Lemons are yellow fruits that grow on a small tree or spreading bush. Like limes, oranges, and grapefruit, lemons are citrus fruits. The scientific name of the plant is Citrus limon.
The lemon trees can grow quite tall (to about 3 to 6 meters high) if they are not trimmed. Their leaves are reddish when young, but they turn green. Some trees have sharp thorns next to the leaves.
Lemon flowers are large and have a lovely sweet scent. Lemon trees bloom throughout the year.
The fruit is usually picked while it is still green and is stored for three or more months until its color has changed to yellow.
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Some pine trees are among the oldest living trees on Earth. A bristlecone pine is the oldest living tree. It is 4,800 years old. Pines are found in mountainous places and the cool areas of the northern half of the Earth. There are about 90 varieties of pines. Their cones are the hard scaly clusters that are often used for decorations. Pine trees have needlelike leaves that stay green all year-round.
Pines vary widely in size. Some are only a few meters tall. Others grow taller than 61 meters.
The wood is used in construction as well as for making paper. Resin makes turpentine, paints, and varnishes. Pine oil can be used as medicine.
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Horns are hard structures growing from the animals’ heads. Most horned animals, for example, sheep, cattle, goats, and antelope, also have hooves. Horns vary greatly in size and shape. They are attached to the bone of an animal’s head. Horns are made of keratin, the same material that makes up hooves, hair, fingernails, and feathers. Horns grow in pairs as the animals get older.
Animals use horns as weapons to protect themselves from enemies and in battles with other animals of their kind.
Hornlike antlers, which are not true horns, grow from the heads of deer, elk, and moose. Antlers are bone with a velvety covering and they fall off every year.
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The matryoshka is a set of four to eight hollow wooden dolls of graduated size nesting inside each other. It is the most familiar item of Russian folk art.
The rounded female figure was a familiar fertility symbol in pagan Russia. The most ubiquitous matryoshka is the pink-cheeked peasant woman in native sarafan, her head covered with the traditional scarf. However, there are a lot of variations. Nests of dolls with the faces of famous writers, members of artistic circles, military heroes, politicians or members of a family were created.
The first matryoshka – plump cheerful girl in scarf and Russian national dress – was born not in ancient times, as many believe.
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Ilya Muromets was a hero of the Russian epic tales, or byliny, a Russian bogatyr. Ilya’s surname is actually an epithet that simply means he came from the city of Murom, not far from Moscow. He was born in the village of Karacharovo and Muromets was used to identify him after he had left his hometown. Ilya was born a cripple and he was too weak to even move. At the age of 33 he was miraculously cured by a group of men, who gave him a drink made of honey. They told Ilya how he should spend his life.
Shortly after his cure, Ilya traveled to Kiev, to offer his services to Prince Vladimir Bright Sun and his wife Evpraksiya. He had his wonderful horse Sivushko, which galloped like the wind and cleared mountains in a single leap.
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Greece is surrounded on three sides by seas: to the south is the Mediterranean Sea, to the west is the Ionian Sea, and to the east is the Aegean Sea. More than 2,000 islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas belong to Greece. The islands are divided into the Ionian Islands and the Aegean Islands. The Greek mainland shares borders with Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Its area is 131,940 square kilometers. Its official name is Hellenic Republic.
In ancient times Greece was a center of science, philosophy, and art. In the late 300s Greece became part of the Byzantine Empire. In 1453 the Turkish Ottoman Empire conquered Greece. In 1821 the Greeks began a war of independence. Supported by Great Britain, France, and Russia, Greece declared its independence in 1829.
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Once upon a time the ferns covered our entire planet. And they were huge trees! Ferns are flowerless green plants. Their featherlike leaves are called fronds. Young fern leaves are tightly curled. Ferns reproduce by dispersing spores instead of seeds. The spore cases, called sporangia are located in pockets on the margins of the leaves. There are about 12,000 different species of fern throughout the world. Some types first appeared on Earth more than 360 million years ago. Some species are free-floating aquatic plants, some species grow in moist woodlands, and a few species grow in arid or semiarid regions.
Ferns come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes.
Such animals as deer eat ferns, and some birds use them to line their nests.
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