PYXIE, PINE BARREN BEAUTY, FLOWERING Py,ridan Thera barhulatal. A small creep ing shrub of the natural order Diapensiaec:r. It is a common plant in New •Jersey and North Carolina upon moist, sandy soil, and is esteemed for its pink buds and white, five-petaled blossoms, which appear in early spring. It is rarely culti vated, though the flowers are often sold in cities near where the plants grow wild.
The seventeenth letter of the Eng lish alphabet. In Greek this letter was called koppu, and in Semitic qoph. It was early displaced in Greek by kappa (k), surviving only as a numeral sign for 90. The development of the character was as follows: ' 9' 9 4 Q Plueniclan. Greek. Early Latin. Later Latin.
Soon after the Norman Conquest the letter was introduced into English from Norman French words in q. It replaced Anglo-Saxon en' in sev eral Germanic words, as queen, from men; quick from civic; quoth from eweej).
In sound the letter is the velar explosive. Since q in English is always followed by a plus a vowel, the usual phonetic value (kw) is that of the velar explosive labialized. This sound is formed
simultaneously in two places, the soft palate (velum) and the lips.
Oa (pronounced kw) represents Indo-Germanic velar g in its labialized form gm. ludo-Germ. auna. `woman:' Skt. gnii, Bteotian Gk. pavd, AS. Eng. queen: Skt. fir. give.' Gk. Plos; AS. civic Eng. quick. Almost all the English words containing qu are of Latin or French origin, as quadrangle. quart. etiquette. In some words borrowed from the French the sound is that of a simple k, as pique, coquette. lin does not occur medially except in such compounds as inquire, requite, inquisition.
As a mediwval Roman numeral Q = 500. In Latin Q. was the abbreviation for Quintus.
Q. C. stands for Queen's Counsel: Q. E. D. (Latin, quad erat desnon.stra-ndum) = which was to be proved ; qr. = quarter or quire: qt. = quart ; q.v. (Latin, quad ride) = which see.