FINGAL'S CAVE, a curious cavern formed of basaltic columns, in the Isle of Staffa, one of the Hebrides, on the west coast of Scotland, 25 miles from Oban. See STAFFA and COLUMNAR JOINTING.
to retain the numbers erased during o ions on the sand abacus, and probably on operations forms as well (see ABACUS) i (2) the one leading to a kind of international language, helpful in bargaining at the great fairs of antiquity_ and the Middle Ages and still used in the East•, (3) that of actual computation, the so-called nger reckoning, still somewhat used in certain parts of the world. Of these three the first was the most important and with the second it resulted in a number language quite as international as the Hindu-Arabic numerals (see NUMERALS) which led to its decay. The antiquity of the system in Egypt, Greece and Rome is attested by several classi cal writers, Juvenal, for example, speaking of the aged Nestor as numbering his years upon his right hand, that being the one used for numerals exceeding 99. Herodotus, Pliny,
Macrobius, Plautus, Seneca, Suetonius, and probably Aristophanes and Solomon (Proverbs iii, 16) are among the 'other witnesses to its a crab grass (Panicum ranguinate, Linn.), a well-known annual. com mon in nearly all parts of the United States, growing in cultivated fields and about dwell ings. It is a weed in gardens and among hoed crops. In grain fields after harvest it f re 9uently springs up in such quantity, particularly in the Southern States, as to yield one or even two good cuttings of hay. This spontaneous growth affords excellent pasturage, as well as hay of first quality if properly cured. The stems are much branched and in good soil at tain a length of three to four feet. This grass contains little fibre and dries quickly when cut, but if after cutting it is wet by rains or heavy dews its value for hay is almost wholly de stroyed.