Page 578 : EBONY — ECHINODERMATA
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in regard to the life of early Egypt. The most famous of these is Uarda. Others are An Egyptian Princess, Homo Sum, The Burgomaster’s Wife and The Emperor. He died on Aug. 7, 1898.
Eb′ony, a species of Diospyros, plants of the ebony family. The American representative is the common persimmon (D. virginiana). There are 180 species in the tropics and a very few in the temperate regions. Most of the species have valuable hardwood, but it is from certain of the tropical ones that the commerical ebony is obtained. D. ebenum, a tree becoming about 50 feet high and growing in the East Indies, is said to yield the best ebony.
Ebullition. See Evaporation.
Ecbatana (ek-bat′ a-nä), the capital and chief fortress of [[../Medes|Media]], situated one and a half miles from Mount Orontes and at the foot of a hill crowned with the royal citadel and a magnificent temple of the sun. According to Herodotus, Ecbatana was founded about 700 B. C. and surrounded with seven walls, each higher than the one next outside it. The inmost wall inclosed the citadel with the treasury. The city was taken by [[../Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] in 550 B. C., and became the chief seat of his government. It was a favorite summer-residence of the Persian kings, and Alexander the Great stayed there for some months in 324 B. C. After his death it became a mere provincial town, but under the Parthians it again became a summer-home of kings. It again sank into insignificance till the Mohammedan period, when the modern city of Hamadan was built on the site of the ancient city. There were six other Asiatic cities to which the name Ecbatana was given by Greek writers.
Ecclesia (ĕk-klē′ zĭ-ȧ), a popular assembly, especially of Athens, where the people had full sovereignty and at which every citizen of 20 years of age could vote. The Athenian ecclesia held originally four but finally 40 ordinary meetings in the year. The term was also given to the Jewish state, and so came to be used by New Testament writers to mean the church.
Echinodermata (ḗ-kī′ nṓ-dẽr′ mȧ-tȧ), the subkingdom of animals; containing [[../Starfish|starfish]], sea-urchins, sea-cucumbers and crinoids. As the name implies, they all have a spiny skin. They are all inhabitants of salt water. The common starfish (see illustration) has five arms radiating from a central disk. At the end of each arm is a little red eye-spot; on the back is a rounded tubercle through which water enters the body; on the lower surface, in the center of the disk, is the mouth; and along the middle of the arms, in grooves, are the tube-feet used in locomotion. Other varieties of starfishes are the brittle stars, the basket-fish, etc. The starfishes form one class of the sub-kingdom. The sea-urchins form another class. The common sea-urchins are rounded and have a hard, limy, outer case that is covered with numerous spines (see illustration). When the spines are removed, the case is seen to be made of limy plates nicely fitted together. Five sets of these plates, passing like meridians around the shell, are perforated by little holes for the tube-feet, and five other rows of plates are not punctured. Inside the shell is a very complicated structure containing five teeth, the points of the teeth coming to the surface at the mouth; the rest of the apparatus is within the shell. It is often called Aristotle’s lantern. Other kinds of sea-urchins are flattened, and are variously called sand-cakes, sand-dollars, etc. Most of the starfishes and sea-urchins move by tube-feet, which are extended by water-pressure from within. A system of tubes, called collectively the water-vascular system, carries water over the body. The tubes are arranged as follows: a central tubular ring about the mouth and five radiating tubes leading from it into the arms. From these main tubes smaller ones spring off, right and left, communicating with the tube-feet outside the body and with an equal number of rounded sacs within the body. The water enters through a sieve-like plate on the top of the body, and is carried by a tube to the central vessel around the mouth and then distributed through the rest of the system. The sea-cucumbers form another class. They have a long, plump body shaped like a cucumber, with tube-feet in rows along the body and a tree-like expanse at one end for breathing. The crinoids or feathered stars make another class. They have a body with branching processes extending from it, all borne on
Image: STARFISH
Image:SEA-URCHIN
