Laurus nobilis

Laurus nobilis is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth and hairless) leaves, in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay laurel, sweet bay, bay (esp. United Kingdom),[1]:84true laurel, Grecian laurel,[2]laurel tree or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture.

Worldwide, many other kinds of plants in diverse families are also called "bay" or "laurel", generally due to similarity of foliage or aroma to Laurus nobilis, and the full name is used for the California bay laurel (Umbellularia), also in the family Lauraceae.

The laurel is an evergreen shrub or small tree, variable in size and sometimes reaching 7–18 m (23–59 ft) tall.[1] The genus Laurus includes four accepted species,[3] whose diagnostic key characters often overlap.[4]

ODESSA

The ODESSA is an American codename (from the German: Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 for a possible Nazi underground escape plan at the end of World War II by a group of SS officers with the aim of facilitating secret escape routes. The idea has been widely circulated in fictional spy novels and movies, notably Frederick Forsyth's best-selling 1972 thriller The Odessa File. The routes are also called ratlines. The goal was to allow the SS members to escape to Argentina, Brazil, or the Middle East under false passports.[1] This goal was in fact achieved by 300 Nazis with support from Juan Perón after he came to power in Argentina in 1946.[2]

Though an unknown number of wanted Nazis and war criminals did in fact escape Europe, the existence of an organisation called ODESSA is rejected by most experts. However it is widely accepted that there were escape organisations for Nazis. Uki Goñi maintains that archival evidence paints a picture that "does not even include an organization actually named Odessa, but it is sinister nonetheless, and weighted in favour of an actual organized escape network." [3]Guy Walters, in his 2009 book Hunting Evil, stated he was unable to find any evidence of the existence of the ODESSA network as such, although numerous other organisations such as Konsul, Scharnhorst, Sechsgestirn, Leibwache, and Lustige Brüder have been named,[1] including Die Spinne ("The Spider") run in part by Hitler's commando chief Otto Skorzeny.[4] Historian Daniel Stahl in his 2011 essay stated that the consensus among historians is that an organisation called ODESSA did not actually exist.[5][6]Uki Goñi's book "The Real Odessa" describes the role of dictator Juan Peron in providing cover for Nazi war criminals with cooperation from the Vatican, the Argentinean government and the Swiss authorities through a secret office set up by Peron's agents in Bern. Heinrich Himmler's secret service had prepared an escape route in Madrid in 1944, in 1946, this operation moved to the Presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Goñi states that the operation stretched from Scandinavia to Italy, aiding war criminals and bringing in gold that the Croatian treasury had stolen.[7]

The codeword "Odessa" – as used by the Allies – appeared for the first time in a memo dated July 3, 1946, by the American Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) whose principal role was to screen displaced persons for possible suspects. The CIC discovered that the word "ODESSA" was used at the KZ Bensheim-Auerbach internment camp for SS prisoners who used this watchword in their secret attempts to gain special privileges from the Red Cross, wrote historian Guy Walters. Neither the Americans nor the British were able to verify the claims extending any further than that.[1]

Lewes, Delaware

Lewes (/ˈluːɪs/ LOO-iss) is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747.[6] Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region. The city lies within the Salisbury, Maryland–Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lewes proudly claims to be "The First Town in The First State."

Lewes was the site of the first European settlement in Delaware, a whaling and trading post that Dutch settlers founded on June 3, 1631 and named Zwaanendael (Swan Valley).[7] The colony had a short existence, as a local tribe of Lenape Native Americans wiped out the 32 settlers in 1632.

The area remained rather neglected by the Dutch until, under the threat of annexation from the English colony of Maryland, the city of Amsterdam made a grant of land at the Hoernkills (the area around Cape Henlopen, near the current town of Lewes) to a group of Mennonites for settlement in 1662. A total of 35 men were to be included in the settlement, led by a Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy of Zierikzee and funded by a sizable loan from the city to get them established. The settlement was established in 1663, but the timing of the settlement was terrible: In 1664, the English wrested New Netherland from the Dutch, and they had the settlement destroyed with British reports indicating that “not even a nail” was left there.[8]

Port Penn, Delaware

Port Penn is an unincorporated community located in St. Georges Hundred, southern New Castle County, Delaware below the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the west bank of the Delaware River. Port Penn is home to the Port Penn Interpretive Center.[2] Its population is estimated at 252.

Lincoln

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Rehoboth Beach is a city on the Atlantic Ocean along the Delaware Beaches in eastern Sussex County, Delaware, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 1,327, reflecting a decline of 161 (11.2%) from the 1,488 counted in the 2000 Census.[5] Along with the neighboring coastal city of Lewes, Rehoboth Beach is one of the principal cities of Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region. Rehoboth Beach lies within the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In 2011, the NRDC awarded Rehoboth Beach with a 5-Star rating in water quality. This award was given only to 12 other locations, one being neighboring Dewey Beach.[7] Out of the 30 states with coastline, the Delaware Beaches ranked number one in water quality in 2011.[8]

Human beings probably inhabited the area of Rehoboth Beach as long ago as 10,000 B.C.citation needed; little is known about them because much of the evidence of their existence has been destroyed by weather and climate events/changes plus human urban development. At that time, sea levels were lower, and the Atlantic Coast lay about 30 miles (48 km) farther east than it does today. At the time, the area would have resembled inland portions of southern Delaware today. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the area in the 17th century, the coastline was at its present location and several Native American Indian tribes lived in the area, including the Lenape (or Delaware), the Sikkonese, the Assateagues, and the Nanticoke. The site was the location of what may have been the most important Native American fishing village on the Middle Atlantic coast (the evidence has been obliterated by development).[9] Pressure from English and Dutch settlers radiating outward from Cape Henolopen near Lewes, Delaware at the entrance to Delaware Bay forced the Lenape to migrate to upper New York state, eastern Canada, and eventually to the west in Indian Territory (later formed Oklahoma, Kansas, parts of Arkansas) while the Sikkonese and Assateagues were extirpated; the Nanticoke, however, still exist in the general area today. The land later came under the control of the Duke of York, younger brother of King Charles II who also seized and occupied in 1664 the Dutch colony further north at the mouth of the Hudson River on Manhattan Island and adjacent Long Island as New Netherland with Fort Amsterdam and the village of New Amsterdam. Followed by the previous Swedish colony on the upper Delaware River at Fort Christina and New Sweden (which the Dutch had attacked and occupied several years earlier). These later became part of the English and later British America colonies/provinces of New York state and New York town along with renamed Wilmington and New Castle along the Delaware River as part of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania and later in the future state of Delaware. Later the Duke himself granted holdings to various landholders who endured into the 18th century. The duke later acceeded to the English throne himself as King James II of England and also James VI of Scotland.

Little Creek, Delaware

The Cherbourg Round Barn, Little Creek Hundred Rural Historic District, Little Creek Methodist Church, Old Stone Tavern, Port Mahon Lighthouse, Elizabeth Stubbs House, and Jonathan Woodley House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[5]

As of the census[8] of 2000, there were 195 people, 67 households, and 49 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,780.5 people per square mile (684.5/km²). There were 74 housing units at an average density of 675.7 per square mile (259.7/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 91.28% White, 6.67% African American, 0.51% Native American, 0.51% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.59% of the population.

There were 67 households out of which 40.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.3% were married couples living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.32.

Clarence-Rockland

Clarence-Rockland is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell on the Ottawa River. Clarence-Rockland is located immediately to the east of Ottawa and is considered part of Canada's National Capital Region in the census.

The city includes the communities of Bourget, Cheney, Clarence, Clarence Creek, Hammond, Rockland, Saint-Pascal-Baylon. The city administrative offices are located in Rockland, which is the largest community in the city.

The city is officially bilingual. It is 69 per cent francophone and is the largest majority-francophone city in North America outside of Quebec or the Caribbean, recently achieving a greater population than Edmundston, New Brunswick. (There are higher numbers of francophones in other Canadian cities such as Ottawa (122,665), Sudbury (45,420), Toronto (34,900), Winnipeg (26,855), Moncton (20,425) and Timmins (17,390), but French speakers in these cities are a minority.)

Magnolia

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees did, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are extremely tough.[1]Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae date to 95 million years ago.[2] Another aspect of Magnolia considered to represent an ancestral state is that the flower bud is enclosed in a bract rather than in sepals; the perianth parts are undifferentiated and called tepals rather than distinct sepals and petals. Magnolia shares the tepal characteristic with several other flowering plants near the base of the flowering plant lineage such as Amborella and Nymphaea (as well as with many more recently derived plants such as Lilium).

The natural range of Magnolia species is a disjunct distribution, with a main centre in east and southeast Asia and a secondary centre in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in South America.

As with all Magnoliaceae, the perianth is undifferentiated, with 9–15 tepals in 3 or more whorls. The flowers are bisexual with numerous adnate carpels and stamens are arranged in a spiral fashion on the elongated receptacle. The fruit dehisces along the dorsal sutures of the carpels. The pollen is monocolpate, and the embryo development is of the Polygonum type.(Kapil 1964)(Xu and Rudall 2006)

Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799)[1] was a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Born in Guadeloupe, he was the son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges, a wealthy planter, and Nanon, his African slave.[2] During the French Revolution, Saint-Georges was colonel of the Légion St.-Georges,[3] the first all-black regiment in Europe, fighting on the side of the Republic. Today the Chevalier de Saint-Georges is best remembered as the first classical composer of African ancestry.

Born in Baillif, Basse-Terre, Joseph Bologne was the son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges (a wealthy planter on the island of Guadeloupe) and Nanon, his African slave.[4] His father, called "de Saint-Georges" after one of his plantations in Guadeloupe, was a commoner until 1757, when he acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi (Gentleman of the king’s chamber).[5] Misled by Roger de Beauvoir’s 1840 romantic novel Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges,[6] most of his biographers confused Joseph’s father with Guillaume-Pierre de Boullogne, Controller of Finance, whose family was ennobled in the 15th century. This led to the erroneous spelling of Saint-Georges’ family name as "Boulogne", persisting to this day, even in the BnF, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

In 1753, his father took Joseph, aged seven, to France for his education.[7] Two years later, on August 26, 1755, listed as passengers on the ship L’Aimable Rose, Bologne de Saint-Georges and Negresse Nanon landed in Bordeaux.[8] In Paris, reunited with their son Joseph, they moved into a spacious apartment at 49 rue Saint André de Arts.