A comb is an instrument with teeth, formerly made of tortoise-shell, ivory, horn, wood, bone or metal and now most often made from plastic, used for dressing the hair, and by women for keeping the hair in its place when dressed. Combs have been used from the earliest times by all races of people. Research Comb
Honey-comb is a waxen cellular structure framed by the bees to deposit their honey and eggs in. The wax is secreted by the insect in the form of small and thin oval scales in the folds of the abdomen. The comb is composed of a number of cells, most of them exactly hexagonal, and arranged in two layers placed end to end, the openings of the layers being in opposite directions. The comb is placed vertically, the cells being therefore horizontal. The sides of the cells are very thin, and yet the whole structure is of considerable strength. Some cells are destined for the exclusive reception of honey; others for the reception of larvae. Research Honey-comb
The Ancona is a breed of Italian chicken, with an elongated appearance and black and white feathers and bright yellow legs. The Ancona chicken was intruduced to Britain during the 19th century and from there exported around the world. The Ancona has a fairly large, single comb and lays white-shelled eggs. They are active birds and excellent fliers. Research Ancona
A caruncle is a small hard outgrowth formed on the seeds of certain plants, such as the castor oil plant. A caruncle is the fleshy excrescence on the head of a fowl, such the comb of a cock or the wattles of a turkey. Research Caruncle
Ctenoid is a term applied to the scales of fishes when they are jagged or pectinated on the edge like the teeth of a comb, as in the perch, flounder, and turbot. Research Ctenoid
The Ctenophora are a Phylum, sub-Phylum, order or class of animals represented by a number of marine forms (the sea gooseberries) which somewhat resemble jelly-fish. They are solitary, transparent, globular animals moving by means of ctenophores, or parallel rows of cilia disposed in comb-like plates. They develop no coral. Pleurotrachia (or Cydippe) may be taken as the type of the order, which includes the Beroidae, the Cestum or Venus' girdle, etc. Research Ctenophora
Flax or linseed is a popular name of plants of the genusLinum, 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 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 genusGallus. 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
Great masterwort (Astrantia major) also known as Astrantia and mountain sanicle, is a poisonous European perennialherb with a black, woody rhizome and an erect, slightly branched stem. The basal leaves are arranged in a rosette, are long-stalked, shiny dark green, palmately lobed and coarsely toothed. The stem leaves are similar to the basal leaves, but smaller. The flowers are white, pinkish or greenish and clustered in simple umbels which are surrounded by a conspicuous white or reddish whorl of petal- like involucral bracts. The fruit is a rectangular achene with a comb-like keel. Research Great Masterwort
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Comb
