Luffa Operculata MHNT
''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah, usually refers to the fruits of the species ''Luffa aegyptiaca'' and ''Luffa acutangula''. It is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable, but must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. When the fruit is fully ripened, it is very fibrous. The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge which is used in bathrooms and kitchens. Names The name ''luffa'' was taken by European botanists in the 17th century from the Egyptian-Arabic name ''lūf''.The plant name "luffa" was introduced to Western botany nomenclature by the botanist Johann Vesling (died 1649), who visited Egypt in the late–1620s and described the plant under cultivation with artificial irrigation in Egypt. In 1706 the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort int ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dictionary''. Life Born in Deptford or Greenwich, Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death. According to the botanist Peter Collinson, who visited the physic garden in July 1764 and recorded his observation in his commonplace books, Miller "has raised the reputation of the Chelsea Garden so much that it excels all the gardens of Europe for its amazing variety of plants of all orders and classes and from all climates..." He wrote ''The Gardener's and Florists Dictionary or a Complete System of Horticulture'' (1724) and ''The Gardener's Dictionary containing the Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen Fruit and Flower Garden'', which first appeared in 1731 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Johann Vesling
Johann Vesling (Latin: Veslingius) (1598 – 30 August 1649) was a German anatomist and botanist from Minden, Westphalia. He published a major illustrated work on human anatomy ''Syntagma Anatomicum'' (1641). Life and work Vesling was born in Minden, Westphalia. His Catholic family fled to Vienna to escape religious persecution. It is thought that he studied at the University of Leiden from 1619. He trained in botany and medicine but he received a degree from the University of Venice. In 1628 he was applied as an "Incisor" at the medical college in Venice. In the same year he traveled to Egypt and Jerusalem, where he was the personal physician of the Venice consul, and also conducted extensive studies of regional flora (particularly medicinal plants). In 1632 he became professor of anatomy and surgery at Padua, where he was an instructor to Thomas Bartholin. His popularity however was the cause of his downfall. Later in his career, he succeeded Prospero Alpini (died 1616) as dir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ridge Gourd( Beerakai )
''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah, usually refers to the fruits of the species ''Luffa aegyptiaca'' and ''Luffa acutangula''. It is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable, but must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. When the fruit is fully ripened, it is very fibrous. The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge which is used in bathrooms and kitchens. Names The name ''luffa'' was taken by European botanists in the 17th century from the Egyptian-Arabic name ''lūf''.The plant name "luffa" was introduced to Western botany nomenclature by the botanist Johann Vesling (died 1649), who visited Egypt in the late–1620s and described the plant under cultivation with artificial irrigation in Egypt. In 1706 the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort int ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see how websites looked in the past. Its founders, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, developed the Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by preserving archived copies of defunct web pages. Launched on May 10, 1996, the Wayback Machine had more than 38.2 million records at the end of 2009. , the Wayback Machine had saved more than 760 billion web pages. More than 350 million web pages are added daily. History The Wayback Machine began archiving cached web pages in 1996. One of the earliest known pages was saved on May 10, 1996, at 2:08p.m. Internet Archive founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat launched the Wayback Machine in San Francisco, California, in October 2001, primarily to address the problem of web co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Xylem
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem. The basic function of xylem is to transport water from roots to stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word ''xylem'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (''xylon''), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout a plant. The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858. Structure The most distinctive xylem cells are the long tracheary elements that transport water. Tracheids and vessel elements are distinguished by their shape; vessel elements are shorter, and are connected together into long tubes that are called ''vessels''. Xylem also contains two other type of cells: parenchyma and fibers. Xylem can be found: * in vascular bundles, present in non-woody plants and non-woody parts of woody plants * in secondary xylem, laid down by a meristem called the vascular cambium in woody plants * as part of a stelar arrangement n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sponge (material)
A sponge is a cleaning aid made of soft, porous material. Typically used for cleaning impervious surfaces, sponges are especially good at absorbing water and water-based solutions. Originally made from natural sea sponges, they are most commonly made from synthetic materials today. Etymology The word comes from the Ancient Greek term (), which in turn is probably derived from a Mediterranean Pre-Indo European substrate. History The first reference of sponges used for hygiene dates from Ancient Greece. Competitors of the Olympic Games bathed themselves with sea sponges soaked in olive oil or perfume before competing. In the book ''Odyssey'' by the Greek poet Homer, the god Hephaestus cleans his hands, face, and chest with a sea sponge, and the servants in the Odysseus palace also used sea sponges to clean the tables after the meals the suitors of Penelope had there. The Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato also mentioned sea sponges in both scientific and historic conte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Loofah
''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae). In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah, usually refers to the fruits of the species ''Luffa aegyptiaca'' and ''Luffa acutangula''. It is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable, but must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. When the fruit is fully ripened, it is very fibrous. The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge which is used in bathrooms and kitchens. Names The name ''luffa'' was taken by European botanists in the 17th century from the Egyptian-Arabic name ''lūf''.The plant name "luffa" was introduced to Western botany nomenclature by the botanist Johann Vesling (died 1649), who visited Egypt in the late–1620s and described the plant under cultivation with artificial irrigation in Egypt. In 1706 the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort int ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Okra
Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of West African, Ethiopian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian origins. Cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions around the world, okra is used in the cuisines of many countries. Etymology ''Abelmoschus'' is New Latin from Arabic أَبُو المِسْك (ʾabū l-misk, “father of musk”), while ''esculentus'' is Latin for being fit for human consumption. The first use of the word ''okra'' (alternatively; ''okro'' or ''ochro'') appeared in 1679 in the Colony of Virginia, deriving from the Igbo word . The word ''gumbo'' was first used in American vernacular around 1805, deriving from Louisiana Creole, but originates from either the Umbundu word ''ochinggômbo'' or the Kimbundu word ''ki-ngombo.'' Despi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Because it is on the North American Plate, North American Tectonic Plate, Greenland is included as a part of North America geographically. North America covers an area of about , about 16.5% of Earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third-largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the list of continents and continental subregions by population, fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in List of sovereign states and dependent territories in North America, 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population. In Americas (terminology)#Human ge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Momordica
''Momordica'' is a genus of about 60 species of annual or perennial climbers herbaceous or rarely small shrubs belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae, natives of tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia and Australia. Most species produce floral oils and are visited by specialist pollinators in the apid tribe Ctenoplectrini. A molecular phylogeny that includes all species is available (Schaefer and Renner, 2010). Cultivation and uses Some ''Momordica'' species are grown in cultivation for their fleshy fruit, which are oblong to cylindrical in shape, orange to red in colour, prickly or warted externally, and in some species burst when ripe, generally with elastic force, into irregular valves. ''Momordica'' can be cultivated in 5 litre vases or jardinière and is hardly susceptible to plagues. After seeding, ''Momordica'' develops leaves in about 11 days and flowers after 40 to 50 days. After fertilisation, the ''Momordica'' fruit will be developed in about 10 days. ''Momordica c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as . Linnaeus was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his ' in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |