cephalopodous molluscs (Ommastrephes), allied to the squids, having-two large lateral fins, which enable them to leap so high out of the water that they sometimes fall on ships' decks.
Research Flying-Squid
The flying-squirrel is approximately 35 species, mainly Asian, of rodent animals that make up the subfamily Petauristinae of the squirrel family, Sciuridae. The skin of the flank, extending between the fore and hind legs allows them to glide and make great leaps. Flying-squirrels are found in Europe, Asia and North America.
Research Flying-squirrel
A foal is a young horse.
Research Foal
Foetidia is a genus of trees belonging to the family Myrtaceae.
Research Foetidia
Fomes are a genus of bracket fungi forming corky or woody perennial shelf- like sporophores often of large size. The genus includes some species that cause destructive heartrot in trees.
Research Fomes
Fool's Parsley is a slender plant of the family Umbelliferae. It grows to 30 centimetres tall with dark green, doubly pinnate leaves, and terminal compound umbels of white flowers.
Research Fool's Parsley
In botany, a footstalk is a petiole; the stalk supporting the leaf, or connecting it with the stem or branch.
In zoology, a footstalk is a process resembling the footstalk in botany, as the muscular process by which certain of the Brachiopoda are attached, the stem which bears the body in barnacles, the stalk which supports the eyes in certain crustaceans.
Research Footstalk
Foraminifera is an order of animals of low type belonging to the class Rhizopoda, of the Phylum Protozoa, furnished with a shell or test, simple or complex, usually perforated by pores called foramina from which the animals get their name.
The shell may be composed of horny matter, or of carbonate of lime, secreted from the water in which they live. Owing to the resemblance of their convoluted chambered shells to those of the nautilus, they were at first reckoned among the most highly organized molluscs. In reality they are among the simplest of the protozoa. The body of the animal is composed of granular, gelatinous, highly elastic sarcode, which not only fills the shell, but passes through the perforations to the exterior, there giving off long thread - like processes called pseudopodia interlacing each other so as to form a net like a spider's web. Internally the sarcode-body exhibits no structure or definite organs of any kind.
Foraminifera appear very early in the geological formations. The great formation known as white chalk is largely composed of foraminiferous shells, while another remarkable formation known as Nummulitic Limestone receives its name from the presence of coin-shaped foraminifera, generally about 25 mm diameter.
Research Foraminifera
The forest fly is a fly so called from its abundance in the New Forest. It is an external parasite on horses and cattle, is flat in form, leathery in consistency, and has legs specially adapted for clinging to the hair of its host. Although possessing wings, it rarely uses them. It is a pupiparous fly, giving birth to a single larva which quickly turns into a pupa.
Research Forest Fly
The Foresetr (Adscita statices) is a moth of the family Zygaenidae with a wing span of between 22 and 28 mm found in Europe and western Asia in damp meadows, forest clearings and flowery meadows, flying from May to August.
Research Forester
Forget-me-not (Myosotis palustrits) also known as Scorpion-grass, is a common British plant of the family Boraginaceae found growing in damp or wet places. It is a pretty flower considered as the emblem of friendship throughout Europe.
Research Forget-me-not
Forking larkspur (Delphinium consolida) or field larkspur as it is also known, is a highly poisonous annual or biennial herb of the family Ranunculaceae with a slender tap root and an erect, branched, leafy stem. The leaves are sessile, alternate and palmate with the segments finely divided. The flowers are blue and have a pronounced upward-curving spur which secrets nectar. The flowers are arranged in a terminal spike. The fruit is a follicle with flattened, black, pitted seeds.
Research Forking Larkspur
Formicivora is a genus of South American birds. They are related to the American fly-catchers and feed upon ants and other insects.
Research Formicivora
Formicoidea is the ant super-family of insects of the sub-order Apocrita, order Hymenoptera. Ants are small or medium sized, mostly yellow, brownish, brownish-black or black in colour and with angled antennae of up to fifteen segments. The petiole between the thorax and abdomen is either a knot-like single segment, or bearing a vertical scale, or two-segmented. Ants live communally, the nest being founded by the female who either finds her own site or penetrates a nest of some other ants - either of her own species or another. An ant nest contains three castes: one or more queens; workers; and at certain periods winged males. The queen ant is originally winged, but after the mating flight sheds her wings. The workers are either all identical, or occur in several forms - large headed worker ants are popularly known as 'soldier ants'. Ants are omnivorous and often cultivate aphids for their secretions.
Research Formicoidea
Formicomus is a genus of beetle of the family Anthicidae.
Research Formicomus
The fossa or Foussa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is a large carnivorous mammal found only in Madagascar. It is about the size of an otter, but is related to the civet and mongoose. It is brown in colour, has a long tail, short legs, teeth like a cat's and lives mainly in trees feeding on birds and small mammals.
Research Fossa
The Four-spotted Moth (Tyta luctuosa) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 22 and 25 mm found in the Palaearctic on grassy hillsides and in steppes flying at night when it is attracted by lights, and on sunny days. Two generations are produced flying from May to August.
Research Four-Spotted Moth
The term fowl was once used as a synonym for bird, but since around 1900 the term fowl has come to refer to woodland birds of the genus Gallus. They resemble the pheasants, but the crown of the head is generally naked and furnished with a fleshy comb, the base of the lower mandibles also bears fleshy lobes (wattles). In the wild fowl live in forests and woods, scratching around the forest floor by day and flying up into the branches to perch and to sleep at night.
Research Fowl
The fox (once popularly known as a Russel) is an animal of the genus Vulpes closely allied to the dog and found throughout the northern hemisphere. Foxes have a straight bushy tail, elongated pupils and erect ears. Foxes are intelligent (frequently described as sly), adaptable and omnivorous, consuming small animals, eggs, honey and refuse, feeding mainly at night.
The common fox (Vulpes canis) is a reddish-brown colour with white beneath.
Foxes often live in a burrow formerly occupied by a rabbit or badger, which they adapt for their own liking. Some varieties of fox, mainly the silver and black varieties, are prized for their fur.
Research Fox
The Fox Moth (Macrothylacia rubi) is a moth of the family Lasiocampidae with a wing span of between 40 and 65 mm found throughout Europe and Asia in grassy biotopes flying from May to July.
Research Fox Moth
The fox-terrier is two breeds of British dog; smooth and wire-haired, white, with black or tan markings (like a fox-hound), ears drooping, legs straight, originating from around the start of the 19th century. They were originally developed for bolting foxes which had taken to earth during a fox-hunt. However, with the increased speed of foxhounds the fox-terries unable to keep up became domestic pets, though they are still a lively and energetic animal.
Research Fox-Terrier
Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea also known as fairy's glove and fairy-bells) is a common British flower of the family Scrophulariaceae. It grows on banks and pastures. The flowers are campanulate and resemble the fingers of a glove, hence the name. Foxglove possesses diuretic, narcotic and sedative qualities which are used in medicine. It is also deadly in sufficient quantity.
Research Foxglove
The Foxhound is a breed of dog bred for chasing foxes. The foxhound is smaller than the staghound, its average height being about 53 cm. Foxhounds were bred by crossing the old English bloodhound with the greyhound to blend speed with stamina and scent, strength and spirit. *Foxtail-grass
Foxtail-grass is a grass of the genus Alopecurus so called because of the close cylindrical panicle in which the spikelets of flowers are arranged which look rather like a fox's tail. Foxtail-grass is similar in appearance to Timothy grass, but has a more tapered base and tip.
Research Foxhound
The francolin is a genus of birds belonging to the same family as the partridge which they resemble except for one or more strong and sharp horny spurs on the tarsi.
Research Francolin
Frangula or alder buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) is a native British deciduous shrub or small tree of the family Rhamnaceae about 1.5 metres tall with slender a stem, and entire, alternate obovate leaves very smooth and glossy. The flowers are small, greenish-white in colour, bisexual and grow in axillary clusters on young shoots, being followed by poisonous drupes that turn from green to red and finally violet-black in colour on ripening. The timber is sometimes known as black dogwood.
Research Frangula
Frasera is a genus of plants of the family Gentianaceae containing seven species of erect perennial herbs native to North America.
Research Frasera
Fratercula is a genus of web-footed birds which contains the puffin.
Research Fratercula
Fraxinella or burning bush (Dictamnus albus) is a species of dittany. It is an ornamental herbaceous annual plant with dark-green, odd-pinnate, lanceolate to ovate and finely serrated leaves cultivated for its fragrant leaves and rose-coloured flowers. It emits a vapour capable of being ignited.
Research Fraxinella
Fraxinus is a genus of deciduous trees of the family Oleaceae which includes the ash.
Research Fraxinus
The Frederiksborg is a Danish breed of riding horse first established in 1562 by King Frederick II of Denmark in order to produce a versatile horse for both royal and military purposes to be both ridden and driven. The Frederiksborg stands 16 hands high and is chestnut in colour, usually with a flaxen mane and tail.
Research Frederiksborg
Freesia is a genus of Cape bulbous plants belonging to the family Iridaceae.
Research Freesia
The Fregate Island Beetle (Polposipus herculeanus) is a beetle found only on Fregate Island in the Seychelles where it lives in cracks and crevices of trees and rotting logs. The larvae fed on decaying wood, the adult beetles feed on fruit, fungi and leaves. At the start of the 21st century the Fregate Island Beetle was almost extinct in the wild.
Research Fregate Island Beetle
The Freiberger or Franches-Montagnes is a Swiss breed of heavy horse developed at the end of the 19th century from the Bernese Jura horse, the English Thoroughbred, the English Anglo-Norman, the Ardennais and the Arab Horse. The
Freiberger is a calm and easy going horse, 14 to 15 hands high, bay or chestnut coloured, with a small but heavy head with a pronounced jaw line and a broad forehead. They are popularly used as dray horses.
Research Freiberger
The French Anglo-Arab is a French breed of competition horse established in the middle of the 19th century. The French Anglo-Arab stands between 15.2 and 16.3 hands high and is chestnut, bay or grey in colour.
Research French Anglo-Arab
French Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a twining annual herb of the family Leguminosae with alternate leaves on footstalks composed of three oval pubescent folioles. The seeds are shaped rather like a kidney, and from this the plant gets an alternative name, the Kidney Bean, it is also known as the Haricot Bean.
Research French Beans
French Berries, also known as Avignon Berries and Yellow Berries, are the fruit of the Rhamnus Clusii, or other species of buckthorn, rather less than a pea, they have a bitter and astringent taste and were formerly used by dyers and painters as a yellow colouring matter.
Research French Berries
The French Bulldog is a breed of dog originating from the British Bulldog developed in France with upright bat-like ears. A companion breed, the
French Bulldog is intelligent, quiet and requires little exercise.
Research French Bulldog
French Honeysuckle (Hedysarum coronarium) is the inappropriate name of a leguminous plant, a common perennial in gardens, where it is grown for the sake of its beautiful scarlet flowers. In Sicily and Spain it is largely cultivated as a green crop, yielding an enormous quantity of herbage.
Research French Honeysuckle
The French Oak is a tree of the genus Catalpa. It contains a lot of tannin in its bark.
Research French Oak
The French Saddle Pony is a relatively new French breed of pony of a good nature, standing 12 to 14 hands high and occurring in many colours. They are quiet enough to be ridden by children, but are lively enough to be versatile riding ponies.
Research French Saddle Pony
The French Trotter (or Norman Trotter) is a French breed of horse bred for trotting races. The French Trotter stands 16.2 hands high and occurs in different colours, commonly bay or chestnut.
Research French Trotter
The French-alpine is a large goat with medium sized erect ears kept for its milk. They originated in the Swiss Alps and are now found throughout Switzerland.
Research French-Alpine
The freshwater oyster is a popular name for any species of shellfish of the genus Etheria, and allied genera. They are found in the rivers of Africa and South America. They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to rocks like oysters, but they have a pearly interior, and are allied to the freshwater mussels.
Research Freshwater Oyster
Freycinetia is a genus of evergreen tropical climbing plants belonging to the family Pandanaceae.
Research Freycinetia
The Friesian, Holstein or Holstein-Friesian (Bos taurus) is a breed of black and white coloured dairy cattle that originated in North Holland and Freisland. They produce a high yield of milk of a low quality which has a low butterfat content. Friesian cattle are widely used in factory farmed milk production where large volumes of cheap milk are desired, and the relatively poor quality of the product is not a concern to the producer.
Research Friesian Cattle
The Friesian is a Dutch breed of black-coloured, feathered light horse. The Friesian stands 15 hands high, has a docile and kind temperament and was formerly used for trotting.
Research Friesian Horse
The frigate-bird is a tropical, web-footed bird of the family Pelecanidae. The male bird reaches one metre in length, including the tail, but the body is comparatively small. The bill is longer than the head, hooked at the end and sharp. The wings are very large, and the bird has a wing span of over two metres.
Research Frigate-Bird
The frilled lizard (Chlamydosaurus Kenti) is a reptile of the lizard family Agamidae found in Australia. It grows to about 90 centimetres in length and receives its name from the presence of a large expansion of the skin at either side of the neck, the two halves meeting at the throat. This frill is notched at the edge. has special supporting cartilages, and by means of muscles can be folded or expanded at will. The lizard walks on its hind limbs, having the fore limbs hanging down.
Research Frilled Lizard
The Frilled Shark or eel shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) is a harmless shark found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, western Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It grows to about two metres long and has a distinctive eel-like appearance and snout and frilled gill margins. The Frilled Shark is dark brown in colour and has an elongated tail fin and a single small dorsal fin located well back. Although occasionally seen at the surface, the Frilled Shark generally lives at a depth of between 100 and 1300 metres. Quite what the frilled shatk eats is unknown, but is thought to be small deep-water fish and squid.
Research Frilled Shark
Fringillidae is a large family of Conirostral birds comprising the finches. They are remarkable for the shortness thickness and powerful structure of their beak, the upper and lower mandibles being for the most part equal thickness. The mandibles are almost as high as they are wide, so that when the beak is closed is looks like a short cone divided in the middle by the gape. They feed principally on seeds, nuts and the kernels of stone-fruits. The young are fed on insects.
Research Fringillidae
The Frit-fly is a small fly of the genus Oscinis, that is destructive to wheat.
Research Frit-Fly
Fritillaria (fritillary) is a genus of liliaceous plants including Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) and the Snake's-Head or Common Fritillary (Fritillaria Meleagris) both of which are found in moist meadows in northern temperate regions, including the British Isles.
Research Fritillaria
Fritillary is the popular name for plants of the genus Fritillaria of the family Liliaceae, native to northern temperate regions.
Fritillary is the popular name for numerous butterflies, chiefly of the family Nymphalidae, which are usually characteristically brown with dark brown or black coloured spots.
Research Fritillary
The Frizzles is a breed of bantam.
Research Frizzles
Frog is the common English name of a number of animals belonging to the class Amphibia, having four legs with four toes on the fore feet and five on the hind, more or less webbed, a naked body, no ribs, and no tail. Owing to the last peculiarity frogs belong to the order of amphibians known as Anura or tailless Amphibia. The tongue is fleshy, and is attached in front to the jaw, but is free behind, so that the hinder extremity of the tongue can be protruded.
Frogs are remarkable for the transformations they undergo before arriving at maturity. In the spring the spawn is deposited in ponds and other stagnant waters in large masses of gelatinous matter. These masses, with black globules scattered through them, soon manifest change, and after a time the young escapes as a tadpole, as an animal with short body, circular suctorial mouth, and long tail, compressed from side to side. Gills project on either side of the head from a cleft which answers in position to the gill opening of fishes. The hind limbs first appear as buds, later the fore limbs project, the gills disappear, the lungs becoming more fully developed; the tail gradually shrinks and disappears, and the animal, which was at first fish-like, then closely resembled a newt (or tailed Amphibian), finally assumes the adult or tailless form.
The mature frog breathes by lungs, and cannot exist in water without coming to the surface for air. The only British species is the common frog (Rana temporaria), but the tribe is very numerous, other varieties being the edible frog (Rana esculenta) of the south of Europe, eaten in France and South Germany, the hind quarters being the part chiefly used; the bull-frog of America (Rana pipiens), 8 to 12 inches long, so named from its voice resembling the lowing of a bull; the blacksmith frog of Janeiro; the Argus frog of America, etc. Of the tree-frogs most belong to the genus Hyla. Frogs swim with rapidity, and move by long bounds, being able from the power of the muscles of their hind-legs to leap many times their own length.
Research Frog
Frog-bit (Hydrocharis morsusranoe) is an elegant little water-plant of England of the order Hydrocharidaceae, with floating kidney-shaped leaves, and, white flowers of three petals.
Research Frog-bit
A frond is the compound leaf of a fern. The term is also applied to the leaf of a palm or a cycad and to the thallus of a seaweed or a lichen.
Research Frond
The Frosted Green (Polyploca ridens) is a moth of the family Thyatiridae with a wing pan of between 30 and 35 mm found in warmer parts of central Europe and in southern Europe flying from March.
Research Frosted Green
The Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) is a moth of the family Noctuidae with a wing span of between 35 and 40 mm found in temperate Europe and Asia Minor flying from August to October.
Research Frosted Orange
The froth-fly is an insect of the family Cercopidae, the larvae of which is found in a frothy exudation on plants (Cuckoo-spit).
Research Froth-fly
In botany, the term frondous refers to a plant which bears both leaves and flowers on the same stem.
Research Froundous
Fruit is a botanical term for the mature ovary of a plant comprised of two parts, the pericarp and the seed. In simple terms, a fruit is the product of a plant comprising its seed or seeds and the envelope around the seed or seeds.
Research Fruit
Fruit-pigeons are pigeons of the genus Carpophagus. They have brilliant plumage and are found in India and Australia. They are so named because they eat nothing but fruit.
Research Fruit-pigeon
Fryberry was an old 16th century name for the Raspberry.
Research Fryberry
Fucaceae is a family of dark-coloured algae consisting of olive-coloured inarticulate seaweeds distinguished from other algae by their reproductive organs which consist of archegonia and antheridia, contained in common chambers, united in club-shaped receptacles at the ends of the fronds.
Research Fucaceae
The fuchsia (named after their discoverer Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist) is a genus of plants of the family Onagraceae native to South America, Mexico, and New Zealand. They have erect, much-branched stems, smooth, rather thick pointed leaves, and drooping heavy flowers borne singly in the axils of leaves towards the end of the branches. The flowers have coloured, fleshy calyx and tubular corolla, usually of different colours or shades of the same colour, and long deep-purple filaments bearing cross-set anthers.
Research Fuchsia
Fucus is a genus of seaweeds of the family Fucaceae comprising several common seaweeds with a flat or compressed forked frond, sometimes containing air vessels.
Research Fucus
Fuji is a variety of apple produced by Japanese breeders who crossed the American Midwestern variety Red Delicious with the antique Virginia apple Ralls Janet. It's been sweeping America as well in the 1990s as a salad and dessert apple and for eating fresh. Its appeal is its low-acid sweetness combined with juicy firm-fleshed crispiness and warm aroma. It keeps longer than most other varieties at room temperature. The characteristic colour includes a pink stripe, but high-colouring
Fuji strains are now available that are closer to red all over.
Research Fuji
Fulgulinoe is the Pochard sub-family of birds of the family Anatidae, order Natatores. They are distinguished from other members of the order by the presence of a lobated membrane on the hind toe and a compressed tarsi.
Research Fuligulinoe
The Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is a sea bird which lives on the sub-arctic shores of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans being found in Iceland, Great Britain, Brittany, the western coast of Norway, Greenland during the breeding season, the rest of its time being spent at sea. The Fulmar is predominantly whitish in colour with pale brown wings and tail above and is about 47 cm in length. The nest is built on rocky sea islands or coastal cliffs and one or sometimes two eggs are laid which are incubated by both parents taking turns for the fifty-two day incubation cycle The young leave the nest able to fly after about fifty days and reach maturity at seven years.
Research Fulmar
Fumariaceae is a small family of exogenous plants closely allied to Papaveraceae. The species are slender-stemmed, herbaceous plants, generally erect, though some climb by means of their twisting leaf-stalks. Many species are objects of cultivation by the gardener for the sake of their showy flowers. All are astringent and acrid plants, and are reputed diaphoretics and aperients. They inhabit the temperate and warm regions of the northern hemisphere and South Africa.
Research Fumariaceae
Fumitory (Fumaria) is a genus of plants of the natural order Fumariaceae. Several species are known, natives of Europe and Asia, and two or three are found in Great Britain growing in dry fields and roadsides, and also frequent in highly-cultivated gardens. They are slender annual herbs with much-divided leaves and purplish flowers in racemes at the top of the stem or opposite the leaves. Fumaria officinalis, the best-known species, was at one time much used in medicine for scorbutic affections, etc, but its use was discontinued before the start of the 20th century.
Research Fumitory
Funaria is a genus of mosses.
Research Funaria
Fungi is a large family of cryptogamous life form, neither animal nor plant, but a separate classification. Fungi agree with algae and lichens in their cellular structure, which is, with few exceptions, devoid of anything resembling vascular tissue; but differing from them in deriving their nutrition from the body on which the grow, not from the medium by which they are surrounded. Fungi are distinct from plants in not containing any cellulose in their structure; all plants contain cellulose in their cells.
Research Fungi
Furcraea is a genus of tropical American succulent plants of the family Amaryllidaceae, and allied to Agave. They take many years to mature and after fruiting die.
Research Furcraea
The Furioso is a Hungarian breed of light horse used for riding. The Furioso stands about 16 hands high and is bay, chestnut or black in colour.
Research Furioso
Fusus is a genus of gastropod molluscs nearly allied to the Murex with a spindle-shaped univalve shell. The genus comprises many species. The red whelk of England, the 'roaring buckie' of the Scotch, is the Fusus antiquus.
Research Fusus
|
Abbreviations
Nature
