The banana is a perennialherb cultivated in tropical and sub tropical climates. Bananas are fast-growing, arising from underground rhizomes. The fleshy stalks or pseudostems formed by upright concentric layers of leaf sheaths constitute the functional trunks. The true stem begins as an underground corm which grows upwards, pushing its way out through the centre of the stalk 10 to 15 months after planting, eventually producing the terminal inflorescence which will later bear the fruit. Each stalk produces one huge flowercluster and then dies. New stalks then grow from the rhizome. The large rectangular or elliptic leaf blades are extensions of the sheaths of the pseudostem and are joined to them by fleshy, deeply grooved, short petioles. The leaves unfurl, as the plant grows, at the rate of one per week in warm weather, and extend upward and outward , becoming as much as 2.5 metres long and 0.75 metres wide. They may be entirely green, green with maroon patches, or green on the upper side and red-purple beneath. The leaf veins run from the mid-rib straight to the outer edge of the leaf. Even when the wind shreds the leaf, the veins are still able to function. Approximately 44 leaves will appear before the inflorescence. The banana inflorescence shooting out from the heart in the tip of the stem, is at first a large, long-oval, tapering, purple-clad bud. As it opens, the slim, nectar-rich, tubular, toothed, white flowers appear. They are clustered in whorled double rows along the floral stalk, each cluster covered by a thick, waxy, hood like bract, purple outside and deep red within.
The flowers occupying the first five to fifteen rows are female. As the rachis of the inflorescence continues to elongate, sterile flowers with abortive male and female parts appear, followed by normal staminate ones with abortive ovaries. The two latter flower types eventually drop in most edible bananas. The ovaries contained in the first (female) flowers grow rapidly, developing parthenocarpically into clusters of fruits, called hands. The number of hands varies with the species and variety.
The fruit (technically a berry) turns from deep green to yellow or red, and may range from ten centimetres to thirty centimetres in length and two centimetres to five centimetres in diameter. The flesh, ivory-white to yellow or salmon-yellow, may be firm, astringent, even gummy with latex when unripe, turning tender and slippery, or soft and mellow or rather dry and mealy or starchy when ripe. The flavour may be mild and sweet or slightly acid with a distinct appletone. The common cultivated types are generally seedless with just vestiges of ovules visible as brown specks. Occasionally, cross-pollination with wild types will result in a number of seeds in a normally seedless variety. Research Banana
The bee is a four winged stinging insect of the order Hymenoptera. Bees form the super-family Apoidea of the sub-order Apocrita.
The most important member of the family is the common hive or honey bee (Apis mellifica). It belongs to the warmer parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, but is now naturalized in the Western. A hive commonly consists of one mother or queen, from 600 to 800 males or drones, and from 15,000 to 20,000 working bees, formerly termed neuters, but now known to be imperfectly-developed females. The last-mentioned, the smallest, have twelve joints to their antennae, and six abdominal rings, and are provided with a sting; there is, on the outside of the hind-legs, a smooth hollow, edged with hairs, called the basket, in which the kneaded pollen or bee-bread, the food of the larvae, is stored for transit.
The queen has the same characteristics, but is of larger size, especially in the abdomen; she has also a sting. The males, or drones, differ from both the preceding by having thirteen joints to the antennae; a rounded head, with larger eyes, elongated and united at the summit; and no stings. According to Huber the working-bees are themselves divisible into two classes: one, the cirieres, devoted to the collection of provisions, etc; the other, smaller and more delicate, employed exclusively within the hive in rearing the young.
The mouth of the bee is adapted for both masticatory and suctorial purposes, the honey being conveyed thence to the anterior stomach or crop, communicating with a second stomach in which alone a digestive process can be traced. The queen, whose sole office is to propagate the species, has two large ovaries, consisting of a great number of small cavities, each containing sixteen or seventeen eggs. The inferior half-circles, except the first and last, on the abdomen of working-bees, have each on their inner surface two cavities, where the wax, secreted by the bee from its saccharine food, is formed in layers, and comes out from between the abdominal rings.
Respiration takes place by means of air-tubes which branch out to all parts of the body, the bee being exceedingly sensitive to an impure atmosphere. Of the organs of sense the most important are the antennae, deprivation of these resulting in a species of derangement. The majority of entomologists regard their function as in the first place auditory, but they are exceedingly ssensitive to tactual impressions, and are apparently the principal means of mutual communication.
Bees undergo perfect metamorphosis, the young appearing first as larvae, then changing to pupae, from which the imagosor perfect insects spring. Whether the offspring are to be female or male is said to be dependent upon the contact or absence of contact of the egg with the impregnating fluid received from the male and stored in a special sac communicating with the oviduct, unfertilized eggs producing males. The further question whether the offspring shall be queens or workers is resolved by the influence of environment upon function. The enlargement of a cell to the size of a royal chamber and the nourishment of its inmate with a special kind of food appear to be sufficient to transform an ordinary working-bee larva into a fully-developed female or queen-bee.
The season of fecundation occurs about the beginning of summer, and the laying begins immediately afterwards, and continues until autumn; in the spring as many as 12,000 eggs may be laid in twenty-four days. Those laid at the commencement of fine weather all belong to the working sort, and hatch at the end of four days. The larvae acquire their perfect state in about twelve days, and the cells are then immediately fitted up for the reception of new eggs. The eggs for producing males are laid two months later, and those for the females immediately afterwards. This succession of generations forms so many distinct communities, which, when increased beyond a certain degree, leave the parent hive to found a new colony elsewhere. Thus three or four swarms sometimes leave a hive in a season. A good swarm is said to weigh at least three kilograms. Besides the common bee (Apis mellifica) there are the Apis fasciata, domesticated in Egypt, the Apis Ugustica, or Ligurian bee of Italy and Greece, introduced into England, etc.
The humble-bees, or bumble-bees, of which about forty species are found in Britain and over sixty in North America, belong to the genus Bombus, which is almost worldwide in its distribution. Of these species solitary females which have survived the winter commence constructing small nests when the weather begins to be warm enough; some of them going deep into the earth in dry banks, others preferring heaps of stone or gravel, and others choosing always some bed of dry moss. In the nest the bee collects a mass of pollen and in this lays some eggs. The cells in these nests are not the work of the old bee, but are formed by the young insects similarly to the cocoons of silk-worms; and when the perfect insect is released from them by the old bee, which gnaws off their tops, they are employed as honey-cups.
The humble-bees, however, do not store honey for the winter, those which survive until the cold weather leaving the nest and penetrating the earth, or taking up some other sheltered position, and remaining there until the spring. The first brood consists of workers, and successive broods are produced during the summer. The experiment of domesticating different kinds of wild bees has been tried with no satisfactory results. Some bees, from their manner of nesting, are known as 'mason bees,' 'carpenter bees,' and 'upholsterer bees.' Some of these bees (genus Osmia) cement particles of sand or gravel together with a viscid substance in forming their nests; others make burrows in wood. The leaf-cutter or upholsterer bee (genus Megachile) lines its burrow with bits of leaf cut out in regular shapes. Research Bee
The Cod (Gadus) is a genus of fish of the family Gadidae. They are found in the Atlantic and Baltic. Cod are distinguished by the following characters: A smooth, rectangular, or fusiform body, covered with small soft scales; ventrals attached beneath the throat; gills large, seven-rayed, and opening laterally; a small beard at the tip of the lower jaw; generally two or three dorsal fins, one or two anal, and one distinct caudal fin.
The most interesting species is the common or Bank cod (Gadus morrhua). Though once found plentifully on the coasts of other northern regions, as Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland, a stretch of sea near the coast of Newfoundland is the favourite annual resort of formerly countless multitudes of cod, which visit the Grand Banks to feed upon the crustaceous and molluscous animals abundant in such situations, and thus attract fleets of fishermen - by the end of the 20th century the number of cod was so severely depleted by industrial fishing that fears grew that the ocd might become extinct.
Cod has long been recognised as a good food stuff and the oil extracted by heat and pressure from the liver is of great medicinal value, and contributes considerably to the high economic value of the cod. The cod is enormously prolific, the ovaries of each female containing more than 9,000,000 of eggs; but the numbers are kept down by a host of enemies. The spawning season, on the banks of Newfoundland, begins about the month of March and terminates in June; The cod takes from three to four years to reach maturity and achieves an average length of around one meter, and a weight between 30 and 50 lbs, though sometimes formerly cod were caught weighing three times this. The colour is a yellowish-gray on the back, spotted with yellowish and brown; the belly white or reddish, with golden spots in young individuals. Research Cod
The Phylum chaetognatha are the arrowworms. They are relatively simple triploblastic animals. The body is elongated and transparent. The gut is just a straight tube. The body has three regions; head, trunk and tail. The head bears a hood and rows of chitinous hooks. There is no blood vascular system. Eyes are usually present. The male gonads are in the tail, the female ovaries in the trunk. Research Phylum Chaetognatha
Aspiration is a procedure used to obtain eggs from ovarian follicles for use in in-vitro fertilization. The procedure may be performed during laparoscopy, using a long needle and ultrasound to locate the follicle in the ovary. For the procedure, the woman is given hormone medications to stimulate the ovaries so that several mature eggs develop. After 36 hours, an ultrasound scan is used to view and locate the eggs. Special software allows the health care provider to view one ovum at a time and helps guide the needle through the vaginal wall towards the eggs, called ova, for removal. Usually several ova are removed at one time. Research Aspiration
The epiphysis is the end of a developing bone. It is distinguished from the non-developing segment of the bone by the epiphyseal line. When bones form, calciumsalts are first deposited within the diaphysis, and this calcification spreads outward to the ends of the bone (epiphyses). As this progresses, the periosteal membrane produces a network of fibrils (osteoblasts) in front of this advancing line of calcification, which provides a mesh framework for the ensuing calcification. Once this calcified cartilage has developed, the periosteal membrane sends blood vessels into the bone which carry nutrients as well as regulatory cells known as osteoclasts. The osteoblasts and osteoclasts work together to replace the calcified cartilage with true, osseous material. This process is carried out on the ends of the bones as well, though a layer of uncalcified cartilage demarcates the epiphyses from the diaphysis until later in the life of the bone. Once the true bone has developed, the center becomes hollowed out, which allows for the development
of the marrow and the spongy tissue layer (trabeculae). The growth and development of the bone is regulated by a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland, with new growth taking place at the epiphyseal line. At some stage, however, hormones, secreted by the testes in the male and ovaries in the female, cause this bonegrowth to cease, whereupon the epiphysis fuses to the diaphysis. Beyond this point, which usually occurs earlier in females, the bone undergoes simultanous resorption (where it breaks down and re-absorbs osseous material) and reconstruction. Healthy bone is constantly undergoing resorption and reconstruction, though, in the elderly, the reconstruction of bone is somewhat diminished, making healing of fractures slower. Research Epiphysis
The female reproductive system is responsible for generating the ovum, or egg, for storing the fertilized ovum, and nourishing the gestating embryo and fetus. The chief organs include the ovaries, the uterus, vagina, and the fallopian tubes. External (vulvar) organs include the labia majora, the labia minora, the mons pubis, the clitoris, the vestibule, and the greater vestibular cleft. The ovum, or egg, contains the female's contribution to the genetic make-up of the new child, and is generated in the ovaries. The newly generated ovum is passed through the fimbriated extremity of a fallopian tube, into the fallopian tube and there is fertilized by a spermatozoon (a sperm cell). During sexual arousal, a fluid created by the male's seminal vesicles and the prostate gland combines with the sperm cells to create semen, which is carried through the urethra and out of the opening, or meatus, in the end of the erect penis.
When the semen is deposited in the female vagina, the spermatozoa swims through the uterus to the fallopian tube, where it fertilizes the ovum, or egg. The fertilized egg travels down the fallopian tube within the next three days and becomes attached to the wall of the uterus (womb). There, during pregnancy, the fertilized egg will be nourished and will develop into the embryo and, later, the fetus. Once fully developed (after about 9 months), muscular contractions (labor) will push the fetus out of the womb. Research Female Reproductive System
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus. It is one of the most common of all surgical procedures. Sometimes only the uterus and cervix are removed; in other cases, called a complete
hysterectomy, the uterus, cervix, Fallopian tubes, and ovaries are all removed. After hysterectomy, a woman no longer menstruates, and she is unable to bear children but no change in sexual functioning or feelings follow a hysterectomy. If the hysterectomy includes removal of both ovaries, however, the woman may experience symptoms of menopause, because the ovaries are a woman's major source of estrogen. Research Hysterectomy
The ovarian ligaments are strands of connective tissue which attach the ovaries to the fallopian tubes and the upper margin of the exterior of the uterus. Research Ovarian Ligament
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Banana
