xanthite

[Greek xanthos =yellow; suff. -ite (Min.).) Mineral .: A yellowish-brown variety of Idocraze (q. v.), containing 2.80 per cent. of protoxide of manganese. Found near Amity, Orange county, New York. xăn-thi-ŭm, subst. [ Gr.xanthos , = yellow. So named because an infusion of species of the genus was used by the Greeks to dye their hair.] Bot.: Burweed; a genus of Senecionidese, subtribe Ambrosiese. Moncæcio us Composites; the barren flowers having an involucre of few scales, with many capitate flowers on a common receptacle, the fertile ones with a single, prickly, two-beaked involucre entirely closing the flowers, and with apertures for the protrusion of the two stigmas, fruit included in the enlarged and hardened involucre. Xanthium strumarium and X. spinosum are casuals in Britain; the former is a weed common in waste places, on river banks, and near villages in India, and troublesome to cultivators. It is said to yield an oil, used in medicine and as an illuminant. The whole plant is considered to be diaphoretic and sedative. It is administered in decoction in malarious fever. The root is a bitter tonic, useful in cancer and in strumous diseases. The leaves are poison ous to cattle. xăn-tho-, pref. [Gr.xanthos=yellow.] Yellow, the meaning amplified by the succeeding element or elements of a word. xantho