ham, ham me, homme

[A. S. hamm; cogn. with O. H. Ger. hamma; Ger. ham me; Dut. ham me =a ham. So called from the bend in the leg; cf. Welsh cam bent; Lat.camur.] 1. The inner or hind part of the knee; the part where the leg and thigh unite and meet; the thigh of any animal. 2. The thigh of an animal, spec if., of a hog, salted and cured, or dried in smoke. hăm'-a-dry-ăd ( pl . hăm-a-dry-adş, hăm-adry-a-dēş), s. [Lat. hamadryades , pl. of ham a dry as; Gr. Hamadryades , from ham a =together with, and drus =a tree.] Ancient Myth .: A dryad or wood-nymph. hăm-a-dry-as, s. [HAMADRYAD.] 1. Zool .: The distinctive name of a species of the genus Cynocephalus (q. v.); it is sometimes called the Arabian Baboon, and among the ancient Egyptians was worshiped as a type of Thoth, the god of let ters. Its color is ashy gray, with long slate colored whis kers, face and ears ored, hands black, callosi ties large and bright-red; the tail is tufted, and the males are heavily maned. They live in herds Hamadryas. of from eighty to a hundred; habitat, the mount ains in Arabia, throughout Aby in i a, in Sennaar, Kordofan, and Darfur, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. 2. Bot . A genus of Ranunculacese, from the Antarctic regions. IMG:content-0932.png:[blocks in formation] suff.- aceæ, -ideœ.] Bot .: Witch-hazels, an order of epigynous exogens, alliance Umbellales. It consists of trees or shrubs with hollow stems, sometimes marked by circular discs; alternate, deciduous, toothed leaves, with veins turning from the midrib straight to the margin; deciduous stipules; small axillary, sometimes unisexual flowers, with their calyx in four or five divisions, four or five petals, eight stamens, four of them with abortive anthers, and a two celled capsular, half inferior fruit with pendulous seeds. The order is found in North America, Japan, China. Central Asia, Madagascar, and South Africa. Genera, thirteen.