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Bible Encyclopedias
Scythe
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or an implement for mowing grass or reaping corn or grain, consisting of a curved steel blade fastened to a long wooden handle with a slight double curve from which project two small pieces by which the handle is held. The handle is which the oral arms become fused together to form a proboscis. Nine families, three of Semaeostomeae, six of Rhizostomeae: 1. Pelagiidae. - Semaeostomeae with wide gastric pouches not united by a ring-canal. Pelagia, an oceanic genus with direct development. Chrysaora (fig. 3b), a common British medusa, with a scyphistoma stage and alternation of generations. Dactylometra, a common American medusa of the Atlantic shores, differs from Chrysaora in small points.
Modified from a coloured plate in Prince of 2. C aneidae. - Semaeo Monaco's series ? FIG. 14. - A tolla bairdi. After O. Maas. stomeae with sixteen gastric pouches sending off canals to the margin not united by a ring-canal; tentacles in bunches on the margin. Cyanea (fig. 15), represented in the British fauna by two species.
3. Ulmaridae. - Semaeostomeae with gastric pouches relatively small, sending off branching canals to the margin, where they are united by a ring-canal. Ulmaris, from the South Atlantic, has only After E. Haeckel, from System der Medusen, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
FIG. 15. - Cyanea (Desmonema) anasethe, about two-thirds life-size.
eight adradial tentacles. Aurelia (fig. 2), with numerous marginal tentacles, is one of the commonest and most familiar of jellyfishes.
4. Cassiopeidae. - Rhizostomeae with subumbral musculature arranged in feather-like arcades (Arcadomyaria, Maas); oral arms pinnate. Cassiopeia. 5. Cepheidae. - Rhizostomeae with subumbral musculature in radial tracts (Radiomyaria, Maas); oral arms bifid. Cephea, Cotylorhiza. 6. Rhizostomatidae (Pilemidae). - Rhizostomeae with subumbral musculature in circular bands (Cyclomyaria); oral arms bifid or technically known as the "snathe," "sned" or "snead" (sncedan to cut, cf. Ger. schneiden). The word in O.E. is siZse or sipe M.E. sithe; the mis-spelling "scythe" is paralleled by "scent," and is possibly due to the Fr. scier, saw; the word means "an instrument for cutting," and is derived from the root sak-, seen in Lat. secare, to cut, "saw" and "sickle," the oldest of reaping implements, with deep curved blade and short handle. The same root is seen in the "sedge," i.e. cutting or sword-grass, strictly applied to plants of the genus Carex, but loosely used of flags, rushes and other grasses growing in marshy places (see Reaping).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Scythe'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/s/scythe.html. 1910.
