noun
definition
The region of the Earth centred on the equator and lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn and characterized by a hot climate.
Examples of tropics in a Sentence
It lies wholly within the tropics, though its more elevated districts enjoy a temperate climate.
It was just within the tropics, and was situated in a well-watered and beautiful country.
The tropics eventually became, what they are now, great areas of preservation.
The country lies wholly within the tropics.
Even Pinus has found the task of crossing the tropics insuperable.
The maritime discoveries and surveys of that age of great discoveries were laid down upon so-called " plane-charts," that is, charts having merely equidistant parallels indicated upon them, together with the equator, the tropics and polar FIG.
In the variety, size and density of their growth these forests remind one of the tropics.
The best examples of partial or complete acclimatization are to be found where European races have permanently settled in the tropics, and have maintained themselves for several generations.
It is maintained that one or other of these mixtures is absolutely necessary to enable Europeans to continue long to flourish in the tropics.
Although we have here nothing to do with mixed races, yet the want of fertility in these has been often taken to be a fact inherent in the mongrel race, and has been also sometimes held to prove that neither the European nor his half-bred offspring can maintain themselves in the tropics.
The observations of Spruce are of themselves almost conclusive as to the possibility of Europeans becoming acclimatized in the tropics; and if it is objected that this evidence applies only to the dark-haired southern races, we are fortunately able to point to facts, almost equally well authenticated and conclusive, in the case of one of the typical Germanic races.
This, added to the elevation of the land, makes the climate in general dry, bracing and suitable for Europeans, notwithstanding that the northern part is within the tropics.
Vast profits were derived from the import trade in the innumerable products of the tropics, of which Portugal was the sole purveyor in Europe.
Lying wholly within the tropics, these mountain masses form one of the most interesting as well as one of the most imposing and difficult regions of the world.
Above this is the region of eternal snow, an Arctic zone within the tropics.
Still farther removed are the bamboos of the tropics, the columnar stems of which reach to the height of forest trees.
Many are savanna grasses, in various parts of the tropics, for instance the large genus Andropogon, Elionurus and others.
Elionurus, a widespread savanna grass in tropical and subtropical America, and also in the tropics of the old world, is rejected by cattle probably on account of its aromatic character, the spikelets having a strong balsam-like smell.
Calamagrostis and Deyeuxia are tall, often reed-like grasses, occurring throughout the temperate and arctic zones and upon high mountains in the tropics.
The country lies wholly within the tropics, but its nearness to the equator is counterbalanced by the elevation of the land.
Stick-insects are intolerant of cold, and attain their largest size and greatest profusion of species in the tropics, one West African species, Palophus centaurus, reaching a length of 9 in.
The large extent of ocean is primarily responsible for the lower temperature of the air in places south of the tropics compared with that experienced in countries in the same latitude north of the equator.
As the tropics are approached, even in mountain districts, the irregularities become greater, and occasionally the rainy season is entirely absent for a single year, though the mean rainfall is considerable.
His later publications included The Control of the Tropics (1898) and Principles of Western Civilization (1902).
The geographical range of each species is generally more or less restricted, usually according to climate, as they are mostly inhabitants either of the Arctic or Antarctic seas and adjacent temperate regions, few being found within the tropics.
This contains the single genus Matonia, two species of which are known from the eastern tropics.
Many of the species inhabit situations in which the air is constantly moist, especially in the tropics; some are terrestrial; others, some of which are very minute, are epiphytic on tree-stems. A single solid central cylinder is found in the rhizome.
In the high interior the climate resembles that of the temperate zones, although six-sevenths of the island are within the tropics; there is no intense heat, and it is quite cold, occasionally touching freezing point, during the nights of the cool season.
Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and equally to north and south of the equator, Africa does not show excessive variations of temperature.
It is therefore greatest of all near the equator, where the sun is twice vertical, and less in the direction of both tropics.
The two distinct rainy seasons of the equatorial zone, where the sun is vertical at half-yearly intervals, become gradually merged into one in the direction of the tropics, where the sun is overhead but once.
Cicadas are particularly abundant in the tropics, where the largest forms are found.
He is credited by Ptolemy and his commentator Theon with having found the distance between the tropics to be ---j rds.
Lying within the tropics and with an average elevation of not more than 1500 to 2000 ft.
The country lies wholly within the tropics, and as the greater part of it is far removed from the ocean and less than 1500 ft.
In the tropics, where the ecliptic is nearly perpendicular to the horizon, it may be seen after the end of twilight on every clear evening, and before ' Schlegel, Ur.
From the description given of the zodiacal band and the Gegenschein, it is clear that these objects should be best seen at the highest elevation, especially within the tropics.
This plane must be near, but not coincident with, that of the ecliptic. It has therefore a node and a certain inclination to the ecliptic. The determination of these elements requires that, at some point within the tropics where the atmosphere is clear, observations of the position of the axis of the light among the stars should be made from time to time through an entire year.
But in a few European and North American species, and in a great many inhabitants of the tropics, the egg is large and a considerable portion of it persists for a long time as a yolk-sac. Although the segmentation is always complete, it is very irregular in these types, some of which make a distinct approach to the meroblastic egg.
A world record 230 miles of free-standing scaffolding poles were used at the construction stage of the humid tropics biome.
The garden will be placed in Eden's new dry tropics biome, due to be built in 2007.
Visibly dirty recreational water in pools, lakes and rivers especially in the tropics should be avoided.
In climates and regions removed from the tropics only the exceedingly industrious survived.
I have investigated the modulation by the quasi-biennial oscillation of the tropical winds of the isentropic mixing in the tropics and subtropics.
Similarly, more longwave radiation is emitted to space in the tropics than at high latitudes.
Regions located near the tropics or in the mountainous regions located near the tropics or in the mountainous regions are endowed with a temperate climate.
In the western hemisphere they range along the Mexican highlands and the Andes far into the tropics, while in the Old World the genus, well represented in the Himalayas and the hills of China, exists likewise in the peninsula of Malacca, in the Indian Archipelago and Malaya to the Philippine Islands and Borneo.
If mountains serve as barriers which arrest the migration of the vegetation at their base, their upper levels and summits afford lines of communication by which the floras of colder regions In the northern hemisphere can obtain a southern extension even across the tropics.
The more extreme climates of arid regions on the margins of the tropics, by the unpredictable succession of droughts and floods, confound the prevision of uninstructed people, and make prudence and industry qualities too uncertain in their results to be worth cultivating.
In the north it is influenced, of course, by its proximity to Papuasia, whence there is a considerable admixture of genera which do not proceed beyond the tropics, and of these Casuarius is a striking example.