1.
Areca catechu
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Areca catechu is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. This palm is called the tree because its fruit, the areca nut, is often chewed along with the betel leaf. Areca is derived from a name from the Malabar Coast of India and catechu is from another Malay name for this palm. Areca catechu is a medium-sized and palm tree, growing straight to 20 m tall, the leaves are 1. 5–2 m long, pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets. It is also known as puga in Sanskrit, puwak in sinhala and supari in Marathi, normally areca catechu known as pinang tree in Malaysia Areca catechu is grown for its commercially important seed crop, the areca nut. Actually, there are city and areal names in Indonesia and Malaysia using the words pinang or jambe. This to shows how important areca nut is in the Austronesian civilization, the seed contains alkaloids such as arecaidine and arecoline, which, when chewed, are intoxicating and slightly addictive. Areca palms are grown in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, the seed also contains condensed tannins called arecatannins which are carcinogenic. Chewing areca nut is popular among working classes in Taiwan. The nut itself can be addictive and has direct link to oral cancers, Areca nuts in Taiwan will usually contain artificial additives such as limestone powder. The extract of Areca catechu has been shown to have antidepressant properties in rodents, the areca palm is also used as an interior landscaping species. It is often used in indoor areas such as malls and hotels. It will not fruit or reach full size, indoors, it is a slow growing, low water, high light plant that is sensitive to spider mites and occasionally mealybugs. In India the dry, fallen leaves are collected and hot-pressed into disposable palm leaf plates, plant Cultures, Betelnut botany and history Areca catechu List of Chemicals Names in different Languages
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
4.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
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Monocotyledon
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Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. However, molecular research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade. Monocots have almost always recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called monocots, the monocots include about 60,000 species. The largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, about half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocots and these include not only major grains, but also forage grasses, sugar cane, and the bamboos. Other economically important monocot crops include various palms, bananas, gingers and their relatives, turmeric and cardamom, asparagus and the onions and garlic family. Additionally most of the bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, daffodils, irises, amaryllis, cannas, bluebells. The monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, from a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly useful characteristic, nor is it completely reliable. Nevertheless, monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has rarely been disagreement as to membership of this group, however, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity, although largely herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height, length and mass. The latter include agaves, palms, pandans, and bamboos and this creates challenges in water transport that monocots deal with in various ways. Some such as species of Yucca develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees, the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity also contributes to limited branching of the stems, despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other monocots, particularly Poales have adopted a life form. Leaves The cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll, in moncots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheathing around the stem at its base. There is usually only one leaf per node because the leaf base encompasses more than half the circumference, the evolution of this monocot characteristic has been attributed to developmental differences in early zonal differentiation rather than meristem activity
6.
Commelinids
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In plant taxonomy, commelinids is a name used by the APG III system for a clade within the monocots, which in its turn is a clade within the angiosperms. The commelinids are the clade that the APG has informally named within the monocots. The remaining monocots are a paraphyletic unit, also known as the commelinid monocots it forms one of three groupings within the monocots, and the final branch, the other two groups being the alismatid monocots and the lilioid monocots. Members of the clade have cell walls containing UV-fluorescent ferulic acid. The commelinids were first recognized as a group in 1967 by Armen Takhtajan. However, by the release of his 1980 system of classification, the commelinids constitute a well-supported clade within the monocots, and this clade has been recognized in all four APG classification systems. The commelinids of APG II and APG III contain essentially the same plants as the commelinoids of the earlier APG system, in APG IV the family Dasypogonaceae is no longer directly placed under commelinids but instead a family of order Arecales. Media related to Commelinids at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Arecales
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Arecales is an order of flowering plants. The order has been widely recognised only for the past few decades, until then, the Cronquist system of 1981 assigned the order to the subclass Arecidae in the class Liliopsida. The Thorne system and the Dahlgren system assigned the order to the superorder Areciflorae, also called Arecanae in the subclass Liliidae, the APG IV system of 2016 places Dasypogonaceae in this order, after studies shown Dasypogonaceae as sister to Arecaceae. Data related to Arecales at Wikispecies NCBI Taxonomy Browser
8.
Arecaceae
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The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial climbers, shrubs, acaules and trees commonly known as palm trees. They are flowering plants, a family in the monocot order Arecales, currently 181 genera with around 2600 species are known, most of them restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, however, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families and they have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are widely used in landscaping, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, for inhabitants of cooler climates today, palms symbolize the tropics and vacations. Whether as shrubs, trees, or vines, palms have two methods of growth, solitary or clustered, the common representation is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea. Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters, the trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud, exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans, Guihaia, and Rhapis. Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members, Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters, and vice versa. These aberrations suggest the habit operates on a single gene, Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately or pinnately compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The leaves have a sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity, the flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each, and may be distinct or joined at the base, the stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe but some genera may contain two or more seeds in each fruit, like all monocots, palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem via the same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants. This explains the shape of the trunk that is often seen in palms. The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, Ceroxylon quindiuense, Colombias national tree, is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 m tall
9.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
10.
Type species
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A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups called a type genus. In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no standing under the code of nomenclature. In botany, the type of a name is a specimen which is also the type of a species name. The species name that has that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name, names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types. In bacteriology, a species is assigned for each genus. Every named genus or subgenus in zoology, whether or not currently recognized as valid, is associated with a type species. In practice, however, there is a backlog of untypified names defined in older publications when it was not required to specify a type, a type species is both a concept and a practical system that is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals. The type species represents the species and thus definition for a particular genus name. In the Glossary, type species is defined as The nominal species that is the type of a nominal genus or subgenus. The type species permanently attaches a formal name to a genus by providing just one species within that genus to which the name is permanently linked. The species name in turn is fixed, in theory, to a type specimen, for example, the type species for the land snail genus Monacha is Monacha cartusiana. That genus is placed within the family Hygromiidae. The type genus for that family is the genus Hygromia, the concept of the type species in zoology was introduced by Pierre André Latreille. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states that the name of the type species should always be cited. It gives an example in Article 67.1, Astacus marinus Fabricius,1775 was later designated as the type species of the genus Homarus, thus giving it the name Homarus marinus. However, the species of Homarus should always be cited using its original name. 3, the type of the genus name Elodes is quoted as the type of the species name Hypericum aegypticum, Glossary of scientific naming Genetypes – genetic sequence data from type specimens. Holotype Paratype Principle of Typification Type Type genus
11.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
12.
Odoardo Beccari
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Odoardo Beccari was an Italian naturalist perhaps best known for discovering the titan arum, the plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, in Sumatra in 1878. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Becc, an orphan from Florence, Beccari studied at a school in Lucca and the universities in Pisa and Bologna. He was the student of Ugolino Martelli, after graduating, he spent a few months at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he met Charles Darwin, William Hooker and Joseph Hooker, and James Brooke, the first rajah of Sarawak. The latter connection lead to him spending 13 years from 1865 to 1878 undertaking research in Sarawak, Brunei and other islands off present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. He spent most of his time in Indonesia and was believed to be able to speak Malay, Javanese, during his career he discovered many new species of plants, mainly palms. After an expedition to Ethiopia, he made a trip to New Guinea. Here they collected specimens, especially birds-of-paradise and ethnographic materials. Beccari founded the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano in 1869, and also published his results in Bolletino della Società geografica Italiana and he found the Corpse Plant in 1878, located in Sumatra. In 1882 he married and had four sons, beccaris botanical collection now forms part of the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze. While the greatest part of Beccari’s archive is preserved at the University of Florence, viaggi e ricerche di un naturalista. Wanderings in the forests of Borneo, travels and researches of a naturalist in Sarawak. Palme del Madagascar descritte ed illustrate, diari di viaggio ordinati dal figlio Prof. Dott. Roma, Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, IMHS Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia Archive of Museo Galileo
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Genus
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A genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of classification, genus comes above species. In binomial nomenclature, the name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. Felis catus and Felis silvestris are two species within the genus Felis, Felis is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist, the standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. Moreover, genera should be composed of units of the same kind as other genera. The term comes from the Latin genus, a noun form cognate with gignere, linnaeus popularized its use in his 1753 Species Plantarum, but the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort is considered the founder of the modern concept of genera. The scientific name of a genus may be called the name or generic epithet. It plays a role in binomial nomenclature, the system of naming organisms. The rules for the names of organisms are laid down in the Nomenclature Codes. The standard way of scientifically describing species and other lower-ranked taxa is by binomial nomenclature, the generic name forms its first half. For example, the gray wolfs binomial name is Canis lupus, with Canis being the name shared by the wolfs close relatives. The specific name is written in lower-case and may be followed by names in zoology or a variety of infraspecific names in botany. Especially with these names, when the generic name is known from context. Because animals are typically only grouped within subspecies, it is written as a trinomen with a third name. Dog breeds, meanwhile, are not scientifically distinguished, there are several divisions of plant species and therefore their infraspecific names generally include contractions explaining the relation. For example, the genus Hibiscus includes hundreds of other species apart from the Rose of Sharon or common garden hibiscus, Rose of Sharon doesnt have subspecies but has cultivars that carry desired traits, such as the bright white H. syriaca Diana. Hawaiian hibiscus, meanwhile, includes several separate species, since not all botanists agree on the divisions or names between species, it is common to specify the source of the name using author abbreviations
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Family (biology)
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In biological classification, family is one of the eight major taxonomic ranks, it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks above the rank of genus. In vernacular usage, a family may be named one of its common members, for example, walnuts and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae. What does or does not belong to a family—or whether a family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no rules for describing or recognizing a family. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions of taxa, and there may be no broad consensus across the community for some time. Some described taxa are accepted broadly and quickly, but others only rarely, if at all, the naming of families is codified by various international codes. In zoological nomenclature, the names of animals end with the suffix -idae. The concept of rank at time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera. Carolus Linnaeus used the word familia in his Philosophia botanica to denote groups of plants, trees, herbs, ferns, palms. He used this term only in the section of the book. In zoology, the family as an intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes. He used families in some but not in all his orders of insects, families can be used for evolutionary, palaeontological and generic studies because they are more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species
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Tropical forest
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The biome includes several types of forests, Lowland equatorial evergreen rain forests, commonly known as tropical rainforests, are forests which receive high rainfall throughout the year. These forests occur in a belt around the equator, with the largest areas in the Amazon basin of South America, the Congo basin of central Africa, some trees in these forests drop some or all of their leaves during the winter dry season. These forests are found in parts of South America, in Central America and around the Caribbean, in coastal West Africa, parts of the Indian subcontinent, montane rain forests, are found in cooler-climate mountainous areas. Those with elevations high enough to regularly encounter low-level cloud cover are known as cloud forests, flooded forests, including freshwater swamp forests and peat swamp forests. In contrast to TSMF, tropical forest regions with lower levels of rainfall are home to tropical dry broadleaf forests, temperate rain forests also occur in certain humid temperate coastal regions. Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earths land surface, scientists estimate that more than half of all the worlds plant and animal species live in tropical rain forests
16.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
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Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
19.
Melanesia
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Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from New Guinea island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region includes the four countries of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the concept among Europeans of Melanesia as a distinct region evolved gradually over time as their expeditions mapped and explored the Pacific. Early European explorers noted the differences among groups of Pacific Islanders. In the first half of the nineteenth century Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed Melanesia as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, area. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on its boundaries, which were fluid, in the nineteenth century Robert Codrington, a British missionary, produced a series of monographs on the Melanesians based on his long-time residence in the region. He did not include the islands of New Guinea because only some of its people were Melanesians, like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia. It was in works that Codrington introduced the cultural concept of mana to the West. Uncertainty about the delineation and definition of the region continues, the scholarly consensus now includes New Guinea within Melanesia. Ann Chowning wrote in her 1977 textbook on Melanesia that there is no agreement even among anthropologists about the geographical boundaries of Melanesia. In 1998 Paul Sillitoe wrote of Melanesia, it is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions. It covers populations that have a linguistic, biological and cultural affinity – a certain ill-defined sameness. Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, most of the peoples in Melanesia have established independent countries, are admistered by France or have active independence movements. Many have recently taken up the term Melanesia as a source of identity, stephanie Lawson writes that the term moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing a positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation. For instance, the author Bernard Narokobi wrote about the Melanesian Way as a form of culture that could empower the people of this region. The concept is used in geopolitics. For instance, the Melanesian Spearhead Group preferential trade agreement is a trade treaty among Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea. The people of Melanesia have a distinctive ancestry, the limit of this ancient migration was Sahul, the continent formed when Australia and New Guinea were united by a land bridge as a result of low sea levels. The first migration into Sahul came over 40,000 years ago, a further expansion into the eastern islands of Melanesia came much later, probably between 4000 B. C. and 3000 B. C
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Malabar Coast
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The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, the term Malabar Coast is also sometimes used to refer to the entire Indian coast from the western coast of Konkan to the tip of the subcontinent at Kanyakumari. The coast runs south of Goa to Kanyakumari on Indias southern tip. Indias southeastern coast is called the Coromandel Coast, the Malabar Coast is also sometimes used as an all-encompassing term for the entire Indian coast from Konkan to the tip of the subcontinent at Kanyakumari. It is flanked by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Western Ghats on the east, the southern part of this narrow coast is referred to as the South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests. The Malabar Coast, throughout recorded history from about 3000 BC, had been a trading center in commerce with Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Jerusalem. Its most famous ports were Naura, Balita, Kochi, Calicut, and Mangalore, the Oddeway Torre settlement, which have served as centers of the Indian Ocean trade, for centuries. During Ming Chinas treasure voyages in the early 15th century, Admiral Zheng Hes fleet often landed at the Malabar Coast, Malabar Portuguese Empire Portuguese India Dutch Malabar Coromandel Coast
21.
Khichdi
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Khichdi, or khichri, is a South Asian preparation made from rice and lentils. Khichdi was the inspiration for the Anglo-Indian dish kedgeree, and is commonly considered to be the inspiration for the popular Egyptian dish. In Indian culture, it is considered one of the first solid foods that babies eat, the term Khichdi is derived from Sanskrit खिच्चा khiccā, a dish of rice and legumes. Some divergence of transliteration may be noted in the consonant in the word khicṛī. The sound is the flap, which is written in Hindi with the Devanagari letter ड़. In Hindi-Urdu phonology, the origin of the retroflex flap was /ɖ/ when it occurred between vowels. Hence in Devanagari the letter ड, representing /ɖ/, was adapted to write /ɽ/ by adding a diacritic under it. In Urdu script, the quality of the flap was represented by adapting the letter ر, representing /r/. Although in IAST the Hindi letter ड़ is transliterated as <ṛ>, popular or nonstandard transliterations of Hindi use <d> for this sound, because etymologically it derives from ड /ɖ/. The occurrence of consonant in the word khicṛī has given rise to two alternative spellings in English, khichdi, which reflects its etymology, and khichri, which reflects its phonology. The Greek ambassador of Seleucus mentioned that rice with pulses is very popular among people of South Asia, the Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta mentions kishri as a dish in India composed of rice and mung beans, during his stay circa 1350. Khichdi is described in the writings of Afanasiy Nikitin, a Russian adventurer who travelled to the South Asia in the 15th century, Khichdi was very popular with the Mughals, especially Jahangir. Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th-century document, written by Mughal Emperor, Akbar’s vizier, Abul-Fazl ibn Mubarak, mentions the recipe for khichdi, there is an anecdotal story featuring Akbar, Birbal and khichdi. Khichdi is a popular dish across Pakistan and North India. The dish is prepared in many Indian states like Gujarat, Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha. Vegetables such as cauliflower, potato, and green peas are commonly added, a popular variant in coastal Maharashtra is made with prawns. Khichdi is also a favourite food, owing to the convenience of being able to cook the dish in a single simmering pot. In other regions, the khichdi is commonly served with a side of kadhi, in Bengal, the dish is known as Bengali, খিচুড়ী, khichuri, Sylheti, Kisuri and is considered a rich gourmet delicacy
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Bowl
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A bowl is a round, open-top container used in many cultures to serve hot and cold food. Bowls are also used for drinking, as in the case of caffè latte, bowls used for storing non-food items range from small bowls used for holding tips at a coffee shop to large bowls used for storing DVDs or CDs. Bowls are typically small and shallow, as in the case of bowls used for single servings of soup or cereal, some bowls, such as punch bowls, serving bowls, fruit bowls and salad bowls are larger and often intended to serve many people. Modern bowls can be made of ceramic, metal, wood, plastic and their appearance can range from very simple designs of a single color to designs sophisticated artwork. Bowls have existed for thousands of years, very early bowls have been found in China, Ancient Greece, Crete and in certain Native American cultures. In classical Greece, small bowls, including phiales and pateras, some Mediterranean examples from the Bronze Age manifest elaborate decoration and sophistication of design. For example, the bridge spouted vessel design appeared in Minoan at Phaistos, in the 4th century BCE, evidence exists that the Uruk culture of ancient Mesopotamia mass-produced beveled rim bowls of standardized sizes. Moreover, in Chinese pottery, there are elaborately painted bowls. As of 2009, the oldest found is 18,000 years old, a bowl is also a standard unit of measure, as defined by the American Institute of Measurements. One bowl is the equivalent of 3.75 cups or 887.2059 ml, bridge spouted vessel Buffet Dishware List of eating utensils C. Michael Hogan Phaistos fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian,2007 Vincas P. Steponaitis. Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns, An Archaeological Study at Moundville, history of Ancient Pottery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, pp 140, 191–192. The Phiale of Achyris - On the website of the Archeological Institute of America, the Phiale is dated from 300 BC and is made of gold, includes pictures
23.
ISKCON Temple Bangalore
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Sri Radha Krishna Temple has deities of Radha and Krishna located at Rajajinagar, in North Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It is one of the largest ISKCON temples in the world, the temple is a huge cultural complex that was inaugurated in 1997 by Shankar Dayal Sharma. The project was conceived and executed by Madhu Pandit Dasa following the wishes of HDG A. C, bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON to promote Vedic culture and spiritual learning. Hare Krishna Hill is the hillock on which this temple is situated, in 1987, the society was operating from a rented house in Bangalore. In the year 1987, the leaders of the society applied to Bangalore Development Authority for allotment of land to construct a grand temple and cultural complex. The land was allotted on August 3,1988 – a seven-acre hillock, the BDA described it as “karaab land”. A temporary shed was constructed to set up a makeshift temple, around 1976, devotees from different parts of India and the world had initiated activities of ISKCON in different parts of South India like Bangalore, Hubli, Madras, etc. Sankirtans in the streets, enrolling Life Members, arranging programs in the houses, the society was registered in the year 1978 under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act,1960. The objects of the society are derived from the Seven Purposes of ISKCON as stated by Srila Prabhupada, in May 1997, Bangalore ISKCON Temple was inaugurated by the ninth president of India - Shankar Dayal Sharma. There is a gold-plated dhwaja-stambha 17 m high and a gold plated kalash shikara 8.5 m high, there is free distribution of Sri Krishna prasadam to all visitors during the darshana hours. ISKCON Bangalore has six shrines, Main shrine is of Radha-Krishna, the temple is open from 4,15 am to 5,00 am. The day begins with a Grand arati ceremony called mangala-arati followed by worship of Tulasi Devi, Sri Narasimha Arati, the temple again opens at 7,15 am for Shringara Darshana Arati. 5,15 am to 7,15 am, Japa Meditation session, the temple remains open till 1,00 pm. In the evening the temple is open from 4,15 pm to 8,15 pm, during weekends and public holidays Temple timings are 4,15 am to 5,00 am and 7,15 am to 8,30 pm without any break in the afternoon. The evening arati starts at 7,00 pm where devotees sing kirtan, in the main temple the arati is performed by three priests. This arati is followed again by kirtan where devotees can be dancing to the rhythm of Hare Krishna Hare Rama. The exit way after the Darshan from the temple leads through a series of shops that offer books on Sri Krishna in all the possible Indian languages. The overall view of these markets provide everything that a visiting a temple would need
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Areca nut
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The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm, which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Southeast and South Asia, and parts of east Africa. This seed is referred to as betel nut so it is easily confused with betel leaves that are often used to wrap it. The term areca originated from a South Asian word, Malayalam, Adakka during the 16th century, consumption has many harmful effects on health and is carcinogenic to humans. Various compounds present in the nut, most importantly arecoline, contribute to changes in the oral mucosa. As with chewing tobacco, its use is discouraged by preventive efforts, the areca nut is not a true nut, but rather a fruit categorized as a berry. It is commercially available in dried, cured and fresh forms, when the husk of the fresh fruit is green, the nut inside is soft enough to be cut with a typical knife. In the ripe fruit, the husk becomes yellow or orange and, as it dries, at that stage, the areca nut can only be sliced using a special scissors-like cutter. Usually for chewing, a few slices of the nut are wrapped in a betel leaf along with calcium hydroxide and may include clove, cardamom, betel leaf has a fresh, peppery taste, but it can also be bitter to varying degrees depending on the variety. The betel leaf chewed along with the nut contains eugenol, another vasoconstrictor, tobacco leaf is often added to the mixture, thereby adding the effect of nicotine. In parts of India, Sri Lanka and southern China, areca nuts are not only chewed along with betel leaf, powdered areca nut is used as a constituent in some dentifrices. According to traditional Ayurvedic medicine, chewing areca nut and betel leaf is a remedy against bad breath. Diplomat Edmund Roberts noted that Chinese people would mix areca nut with Uncaria gambir during his visit to China in the 1830s, after chewing a betelnut, the red residue from chewing the betelnut, buai pekpek, is generally spat out and is considered an eyesore. This has led many places to ban chewing buai as many people spit the pekpek on the rather than in a spit cup or waste receptacle. Chewing the mixture of areca nut and betel leaf is a tradition and it is not known how or when the areca nut and the betel leaf were first combined into one psychoactive drug. Archaeological evidence from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines suggests they have used in tandem for at least 4000 years. In Vietnam, the nut and the betel leaf are such important symbols of love and marriage that in Vietnamese the phrase matters of betel. The tradition of chewing areca nuts starts the talk between the parents and the brides parents about the young couples marriage. Therefore, the leaves and juices are used ceremonially in Vietnamese weddings, Malay culture and tradition hold betel nut and leaves in high esteem
25.
Betel
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The betel is the leaf of a vine belonging to the Piperaceae family, which includes pepper and kava. Betel leaf is consumed in Asia, and elsewhere in the world by some Asian emigrants, as betel quid or in paan. The betel plant is a perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves. The betel plant originated in South and South East Asia, Betel, derived from the Tamil/Malayalam word vettila, via Portuguese. The betel leaf is cultivated mostly in South and Southeast Asia and it needs a compatible tree or a long pole for support. Waterlogged, saline and alkali soils are unsuitable for its cultivation, in Bangladesh, farmers called barui prepare a garden called a barouj in which to grow betel. The barouj is fenced with bamboo sticks and coconut leaves, the soil is plowed into furrows of 10 to 15 metres length,75 centimetres in width and 75 centimetres depth. Oil cakes, manure, and leaves are thoroughly incorporated with the topsoil of the furrows, the cuttings are planted at the beginning of the monsoon season. Proper shade and irrigation are essential for the cultivation of this crop. Betel needs constantly moist soil, but there should not be excessive moisture, irrigation is frequent and light, and standing water should not remain for more than half an hour. Dried leaves and wood ash are applied to the furrows at fortnightly intervals, application of different kinds of leaves at monthly intervals is believed advantageous for the growth of the betel. In 3 to 6 months the vines reach 150 to 180 centimeters in height, harvest begins, with the farmer plucking the leaf and its petiole with his right thumb. The harvest lasts 15 days to one month, Betel plant has made its way to research labs of many Bangladesh chemical and food nutrition companies. The harvested leaves are consumed locally and exported to parts of Asia, the Middle East, Europe. Betel is grown and cultivated as an important crop in rural Bangladesh, the primary use of betel leaf is as a wrapper for the chewing of areca nut or tobacco where it is mainly used to add flavour. It may also be used in cooking, usually raw, for its peppery taste, some reports may suggest that betel leaf by itself has adverse health effects, in part because of tannins delivered by the leaf and for reasons currently not fully understood. For example, one research paper studied chromosome damaging effect of leaf in human leukocyte cultures. These researchers report an increase in the frequency of chromatid aberrations when the leaf extract was added to cultures, Betel vines are cultivated throughout southeast Asia in plots whose area is typically 20 to 2000 square metres
26.
Tobacco
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Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanaceae family, while more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used around the world, Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, which is a stimulant. Dried tobacco leaves are used for smoking in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco. They can be consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco. Tobacco use is a factor for many diseases, especially those affecting the heart, liver. In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco as the single greatest preventable cause of death. The English word tobacco originates from the Spanish and Portuguese word tabaco, the precise origin of this word is disputed, but it is generally thought to have derived at least in part, from Taino, the Arawakan language of the Caribbean. In Taino, it was said to either a roll of tobacco leaves or to tabago. Tobacco has long used in the Americas, with some cultivation sites in Mexico dating back to 1400–1000 BC. Many Native American tribes have traditionally grown and used tobacco, traditionally, tobacco is seen as a gift from the Creator, with the ceremonial tobacco smoke carrying ones thoughts and prayers to the Creator. Following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas, tobacco became popular as a trade item. Hernández de Boncalo, Spanish chronicler of the Indies, was the first European to bring seeds to the Old World in 1559 following orders of King Philip II of Spain. These seeds were planted in the outskirts of Toledo, more specifically in a known as Los Cigarrales named after the continuous plagues of cicadas. Before the development of lighter Virginia and white burley strains of tobacco, small quantities were smoked at a time, using a pipe like the midwakh or kiseru or smoking newly invented waterpipes such as the bong or the hookah. The alleged benefits of tobacco also account for its considerable success, Tobacco smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700. Tobacco has been a major crop in Cuba and in other parts of the Caribbean since the 18th century. In the late 19th century, cigarettes became popular, James Bonsack created a machine that automated cigarette production
27.
Areca macrocarpa
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Areca catechu is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. This palm is called the tree because its fruit, the areca nut, is often chewed along with the betel leaf. Areca is derived from a name from the Malabar Coast of India and catechu is from another Malay name for this palm. Areca catechu is a medium-sized and palm tree, growing straight to 20 m tall, the leaves are 1. 5–2 m long, pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets. It is also known as puga in Sanskrit, puwak in sinhala and supari in Marathi, normally areca catechu known as pinang tree in Malaysia Areca catechu is grown for its commercially important seed crop, the areca nut. Actually, there are city and areal names in Indonesia and Malaysia using the words pinang or jambe. This to shows how important areca nut is in the Austronesian civilization, the seed contains alkaloids such as arecaidine and arecoline, which, when chewed, are intoxicating and slightly addictive. Areca palms are grown in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, the seed also contains condensed tannins called arecatannins which are carcinogenic. Chewing areca nut is popular among working classes in Taiwan. The nut itself can be addictive and has direct link to oral cancers, Areca nuts in Taiwan will usually contain artificial additives such as limestone powder. The extract of Areca catechu has been shown to have antidepressant properties in rodents, the areca palm is also used as an interior landscaping species. It is often used in indoor areas such as malls and hotels. It will not fruit or reach full size, indoors, it is a slow growing, low water, high light plant that is sensitive to spider mites and occasionally mealybugs. In India the dry, fallen leaves are collected and hot-pressed into disposable palm leaf plates, plant Cultures, Betelnut botany and history Areca catechu List of Chemicals Names in different Languages
28.
Areca triandra
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Areca triandra is a palm which is often used as ornamental plant. It is native to India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and it is also reportedly naturalized in Panama and in southern China. Stems, clustered,1. 5–4 m tall, stems slender, green, 3–5 cm, with stilt roots. Leaves, slightly drooping, 1-1.8 m long, sheaths forming a swollen, green crown shaft, petiole slender, inflorescences, 15–30 × 5–15 cm, prophyll 30 cm long. Flowers ♂ cream-coloured with a strong fragrance,2.5 mm long, ♀ globose. Fruits,2.5 cm long, with a prominently beaked tip, ripening to orange, then to scarlet
29.
Dypsis lutescens
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Dypsis lutescens grows 6–12 m in height. Multiple stems emerge from the base, the leaves are arched, 2–3 m long, and pinnate, with 40-60 pairs of leaflets. It bears panicles of flowers in summer. Offsets can be cut off when mature enough, as a propagation method and it is grown as an ornamental plant in gardens in tropical and subtropical regions, and elsewhere indoors as a houseplant. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, one of several common names, butterfly palm refers to the leaves which curve upwards in multiple stems to create a butterfly look. According to NASA and Dr. B. C, wolverton, the areca palm filters xylene and toluene from the air. Wolverton also specifies that, at 1.8 m in height, PACSOA, Dypsis lutescens Part of this article was compiled from the Portuguese Wikipedia article
30.
Wikidata
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Wikidata is a collaboratively edited knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is intended to provide a source of data which can be used by Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. This is similar to the way Wikimedia Commons provides storage for files and access to those files for all Wikimedia projects. Wikidata is powered by the software Wikibase, Wikidata is a document-oriented database, focused on items. Each item represents a topic and is identified by a number, prefixed with the letter Q—for example. This enables the basic information required to identify the topic the item covers to be translated without favouring any language, information is added to items by creating statements. Statements take the form of pairs, with each statement consisting of a property. The creation of the project was funded by donations from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, at this time, only the first phase was available. Historically, a Wikipedia article would include a list of links, being links to articles on the same topic in other editions of Wikipedia. Initially, Wikidata was a repository of interlanguage links. No Wikipedia language editions were able to access Wikidata, so they needed to continue to maintain their own lists of interlanguage links, on 14 January 2013, the Hungarian Wikipedia became the first to enable the provision of interlanguage links via Wikidata. This functionality was extended to the Hebrew and Italian Wikipedias on 30 January, to the English Wikipedia on 13 February, on 23 September 2013, phase 1 went live on Wikimedia Commons. The first aspects of the second phase were deployed on 4 February 2013, the values were initially limited to two data types, with more data types to follow later. The first new type, string, was deployed on 6 March, the ability of the various language editions of Wikipedia to access data added to Wikidata as part of phase two was rolled out progressively between 27 March and 25 April 2013. On 16 September 2015, Wikidata began allowing so-called arbitrary access, for example, in the past the article about Berlin you could not access data about Germany, but with arbitrary access it could. On 27 April 2016 arbitrary access was activated on Wikimedia Commons, phase 3 will involve database querying and the creation of lists based on data stored on Wikidata. As of October 2016 two tools for querying Wikidata were available, AutoList and PetScan, additionally to a public SPARQL endpoint, there is concern that the project is being influenced by lobbying companies, PR professionals and search engine optimizers. As of December 2015, according to Wikimedia statistics, half of the information in Wikidata is unsourced, another 30% is labeled as having come from Wikipedia, but with no indication as to which article
31.
Encyclopedia of Life
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The Encyclopedia of Life is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world and it aims to build one infinitely expandable page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text. In addition, the Encyclopedia incorporates content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the project was initially backed by a US$50 million funding commitment, led by the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation, who provided US$20 million and US$5 million, respectively. The project was led by Jim Edwards and the development team by David Patterson. Today, participating institutions and individual donors continue to support EOL through financial contributions, EOL went live on 26 February 2008 with 30,000 entries. The site immediately proved to be popular, and temporarily had to revert to demonstration pages for two days when it was overrun by traffic from over 11 million views it received. The site relaunched on 5 September 2011 with a redesigned interface, eOLv2 is redesigned to enhance usability and encourage contributions and interactions among users. The product is also internationalized with interfaces provided for English, German, Spanish, French, Galician, Serbian, Macedonian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Ukrainian language speakers. On 16 January 2014, EOL launched TraitBank, a searchable, open digital repository for organism traits, measurements, interactions, information about many species is already available from a variety of sources, in particular about the megafauna. Gathering currently available data on all 1.9 million species will take about 10 years, as of September 2011, EOL had information on more than 700,000 species available, along with more than 600,000 photos and millions of pages of scanned literature. The initial focus has been on living species but will later include extinct species, as the discovery of new species is expected to continue, the encyclopedia will grow continuously. The goal of EOL is to serve as a resource for the public, enthusiastic amateurs, educators, students. The Encyclopedia of Life has content partners around the world who share information through the EOL platform, including Wikipedia and its interface is translated at translatewiki. net. The Encyclopedia of Life – Introductory video on YouTube from May 2007
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