The lentil is an edible legume. It is a bushy annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds, it is about 40 cm tall, the seeds grow in pods with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the majority of world production comes from Canada and Turkey. In cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, where lentils are a staple, split lentils known as daal are cooked into a thick curry/gravy, eaten with rice or rotis; the cultivated lentil Lens culinaris was derived from its wild subspecies L. culinaris subsp. Orientalis, although other species may have contributed some genes, according to Jonathan Sauer Unlike their wild ancestors, domesticated lentil crops have indehiscent pods and nondormant seeds. Lentils are the oldest pulse crop known, among the earliest crops domesticated in the Old World, having been found as carbonized remains alongside human habitations dating to 11,000 BC in Greece; the lentil is indigenous to Central Asia. Many different names in different parts of the world are used for the crop lentil.

The first use of the word lens to designate a specific genus was in the 16th century by the botanist Tournefort. However, the word "lens" for the lentil is of classical Roman/Latin origin: McGee points out that a prominent Roman family took the name "Lentulus", just as the family name "Cicero" was derived from the chickpea, Cicer arietinum; the genus Lens is part of the subfamily Faboideae, contained in the flowering plant family Fabaceae or known as legume or bean family, of the order Fabales in the kingdom Plantae. Lens is a small genus which consists of six related wild taxa. Among the different taxa of wild lentils, L. orientalis is considered to be the progenitor of the cultivated lentil and is now classified as L. culinaris subsp. Orientalis. Therefore, the genus Lens comprises seven taxa in six species: Lens culinaris subsp. Culinaris Lens odemensis Lens ervoides Lens nigricans Lens lamottei Lens tomentosus Lentil is hypogeal, which means the cotyledons of the germinating seed stay in the ground and inside the seed coat.

Therefore, it is less vulnerable to wind erosion, or insect attack. The plant is a diploid, bushy herb of erect, semierect, or spreading and compact growth and varies from 30 to 50 centimetres in height, it has many hairy branches and its stem is slender and angular. The rachis bears 10 to 15 leaflets in five to eight pairs; the leaves are alternate, of oblong-linear and obtuse shape and from yellowish green to dark bluish green in colour. In general, the upper leaves are converted into tendrils. If stipules are present, they are small; the flowers, one to four in number, are small, pink, pale purple, or pale blue in colour. They arise from the axils of the leaves, on a slender footstalk as long as the leaves; the pods are oblong inflated, about 1.5 centimetres long. Each of them contains two seeds, about 0.5 centimetres in diameter, in the characteristic lens shape. The seeds can be mottled and speckled; the several cultivated varieties of lentil differ in size and colour of the leaves and seeds.

Lentils are self-pollinating. The flowering begins from the lowermost buds and moves upward, so-called acropetal flowering. About two weeks are needed for all the flowers to open on the single branch. At the end of the second day and on the third day after the opening of the flowers, they close and the colour begins to fade. After three to four days, the setting of the pods takes place. Types can be classified according to their size, whether they are split or whole, or shelled or unshelled. Seed coats can range from light green to deep purple, as well as being tan, brown, black or mottled. Shelled lentils show the colour of the cotyledon which can be yellow, red, or green. Red-cotyledon types: Nipper Northfield Cobber Digger Nugget Aldinga Masoor daal Petite crimson Red Chief Small green/brown-seed coat types: Eston Green Pardina Verdina Medium green/brown-seed coat types Avondale Matilda RichleaLarge green/brown-seed coat types: Boomer Brewer's: a large brown lentil, considered the "regular" lentil in the United States Castellana Laird: the commercial standard for large green lentils in western Canada Mason Merrit Mosa Naslada Pennell Riveland Other types: Beluga: black, bead-like, lens-shaped spherical, named for resemblance to beluga caviar.

Called Indianhead in Canada. Macachiados: big yellow Mexican lentils Puy lentils: Lens esculenta puyensis with a Protected Designation of Origin name In 2016, global production of lentils was 6.3 million tonnes, led by Canada with 51 percent and India with 17 percent of the world total. Saskatchewan is the most productive growing region in Canada. For 2016, Statistics Canada reported a national production yield of 3.2 million tonnes from 5,700,000 acres harvested. The Palouse region of eastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle, with its commercial center at Pullman, constitutes the most imp

Spotswood College is a co-educational state secondary school in Spotswood, New Plymouth, New Zealand. It was founded in 1960 and celebrated its 50th Jubilee in 2010, it was New Zealand's largest school. It is New Plymouth's only co-educational secondary school, with a current roll of 764 students; the college has modern facilities for staff and students. Some of the less common features of Spotswood College include its beach volleyball arena, horticultural facilities, music department complete with recording facilities, rated special education and international departments. A new gymnasium is under construction, two classroom blocks are planned to be demolished to make way for new learning areas to be constructed. Spotswood College had four houses. In 1969, when the college expanded the education department split the college into two schools, one named East, the other West. In 1980 the college reverted to its original structure and the four house system was re-introduced; the houses were named after the original settlers of New Plymouth.

In 2012, the houses were given dual names with the original names added. The house names are based from the Sugar Loaf Islands off the coast of New Plymouth. 1960–1968 and 2012–present Mikotahi Moturoa Motumahanga Paritutu1969–1979 East West1980–2012 Darnell Atkinson Barrett Richmond Spotswood College has hosted international students from Italy, Brazil, Italy, USA, Russia, New Caledonia, Sweden and Thailand. It has specific facilities and staff members to support them during their time in New Zealand. In 2009, 22 students from Spotswood College's kapa haka group Te Kura Tuarua O Ngamotu were chosen to represent New Zealand at the tenth annual Te Manahua Maori cultural competition in Laie, Hawaii. In 2013, Spotswood College provided students learning Japanese the opportunity to visit their sister school Hatsukaichi Senior High School in Hiroshima, Japan. In exchange, 8 students and 1 teacher from Hatsukaichi Senior High School visited Spotswood College and were hosted by local families. Classes and groups from Spotswood College have visited Japan, New Caledonia, Vietnam, Thailand, United Kingdom and Italy.

Hatsukaichi Senior High School in Hiroshima, Japan On 8 August 2012, Spotswood College students Stephen Kahukaka-Gedye and Felipe Melo, both 17, their Taranaki Outdoor Pursuits and Education Centre instructor Bryce Jourdain, 42, were swept out to sea while climbing around Paritutu rock as part of a TOPEC camp activity. The body of Felipe Melo was found and identified; the bodies of Bryce and Stephen were never found. TOPEC plead guilty to three charges. A fourth was dropped. TOPEC was charged $250,000 for the incident. TOPEC still runs camps and activities for secondary schools around the Taranaki region, however Spotswood College have never held camps with TOPEC since the incident. Spotswood College now has a stone monument in memory of them outside the entrance of the college. Mr Alex L McPhail Mr Evan. E Thomas Mr Barry P Finch Mr Graeme McFadyen Mr. Mark A. Bowden Mrs. Nicola Ngarewa In mid 2018, it was announced that Mr. Mark Bowden would be retiring from his position as Principal at the end of term two.

After a selection process, the Board of Trustees selected former Patea Area School Principal Nicola Ngarewa to take over the position at the beginning of term four, become the school's first female principal. Mr. Daryn Shaw became acting principal for the entirety of term three while Mrs Ngarewa transitioned from Patea Area School. Harry Duynhoven — Previous mayor of New Plymouth and MP for New Zealand Labour Party. Former Associate Minister of Transport. Current New Plymouth councillor. Liz Craig - Current member of Parliament for the New Zealand Labour Party Mark Crysell - Former TVNZ Europe correspondent and current Sunday reporter Peter Jefferies — Musician Willie Talau – Rugby League Player Abigail Christodoulou – X Factor NZ contestant

The Edgemont neighborhood is a community of mill works located in Durham, North Carolina. Known as Smoky Hollow, this area developed around the Durham Hosiery Mills in the late 19th century. Durham was a “raw whistle-stop village” along the Great North Carolina Central Rail Road that transformed into one of the largest tobacco cities in the United States; the Durham City Bull became one of the better-known tobacco trademarks with the help of the big players in the industry, W. T. Blackwell and Company and Julian Carr; the success of these tobacco mills started overflowing into other industries textile mills that produced cloth bags and other hosieries. As demands rose, communities began changing around the factories. A shift in the racial make up of the workforce was reflected in Edgemont’s shift to a more African American dominant community as the years progressed. Julian Carr Jr. was one of the first to allow black workers in factory level jobs to help cope with the high demands. This industrialist’s decision to reach over the race barrier is part of what made Durham “the City of the New South.”

The Edgemont Neighborhood is just one of many examples of how Durham became one of the more progressive and tolerant locations for African Americans in the country. The city of Durham materialized off a railroad because it was considered "healthy land," starting its journey towards the tobacco center of the South nearly 100 years later. In a nearby newspaper in 1855, John A. McMannen proposed to develop the area near the train stop by advertising land in the new location. In 1884 and 1887, Julian S. Carr erected the Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company and Golden Belt Manufacturing Company; the cotton manufacturing company made "cloth for tobacco bags to chambrays, gingams … and colored goods." The Golden Belt factory, while less profitable than the cotton factory, expanded making cloth bags for selling tobacco, Flour Sacks, the like. As the cotton and silk business took off, the industry leaders decided to expand their manufacturing options and created hosiery mills – sock companies. In 1898, Carr merged his Golden Belt Hosiery Company with Durham Hosiery Company, owned by George W. Graham, to create the Durham Hosiery Mills, "a firm destined for success."

The business grew and required another plant to keep up with demands. In 1901, machines were moved to an eastern section of Durham, the neighborhood of Edgemont grew up around it. To fill the factories, surrounding communities were developed into suitable living spaces, as the newspapers phrased it, "Edgemont will be the beautiful industrial silkworm that will come from the Smoky Hollow cocoon." As Edgemont and other surrounding neighborhoods started to develop, the African American working community started to move into the region and become a prominent part of the society. The Edgemont Neighborhood community developed out of a pocket in east Durham called Smoky Hollow, notorious for its rowdiness and crime in the late 19th century; the area had alternating black and whites neighborhoods because of the nature of the land, a source of the tension in the era, with blacks purchasing the cheap housing at the bottom of hills and whites at the top. A campaign rose to combat the rowdiness, newspapers threatened landlords in this area "to oust their unruly tenants" or their names would be published for all to read.

When Edgemont became the home of a new mill in the beginning of the 20th century, more jobs and income was created for the area, helping to raise the standards of living. The life of a mill worker, including the African American workers, proved to be far superior in the Durham community than anywhere else in the country. "The three largest mills had constructed for their employees, all in the same four-room, wooden pattern, with front porches." It was noted that Durham industries did not recruit workers, including children, to work 12-hour days in the harsh conditions that existed. Instead, the employees would opt for more hours and families would utilize their entirety to increase the household's income. Durham mill owners were known for their respectable deeds amongst their employees. One such example was co-owner, Tom Fuller, was able to persuade the city to build a school building in the Edgemont Community, for the benefit of the children in his Golden Belt mill community; when the First Presbyterian Church was established in Edgemont, he resigned his eldership in the church to devote more of himself to the new congregation composed of his mill workers.

It was noted that many farmers who wanted to escape the "physical drudgery" of their jobs moved into Durham to be get regular 9 to 5 jobs with a definite wage and the community that encompassed it. The African Americans maintained a much higher status in Durham than most other locations in the South. According to The North Carolina Guide of 1955, there were well established "college and business firms, a large insurance company, newspapers, a library, a hospital and the Mechanics and Farmers Bank and Raleigh. In 1887, African Americans owned but two lots in the city. In 1953, their business assets aggregated $51,329,278.12." One of the first African American owned. Entire sections of the city would go on to be African American run years before other cities in the south. Race tensions, while still prevalent in the city, were disregarded. Company owners invested more into their African American dominated mill communities, because a well-established community was shown to be more efficient. After some funding by Julian S. Carr, John Merrick was able to become a full-time barbershop owner and ensue