Precursors.

In Russia, it is purported that after the gradual development of the East-West Schism, a tiny group of Russian families maintained themselves as "Old Catholics" (Rus: старокатолики (starokatoliki)), a name which should not be confused with the Döllingerite Old Catholic church of Europe and the United States, which formally split with the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of the reforms of the First Vatican Council. The status of this group of Russian "Old Catholics", families and groups of individuals to whom the union with Rome remains essential, and its relation to the current Russian Catholic Church, still remains unclear.  The modern Russian Catholic Church owes much to the inspiration of poet and philosopher Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (1853–1900), who urged, following Dante, that, just as the world needed the Tsar as a universal monarch, the Church needed the Pope of Rome as a universal ecclesiastical hierarch. Following Solovyov's teachings a Russian Orthodox priest, Nicholas Tolstoy, entered into full communion with the See of Rome under the Melkite Greek-Catholic, Byzantine Rite Patriarchate of Antioch. Solovyov received sacramental Extreme Unction from Father Tolstoy believing that in doing so he remained also a faithful member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Orthodox authorities refer to Tolstoy as an apostate and "ex-priest", but tend to imply that Solovyov still died an Orthodox Christian. Nevertheless, Solovyov never retracted his sentiments in favor of union with the Catholic Church and the See of Rome, and to this day, many Russian Catholics refer to themselves as members of the 'Russian "Orthodox" Church in communion with Rome'.

History.

Byzantine-rite Catholicism was illegal in the Tsarist Russian empire through the 1800s and until 1905, when Tsar Nicholas II granted religious tolerance. Thereafter, communities of Greek Catholics emerged and became organized. Old Believers were prominent in the early years of the movement. In 1917, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky appointed the first Apostolic Exarchate for Russian Catholics with Most Reverend Leonid Feodorov, formerly a Russian Orthodox seminarian, as Exarch. However, the October Revolution soon followed, dispersing Russian-Rite Catholics into the Siberian prison camps and the centers of the Russian diaspora throughout the world. In the spring of 1923, Exarch Leonid Feodorov was prosecuted for counterrevolution by Nikolai Krylenko and sentenced to ten years in the Soviet concentration camp at Solovki. Released in 1932, he died three years later. He was beatified in 2001 by Pope John Paul II.  In 1928, a second Apostolic Exarchate was set up, for the Russian Catholics in China, based in Harbin, the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin.  In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, some Russian Catholics began to appear in the open. In a 2005 article, Russian Catholic priest Sergei Golovanov stated that three Russian Catholic priests served on Russian soil celebrating the Russian Byzantine Divine Liturgy. Two of them used the recension of the Russian Liturgy as reformed by Patriarch Nikon of Moscow in 1666. The other priest used the medieval rite of the Old Believers, that is to say, as the Russian liturgical recension existed before Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Liturgy. All Eastern Catholics in the Russian Federation strictly maintain the use of Church Slavonic, although vernacular Liturgies are more common in the Russian diaspora.

Uniate Church in the Russian Empire.

"In 1807 the Russian Empire continued to appoint its own primates for the Ruthenian Uniate Church without confirming them with the Pope. "<br> Metropolitans of Kiev: "Following the Synod of Polatsk (1838), the Ruthenian Uniate Church was forcibly abolished on the territory of the Russian Empire, and its property, clergy, and laity were forcibly transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church."

Apostolic Exarchate of Russia.

It is vacant since 1951, having had only two incumbents, both belonging to the Ukrainian Studite Monks (M.S.U., a Byzantine Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church monastic order):

Structure.

With the religious freedom experienced after the fall of Communism, there were calls from the small number of Russian Catholics to appoint an Exarch to the long existing vacancy. Such a move would have been strongly objected to by the Russian Orthodox Church, causing the Holy See to not act out of ecumenical concerns. In 2004, however, the Vatican's hand was forced when a convocation of Russian Catholic priests in the territory of the vacant exarchate used their rights under canon law to elect a Father Sergey Golovanov as temporary administrator. The Vatican then moved quickly to replace Father Sergey with Bishop Joseph Werth, the Latin Church Apostolic Administrator of Siberia, based in Novosibirsk. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Ordinary for all Eastern Catholics in the Russian Federation. As of 2010, five parishes have been registered with civil authorities in Siberia, while in Moscow two parishes and a pastoral center operate without official registration. There are also communities in Saint Petersburg and Obninsk. By 2018, there have been reports of 13 parishes and five pastoral points in Siberia with seven parishes and three pastoral points in European Russia. Some parishes serve the Ukrainian community. The Ordinariate has minimal structure. A Byzantine Catholic mitered archpriest serves as Secretary to the Ordinary. There is a priest coordinator for the parishes in Siberia and a liturgical commission and a catechetical commission.  Outside Russia, there are Russian Catholic parishes and faith communities in San Francisco, New York City, El Segundo, Denver, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Meudon, Paris, Chevetogne, Lyon, Munich, Rome, Milan, and Singapore. They are all under the jurisdiction of the respective local Roman Rite bishops. The communities in Denver, Dublin and Singapore do not have a Russian national character – but exist for local Catholics who wish to worship in the Russo-Byzantine style.  As of 2014, the two Exarchates of Russia and Harbin are still listed in the "Annuario Pontificio" as extant, but they have not yet been reconstituted, nor have new Russian-Rite bishops been appointed to head them.

The Russian Greek Catholic Church (, "Rossiyskaya greko-katolicheskaya tserkov"), or Russian Catholic Church, is a "sui iuris" Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church. Historically, it represents the first reunion of members of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church. It is now in full communion with and subject to the authority of the Pope as defined by Eastern canon law.

俄罗斯礼天主教会()是罗马天主教会的一部分,是基督教拜占庭礼礼拜仪式传统的一个分支,是东仪天主教会的22个成员之一。该教会是完全与罗马天主教共融的。俄罗斯礼曾经有过两个宗座总理区(Exarchatus Apostolicus),但现今并没有成立圣统制,而是在俄罗斯及随着世界各地的俄罗斯移民以个别堂区的身份来运作。其神职人员来自其他拜占庭礼天主教按立,或是由改宗的前正教会神父以及受相关礼仪训练的天主教神职人员担任。


Socio-cultural and economic functions.

The Luxembourg-based "Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux", representing three million European allotment gardeners since 1926, describes the socio-cultural and economic functions of allotment gardens as offering an improved quality of life, an enjoyable and profitable hobby, relaxation, and contact with nature. For children, gardens offer places to play and to learn about nature, while for the unemployed, they offer a feeling of doing something useful as well as low-cost food. For the elderly and disabled, gardens offer an opportunity to meet people, to share in activity with like-minded people, and to experience activities like planting and harvesting.

Around the world.

Austria.

The first garden in Purkersdorf, 1905.

Canada.

In Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, these are called community gardens.

Czechoslovakia.

Allotment gardening used to be widely popular in the former Czechoslovakia under the communist regime. It gave people from suburban prefab apartment blocks – called "paneláky" in Czech – a chance to escape from city chaos, pollution, and concrete architecture. Holiday houses and gardens served also as the only permitted form of investment of savings for common middle-class citizens.

Denmark.

In 1778, land was laid out outside the fortifications of the town of Fredericia for allotment gardens and according to an 1828 circular from the royal chancellery allotment gardens were established in several towns.  Private initiative formed the first Danish allotment association in Aalborg in 1884, and in Copenhagen an association named "Arbejdernes Værn" (lit. “The Workers' Protection”) founded the first allotment gardens of the Danish Capital in 1891. Since then allotment gardens have spread to most Danish towns.  In 1904, there were about 20,000 allotment gardens in Denmark. 6,000 of them were in Copenhagen. During the interwar years the number of allotment gardens grew rapidly. In 2001, the number of allotment gardens was estimated to be about 62,120.  In 1908, twenty allotment associations in Copenhagen formed the Allotment Garden Union which in 1914 was expanded to cover all of Denmark. The Allotment Garden Federation was founded to negotiate more favourable deals with the state and the municipalities from which the allotments associations rented the land. Today the federation represents roughly 400 allotment associations in 75 municipalities.  The Danish tradition for allotment gardens later spread to the other Nordic countries: first Sweden, then Norway and Finland.  Today, most allotment gardens are on land owned by the municipality which rents the land to an allotment association. The association in turn gives each member a plot of land. To preserve allotment gardens as something that is available for all kinds of people, the membership charge is set significantly below what a market price would be. Since allotments are often placed on attractive plots of land, this has led to huge waiting lists for membership in many allotment associations.  Although the main purpose of the allotment is gardening, most allotment gardens have a pavilion built in them. These pavilions can range in size from an old rebuilt railway car to a small summer house. Many people grow so fond of their allotment gardens that they live there the entire summer. In most cases, however, members are not allowed to live there the entire year.

Finland.

The Federation of Finnish Allotment Gardens is a non-profit organization that supports allotment gardeners and connects them to allotments and each other. The first allotment garden was established 1916 in Tampere, and today there are about 30 allotment associations all around Finland made up of roughly 3700 allotmenteers.

France.

In many localities in France, when allotments exist, they are sited in marginal zones (edges of motorways, railways, industrial parks...) unsuitable for other uses. These places suffer from poor access, may not be safe, and often lack a water supply, and are not protected from real estate transactions.

Germany.

The history of the allotment gardens in Germany is closely connected with the period of industrialization and urbanization in Europe during the 19th century when a large number of people migrated from the rural areas to the cities to find employment and a better life. Very often, these families were living under extremely poor conditions suffering from inappropriate housing, malnutrition and other forms of social neglect. To improve their overall situation and to allow them to grow their own food, the city administrations, the churches or their employers provided open spaces for garden purposes. These were initially called the "gardens of the poor".  The idea of organised allotment gardening reached a first peak after 1864, when the so-called "Schreber Movement" started in the city of Leipzig in Saxony. A public initiative decided to lease areas within the city, with the purpose to make it possible for children to play in a healthy environment, and in harmony with nature. Later on, these areas included actual gardens for children, but soon adults tended towards taking over and cultivating these gardens. This kind of gardening also became popular in other European countries, esp. Germanic countries such as Austria (and its dependencies), the Netherlands and Switzerland.  The aspect of food security provided by allotment gardens became particularly evident during World Wars I and II. The socio-economic situation was very miserable, particularly as regards the nutritional status of urban residents. Many cities were isolated from their rural hinterlands and agricultural products did not reach the city markets anymore or were sold at very high prices at the black markets. Consequently, food production within the city, especially fruit and vegetable production in home gardens and allotment gardens, became essential for survival. The importance of allotment gardens for food security was so obvious that in 1919, one year after the end of World War I, the first legislation for allotment gardening in Germany was passed. The so-called "Small Garden and Small-Rent Land Law", provided security in land tenure and fixed leasing fees. In 1983, this law was amended by the. Today, there are still about 1.4 million allotment gardens in Germany covering an area of. In Berlin alone there are 833 allotment garden complexes.

Malta.

Malta introduced its first allotment gardens in April, 2011. The objective of the scheme, which was called “Midd Idejk fil-Biedja” (Try Your Hand at Farming), was to encourage people, especially the young and those living in urban areas, to take up organic farming. The scheme had over 50 allotment plots located at Għammieri, Malta. All plots were fully irrigated and those who participated in the scheme received continual support and training. Malta's allotment gardens were terminated in 2013, following a change in administration. In September, 2019, Heritage Malta, an agency which falls under the Ministry for Culture, started an initiative to re-introduce the concept of allotments. Located just above the Abbatija Tad-Dejr catacombs in Rabat, the new allotment plots were issued with several restrictions in an effort to protect the sensitivity of the archaeological site.

Netherlands.

The first allotment gardens in the Netherlands were founded in 1838. In the 19th century, cities started allotment gardens for working-class families. Around the first world war, the users of the gardens started demanding that the gardens would be governed by the members. In 1928 the allotment garden societies founded the national level "het Algemeen Verbond van Volkstuindersverenigingen in Nederland (AVVN)." Until the 1950s, the gardens were primarily used for vegetable production, since then there has been a shift to recreational use. Depending on the city and society, small sheds, greenhouses or small garden houses are allowed. In some cases, permanent habitation is allowed during summertime. The Netherlands has 240,000 allotments.

Norway.

There are 13 allotment gardens in Norway, with around 2000 allotments. The oldest, Etterstad Kolonihager, dates to 1908. The largest, Solvang Kolonihager, has around 600 allotments and is in Oslo, close to the woods and Sognsvann lake. The allotment gardens are quite popular, and there can be a waiting list of 10 and in some cases even 20 years.

Philippines.

In 2003, the first allotment garden of the Philippines was established in Cagayan de Oro City, Northern Mindanao as part of a European Union funded project. Meanwhile, with the assistance of the German Embassy in Manila and several private donors from Germany, this number has grown to five self-sustaining gardens located in different urban areas of the city, enabling a total of 55 urban poor families the legal access to land for food production. Further four allotment gardens, two of them within the premises of public elementary schools are presently being set up for additional 36 families using the asset-based community development approach. Some of the gardeners belong to the poorest in the city, the garbage pickers of the city's landfill site. Aside from different vegetables, the gardeners grow also herbs and tropical fruits. In some gardens, small animals are kept and fish ponds are maintained to avail the gardeners of additional protein sources for the daily dietary needs. Each allotment garden has a compost heap where biodegradable wastes from the garden as well as from the neighboring households are converted into organic fertilizer, thus contributing to the integrated solid waste management program of the city. Further, all gardens are equipped with so-called urine-diverting ecological sanitation toilets similar to practices in Danish allotment gardens described by Bregnhøj et al. (2003).

Poland.

In Poland, allotment gardens date back to 1897 when Doctor Jan Jalkowski founded the "Sun Baths" (Polish: "Kąpiele słoneczne") community gardens and health area in Grudziądz. After WWII, allotment gardens were popular among city dwellers living in suburban apartment blocks. Today, the Polish Association of Allotment Gardeners represents the interest of owners in legal and tax issues, not without criticism. Living on a garden is illegal, though some people try to. Burning garbage on a garden and producing smog may be an issue.

Portugal.

Since 2011, the municipality of Lisbon has created more than 19 allotment gardens ("parques hortícolas" or "hortas urbanas"). These are granted to residents by means of a public application process.  Otherwise, allotment gardens in Portugal are often precarious, as land is spontaneously divided into strips as cities grow.

Russia.

The first allotments ("dachas") in Russia began to appear during the reign of Peter the Great. Initially they were small estates in the country, which were given to loyal vassals by the Tsar. In archaic Russian, the word "dacha" means "something given".  During the Age of Enlightenment, Russian aristocracy used their allotments for social and cultural gatherings, which were usually accompanied by masquerade balls and fireworks displays. The Industrial Revolution brought about a rapid growth in the urban population, and urban residents increasingly desired to escape the heavily polluted cities, at least temporarily. By the end of the 19th century, the allotment became a favorite summer retreat for the upper and middle classes of Russian society.  After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, most dachas were nationalized. Some were converted into vacation homes for the working class, while others, usually of better quality, were distributed among the prominent functionaries of the Communist Party and the newly emerged cultural and scientific elite. All but a few allotments remained the property of the state and the right to use them was usually revoked when a dacha occupant was dismissed or fell out of favor with the rulers of the state. Joseph Stalin's favourite Dacha was in Gagra, Abkhazia. The construction of new dachas was restricted until the late 1940s and required the special approval of the Communist Party leadership.  The period after World War II saw a moderate growth in dacha development. Since there was no actual law banning the construction of dachas, squatters began occupying unused plots of land near cities and towns, some building sheds, huts, and more prominent dwellings that served as dachas. This practice of squatting was spurred by the desire of urban dwellers, all living in multi-story apartment buildings, to spend some time close to nature, and also to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The latter was caused by the failure of the centrally planned Soviet agricultural program to supply enough fresh produce. As time passed, the number of squatters grew geometrically and the government had no choice but to officially recognize their right to amateur farming. The 1955 legislation introduced a new type of legal entity into the Soviet juridical system, a so-called "gardeners' partnership" (; not to be confused with community garden). The gardeners' partnerships received the right to permanent use of land exclusively for agricultural purposes and permission to connect to public electrical and water supply networks. In 1958, yet another form of organization was introduced, a "cooperative for dacha construction (DSK)" (), which recognized the right of an individual to build a small house on the land leased from the government.  The 1980s saw the peak of the dacha boom, with virtually every affluent family in the country having a dacha of their own or spending weekends and holidays at friends' dachas. Often ill-equipped and without indoor plumbing, dachas were nevertheless the ultimate solution for millions of Russian working-class families to having an inexpensive summer retreat. Having a piece of land also offered an opportunity for city dwellers to indulge themselves in growing their own fruits and vegetables. To this day, May Day holidays remain a feature of Russian life allowing urban residents a long weekend to plant seeds and tend fruit trees as the ground defrosts from the long Russian winter. Since there are no other national holidays that are long enough for planting, many employers give their staff an extra day off specifically for that purpose.  The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union saw the return to private land ownership. Most dachas have since been privatized, and Russia is now the nation with the largest number of owners of second homes. The growth of living standards in recent years allowed many dacha owners to spend their discretionary income on improvements. Thus, many recently built dachas are fully equipped houses suitable for use as permanent residences. The market-oriented economy transformed the dacha into an asset, which generally reflects the prosperity of its owner and can be freely traded in the real estate market.  Due to the rapid increase in urbanization in Russia, many village houses are currently being sold to be used as allotments. Many Russian villages now have dachniki as temporary residents. Some villages have been fully transformed into dacha settlements, while some older dacha settlements often look like more permanent lodgings. The advantages of purchasing a dacha in a village usually are: lower costs, greater land area, and larger distances between houses. The disadvantages may include: lower-quality utilities, less security, and typically a farther distance to travel.

Sweden.

In Landskrona, around the area of the Citadel, the first allotment gardens of Sweden were made available for lease in the 1860s, later followed by those in Malmö in 1895, and Stockholm in 1904. The local authorities were inspired by Anna Lindhagen, a social-democratic leader and a woman in the upper ranks of society, who visited allotment gardens in Copenhagen and was delighted by them. In her first book on the topic devoted to the usefulness of allotment gardens she wrote:For the family, the plot of land is a uniting bond, where all family members can meet in shared work and leisure. The family father, tired with the cramped space at home, may rejoice in taking care of his family in the open air, and feel responsible if the little plot of earth bestows a very special interest upon life.Anna Lindhagen is said to have met Lenin when he passed through Stockholm from the exile in Switzerland on their return trip to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917. She invited him to the allotment gardens of "Barnängen" to show all its benefits. However, she did not win his approval. Lenin was totally unresponsive to this kind of activity. To poke in the soil was to prepare the ground for political laziness in the class struggle. The workers should not be occupied with gardening, they should rather devote themselves to the proletarian revolution.  The Swedish Federation of Leisure Gardening was founded in 1921 and represents today more than 26,000 allotment and leisure gardeners. The members are organised in about 275 local societies all over Sweden. The land is usually rented from the local authorities.

United Kingdom.

A 1732 engraving of Birmingham, England shows the town encircled by allotments, some of which still exist to this day. The accolade for the oldest allotment site is reserved for Great Somerford Free Gardens in the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford. These were created in 1809 following a letter to King George III from Rev Stephen Demainbray (a chaplain to the king) in which he asked the king to spare, in perpetuity, six acres from the Inclosure Acts for the benefit of the poor of his parish.  Following these Inclosure Acts and the Commons Act 1876, the land available for personal cultivation by the poor was greatly diminished. To fulfill the need for land, allotment legislation was enacted. The law was first fully codified in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, then modified by the Allotments Act 1922 and subsequent Allotments Acts up until the Allotments Act 1950.  Under the Acts, a local authority is required to maintain an "adequate provision" of land, usually a large allotment field which can then be subdivided into allotment gardens for individual residents at a low rent. Allotment sizes are often quoted in square rods, although the use of the rod has been illegal for trade purposes since 1965. The rent is set at what a person "may reasonably be expected to pay" (1950); in 1997 the average rent for a ten square rods (250 m) plot was £22 a year. In February 2012 the UK's first Green-controlled council, Brighton and Hove, caused controversy when they stated their intention to raise the rent for a standard 250 m plot to £110 per year, with many people suggesting that this was contrary to the environmental agenda on which they were elected. Each plot cannot exceed forty square rods (1000 m) and must be used for the production of fruit or vegetables for consumption by the plot-holder and their family (1922), or of flowers for use by the plot-holder and their family. The exact size and quality of the plots is not defined. The council has a duty to provide sufficient allotments to meet demand. The total income from allotments was £2.61 million and total expenditure was £8.44 million in 1997.  The total number of plots has varied greatly over time. In the 19th and early 20th century, the allotment system supplied much of the fresh vegetables eaten by the poor. In 1873 there were 244,268 plots and by 1918 there were around 1,500,000 plots. While numbers fell in the 1920s and 1930s, following an increase to 1,400,000 during World War II there were still around 1,117,000 plots in 1948. This number has been in decline since then, falling to 600,000 by the late 1960s and 300,000 by 2009. The Thorpe Inquiry of 1969 investigated the decline and put the causes as the decline in available land, increasing prosperity and the growth of other leisure activities.  Increased interest in "green" issues from the 1970s revived interest in allotment gardening, whilst the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG), and the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society (SAGS) in Scotland, continued to campaign on behalf of allotment users. However, the rate of decline was only slowed, falling from 530,000 plots in 1970 to 497,000 in 1977, although there was a substantial waiting list. By 1980 the surge in interest was over, and by 1997 the number of plots had fallen to around 265,000, with waiting lists of 13,000 and 44,000 vacant plots. In 2008 "The Guardian" reported that 330,000 people held an allotment, whilst 100,000 were on waiting lists.  In 2006, a report commissioned by the London Assembly identified that whilst demand was at an all-time high across the capital, the pressure caused by high-density building was further decreasing the amount of allotment land. The issue was given further publicity when "The Guardian" newspaper reported on the community campaign against the potential impact of the development for the 2012 Summer Olympics on the future of the century-old Manor Garden Allotments, Hackney Wick. In March 2008, Geoff Stokes, secretary of the NSALG, claimed that councils are failing in their duty to provide allotments. "[T]hey sold off land when demand was not so high. This will go on because developers are now building houses with much smaller gardens." The Local Government Association has issued guidance asking councils to consider requiring developers to set land aside to make up for the shortfalls in allotment plots.  Against the falling trend of land set aside for allotments is an increasing awareness of the need for cities to counter issues of food security and climate change through greater self-sufficiency. This drive to expand allotments is also a response to food price inflation, a desire to reduce food miles and surplus provision of land in post-industrial towns and cities in the developed world. Some of these themes were taken up in a recent urban agriculture project in Middlesbrough in the Tees Valley.

United States.

A growing number of "community gardens" have been founded in the United States. Many of these began as "victory gardens" in World War II, and evolved into community gardens. Plots in these gardens are often rented out by the city, starting at plots of just. Due to the green movement many new gardens are being set up.

An allotment garden (British English), often called simply an allotment, or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. Such parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people. In countries that do not use the term "allotment (garden)", a "community garden" may refer to individual small garden plots as well as to a single, large piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people. The term "victory garden" is also still sometimes used, especially when a community garden dates back to the First or Second World War.

社区农圃亦称社区花园或社区园圃,为让社区居民进行园艺与农事耕作的场地。


Human settlements and discoveries.

Pre-Dorset cultural sites have been found that date from approximately 1500 BCE but European contact came much later. In 1820 it was seen from Melville Island by Sir William Edward Parry and named "Banks Land" in honour of Sir Joseph Banks. However, during the later exploration of the area by the McClure Arctic Expedition the island was marked on their maps as "Baring Island". McClure's ship,, was frozen in Prince of Wales Strait. That spring he sent out sledging parties and determined that Banks Island was an island. In the following year he almost circumnavigated the island but was again frozen in at Mercy Bay where he and his crew spent the next three months before making their escape across the ice.  The only permanent settlement on the island is the Inuvialuit hamlet of Sachs Harbour (Ikhuak), on the southwest coast.

Description.

Banks Island covers an area and it is the world's 24th largest island and Canada's fifth largest island. It is about long, and at its widest point at the northern end, across. The highest point of the island is in the south, Durham Heights and rises to about. It is part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and had a population of 112 in 2011, all in Sachs Harbour.

Ecology.

The island is treeless, with the tallest plant, the Arctic willow, growing occasionally to about the height of a person's knee but usually standing no taller than.  Banks Island is home to two-thirds of the world's population of lesser snow geese, which make their way across the Amundsen Gulf from the mainland. There is an annual goose hunt in the spring out of Sachs Harbour. The island is part of the tundra world biome, which has extremely cold winters. The island is home to barren-ground caribou, polar bears, muskoxen, and birds, including year round residents the common raven and ptarmigan.  Two federal migratory bird sanctuaries were founded on the island in 1961.  Aulavik National Park of Canada, a fly-in park, protects about of Arctic lowlands at the northern end of the island. The park has the highest concentration of muskoxen on earth, and is home to the endangered Peary caribou. The Thomsen River runs through the park, and is the northernmost navigable river (by canoe) in North America. Ptarmigan and ravens are considered the only year-round birds in the park, although 43 species make seasonal use of the area. In Inuvialuktun, "Aulavik" means "place where people travel" and the "wildlife and land have supported aboriginal peoples for more than 3,400 years, from Pre-Dorset cultures to contemporary Inuvialuit."  The first confirmed grizzly–polar bear hybrid found in the wild was shot on Banks Island in April 2006, near Sachs Harbour.

HMS "Investigator".

In July 2010, Parks Canada archaeologists looking for found it 15 minutes after they started a sonar scan of Banks Island's Mercy Bay. The archaeology crew had no plans to raise the ship. They planned to conduct a thorough sonar scan of the area, then send a remotely operated vehicle.

Banks Island is one of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago. Situated in the Inuvik Region, and part of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, of the Northwest Territories, it is separated from Victoria Island to its east by the Prince of Wales Strait and from the mainland by Amundsen Gulf to its south. The Beaufort Sea lies to its west, and to its northeast M'Clure Strait separates the island from Prince Patrick Island and Melville Island.

班克斯岛(英语:Banks Island;也被译作银行岛),是加拿大北极群岛地区一个比较大的岛,在1820年由威廉·爱德华·帕里为纪念约瑟夫·班克斯命名。占地70,028平方千米,世界第24大岛。岛上唯一永久定居点是萨克斯湾,人口约136(2010年),该岛在1961年建立了两个候鸟保护区。最高点在岛的南部(730m)。2006年在高盛湾附近第一次拍摄到灰熊和北极熊交配的场面。


History.

Origins.

Motor racing started in Brazil before World War II, with races on the 6.9-mile Gávea street circuit in Rio de Janeiro starting in 1934. In 1936 construction began on Brazil's first permanent autodrome in the São Paulo neighborhood of Interlagos and was finished in 1940. Brazil held Grands Prix during the early parts of WWII at Interlagos and Gavea. Interlagos, a circuit inspired in layout by the Roosevelt Raceway in the United States quickly gained a reputation as being a tough and demanding circuit with many challenging corners, elevation changes, a rough surface, and little room for error.

Formula One.

Interlagos, São Paulo.

A Brazilian Grand Prix was first held in 1972 at Interlagos, although it was not part of the Formula One World Championship. Typical of European motorsports at the time, this race was done as a test to convince the FIA if the Interlagos circuit and its organizers could capably hold a Grand Prix. Like most major circuits used for Grands Prix in Latin America such as the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome in Mexico City Interlagos was (and still is) located in the confines of a sprawling urban neighborhood in a very large city. The following year, however, the race was first included in the official calendar, and it was won by defending world champion and São Paulo native Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1974, Fittipaldi won again in rain soaked conditions, and the year after, another São Paulo native, Carlos Pace, won the race in his Brabham, followed by Fittipaldi. 1977 was won by Reutemann, but the drivers began complaining about Interlagos's very rough surface, and the event was then relocated for a year to the new Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro.  After a year in Rio, the race returned to Interlagos, now with new and upgraded facilities for the next two seasons; this race was won by Jacques Laffite to complete his and Ligier's conquest of the opening South American rounds in Argentina and Brazil. But the Interlagos surface was still very bumpy. The original arrangement from 1978 onwards was to alternate the Brazilian Grand Prix between the São Paulo and Rio circuits; the 1980 race was originally supposed to be held at Jacarepaguá but parts of that circuit (which was originally built on a swamp) were beginning to sink into the soft ground and the circuit disintegrated badly, so the 1980 Grand Prix was to be relocated to Interlagos. But by this time, the population of São Paulo had risen from 5 to 8 million over the space of 10 years; the area surrounding the track was becoming increasingly run-down and surrounding the circuit did not look good for Formula One, which thanks to worldwide television exposure was becoming something of a glamorous spectacle. Formula One was originally supposed to come back to Interlagos for the 1981 season after the track surface there would be repaved; it turned out that F1 came back a year too early. The drivers were dissatisfied with the safety conditions of the very bumpy 5-mile Interlagos circuit which had not been changed after the previous year's improvements. The ground-effect wing cars of that year had a tendency to bounce up and down thanks to the suction created by the cars' wing-shaped underbodies, and they were more stiffly suspended than before; so these fragile cars were barely tolerant of such a rough track and were very unpleasant to drive. The bad surface was so rough that the bumps caused mechanical problems for some cars. Also, the barriers and catch-fence arrangements were not adequate enough for Formula One. Jody Scheckter attempted to stop the race from going ahead but this did not work and the race ended up being won by Frenchman René Arnoux. With Formula One's more glamorous image being better suited to the more better-looking city of Rio de Janeiro, the F1 circus went back to Rio again and the circuit went on to host the 1980s turbo era.

Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro.

In the Brazilian Grand Prix moved to Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro. Argentine Carlos Reutemann dominated in his Ferrari, which was equipped with superior Michelin tyres. This proved to be the French company's first victory in Formula One. Reutemann was followed by home favorite Fittipaldi and defending champion Niki Lauda.  After the emergence in 1980 of Rio de Janeiro racer Nelson Piquet, the decline of Interlagos and the retirement of Fittipaldi, Brazilian fans lobbied to host the Brazilian GP in Piquet's home town. The flat Jacarepaguá circuit, like Interlagos before it, proved to be extremely demanding: most corners were long and fast, some were slightly banked and the track had a very abrasive surface. Due to the FIA calendar, which invariably had the Brazilian GP at the beginning of the season thus in the Southern hemisphere summer and the tropical weather of Rio, most races were held under very high temperatures and high humidity. Due to all of those circumstances, Grands Prix at Rio were highly demanding and most drivers who won it were exhausted in the end.  In 1981, Carlos Reutemann disobeyed team orders to let his teammate Alan Jones by and took the victory; the following year Piquet finished 1st and Keke Rosberg finished 2nd but because of the FISA–FOCA war, Piquet and Rosberg were both disqualified for being underweight in post-race scrutineering, and the race victory was given to 3rd placed Alain Prost, who would go on to win at Jacarepaguá 4 more times (thus earning the nickname "the King of Rio"). The race also saw Italian Riccardo Patrese retire due to physical exhaustion (a very rare occurrence in F1, but quite common at Rio). Piquet won in 1983 and 1986, and the 1988 race was particularly notable, as up-and-coming star Ayrton Senna started from the pit-lane in his first race for McLaren; he began a furious charge that brought him up to second behind his teammate Prost; but he was disqualified for switching to his spare car after the parade lap had begun. The 1989 event was the last race at Jacarepaguá. It was won by British driver Nigel Mansell in his Ferrari, in the first Grand Prix won by a car with a semi-automatic gearbox, and it also saw German Bernd Schneider and American Eddie Cheever collide, and Cheever collapsed twice after he exited his car due to exhaustion.

Return to a new Interlagos.

São Paulo native Ayrton Senna's success thus far in Formula One had city officials working hard to revamp the Interlagos circuit in a $15 million investment to shorten and smooth over the circuit. In the Grand Prix returned to a shortened Interlagos, where it has stayed since. The Interlagos circuit has created some of the most exciting and memorable races in recent Formula One history, and is regarded as one of the most challenging and exciting circuits on the F1 calendar.  The first race at the new Interlagos in 1990 was won by Alain Prost, who won his 40th career race (the most ever at that point in time) and his 6th Brazilian Grand Prix. It wasn't a popular win, as the events of the previous year's Japanese Grand Prix were still fresh in the minds of many Brazilians: Prost was seen as having been given the Drivers' title by FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre at Senna's expense after Senna was disqualified from that race in Japan. The Brazilian, a home favorite, finished 3rd in Brazil after leading much of the race but then hitting his backmarker ex-teammate Satoru Nakajima in a Tyrrell. 1991 saw the patriotic Senna emotionally win his first Brazilian Grand Prix. His McLaren's manual gearbox was losing gears quickly and close to the end, he only had 6th gear left. This made the car much more difficult and physically demanding to drive, but he still eventually won holding off Williams driver Riccardo Patrese. His exhaustion was so high that had to be extricated from his car. 1992 saw Mansell dominate the weekend and the rest of the season. 1993 was a race of variables; it began to rain heavily early into the race and Prost, now driving a Williams, had a rare accident on the main straight and retired. Senna went on to win in a McLaren from Prost's teammate Damon Hill. 1994 saw Senna, now driving for Williams, spin his recalcitrant car going through Juncao late into the race. He was running in 2nd, trying to catch German Michael Schumacher, who went on to win. Senna would lose his life in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix later in the year. 1995 was a very controversial race that initially had race winner Schumacher and Briton David Coulthard's cars excluded for apparently using illegal fuel during the race, but then reinstated. 1996 saw Damon Hill win his first of 8 races that season. 1997 saw an accident at the start that involved 4 cars, and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve went off the course at the first corner; the race was stopped and restarted, and Villeneuve jumped into the spare car and won the race. 1998 saw a controversy surrounding McLaren – Ferrari had protested about their braking system, and it was then banned from the Brazilian Grand Prix, although it had been approved 4 times by FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting. It didn't matter much: Finnish McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen won the race anyway. 1999 saw local Rubens Barrichello lead for some time until the engine in his car failed, and Hakkinen won again. The 2001 Grand Prix was notable for marking the explosive arrival of Juan Pablo Montoya onto the Formula One scene. The Colombian driver stunningly muscled his way past Michael Schumacher early on and led easily until an incident in which Arrows's Jos Verstappen ran into the back of his Williams-BMW and ended his race. Montoya did eventually laid to rest the ghost of this event by winning the 2004 race in his final Grand Prix for Williams before moving to McLaren, holding off his future teammate Kimi Räikkönen to take a hard-fought victory. The 2001 race is also notable for two brothers, Michael and Ralf Schumacher, sharing a row on the starting grid for the first time.  Particularly memorable recent Brazilian Grands Prix include the 2003 race, which saw a maiden Grand Prix victory, highly unexpectedly, and amidst chaotic and unusual circumstances, for Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella. Heavy rain before and during the race produced problems with tyre selection which caught out many teams, which allowed the weak Minardi team to have a real chance for victory the only time ever, because they were the only team who prepared for the rainfall, but their drivers were also soon out. And treacherous track conditions caused multiple drivers to spin out of the race, including then-reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher, ending a remarkable run of race finishes dating back to the 2001 German Grand Prix. Amidst this, a number of drivers, including McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen and David Coulthard, led the race, and, when a heavy accident involving Renault's Fernando Alonso blocked the circuit and brought out the red flag, confusion reigned. Fisichella led the race at the time, having just overtaken Räikkönen; however, it was the Finn who was declared the race winner under the rule that stipulated that the race result in such circumstances was to be taken from the running order two laps prior to the race being stopped. This decision was overturned days later in the FIA Court of Appeal in Paris after new evidence came to light which proved that Fisichella had crossed the finish line in the lead for a second time "before" Alonso's accident, and therefore was the rightful winner. The 2004 event marked the first time since the race's admission to the Formula One Championship calendar that it was not one of the first three rounds of the championship season.  Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion at the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix, his third place behind winner Juan Pablo Montoya and championship rival Kimi Räikkönen was enough to clinch the title with two races remaining.  For 2006, the Brazilian Grand Prix, as in 2004, was moved to the prestigious position of hosting the final round of the season, in what was Michael Schumacher's first farewell to Formula One, before his return for the season. Starting from 10th position on the grid, Schumacher did an astonishing job on his last race. He fell to 19th position on the ninth lap due to a flat tyre caused by a minor collision with Giancarlo Fisichella when the former was trying to overtake the latter. After pitting for a new tyre he returned to the race, just in front of leader Massa, so almost being lapped, then passing several drivers to take the chequered flag in fourth place, after a dazzling passing manoeuvre on Kimi Räikkönen. His performance was not enough to give 'Schumi' his eighth trophy, as Fernando Alonso, who needed only one point to become World Champion again, finished in second place. Brazilian Felipe Massa took pole position and led the race from start to finish to get the second victory of his career and to be greeted by celebrations from his Brazilian supporters.  In March 2008, the mayor of São Paulo announced that he had signed a new deal with Bernie Ecclestone to continue the holding of the Brazilian Grand Prix. This deal allowed the Brazilian race to be on the calendar until 2015. With this, Interlagos was set for major improvements in its pit and paddock facilities.  In the final race of the 2008 season in Brazil, Lewis Hamilton became the youngest Formula One World Champion up to that point in Formula One history. After adopting a conservative strategy without risks for most of the race to secure at least 5th place, and the title, a late-race rain shower caused unexpected trouble. First, Hamilton was pushed down to 5th place by German Toyota driver Timo Glock who didn't enter the pits for intermediates like most other front runners. With just 3 laps to go, Sebastian Vettel then also overtook the Briton on the track which meant he would end up with equal points to Massa, but with one fewer victory. While everybody was focusing on the battle between these two (Vettel managed to stay in front in the end), against all expectations both were able to overtake Glock, who had lost all grip with his dry-weather tyres, in the very last corner before the finishing straight. This meant that, while the McLaren Drivers' Championship title rival Felipe Massa won the race in his Ferrari, Hamilton ultimately grabbed the fifth place he needed to become champion. Renault's Fernando Alonso, the previous youngest champion, was second ahead of Massa's teammate Kimi Räikkönen and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.  The 2009 race determined another Drivers' Champion, with Jenson Button in a Brawn finishing 5th to secure his only Drivers' Championship over Vettel, now driving for Red Bull, who finished 4th; Vettel's Australian teammate Mark Webber won the race ahead of Pole Robert Kubica. 2010 saw a wet qualifying and German Nico Hülkenberg drove an astonishing lap to put his non-competitive Williams on pole position. His countryman Vettel won the race ahead of Webber, and this race gave Red Bull the Constructors' Championship, and it set up a 4-way duel for the Drivers' title at the final round in Abu Dhabi. 2011 saw another Red Bull 1–2, but it was Webber this time who had won from Vettel, who had already won his second Drivers' title in Japan earlier that year. 2012 was another classic race, where Vettel this time had to do battle with Spanish Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso. After making a very poor start which dropped him to 22nd, he climbed up to 6th which was enough to see him win his 3rd consecutive Drivers' title. This race was also notable for being Michael Schumacher's last ever F1 race: the legendary German had made a comeback with Mercedes in 2010, but he did not win a single race – a huge surprise, considering he was the most successful F1 driver in history. 2013 saw Vettel win his 9th consecutive race that season which was a new record. 2014 saw the totally dominant Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton finish 1–2 in the race. 2015 saw Rosberg win again; he had spent most of that season demoralized and at the mercy of his teammate Hamilton, who won his 3rd consecutive Drivers' Championship. 2016 saw continued Mercedes domination, but it was Hamilton who won with Rosberg second. But the Mercedes victory that day was overshadowed by lots of drama: it was a rain soaked race, there were multiple accidents and an astonishing drive from the Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, who drove his Red Bull from 16th to 3rd in 15 laps after his team botched its tire strategy.  Five Brazilian drivers have won the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Felipe Massa each winning twice, and Jose Carlos Pace winning once. The most wins ever is by the Frenchman Alain Prost, who has won the race 6 times (including 5 times at Jacarepaguá). Argentine driver Carlos Reutemann and Michael Schumacher have both won 4 times.  On 10 October 2013 it was announced that the contract for the Brazilian Grand Prix had been extended until 2022.

Rumours of a return to Rio de Janeiro.

In spring 2019, Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, announced that the Brazilian Grand Prix would move back to Rio de Janeiro. Because the Jacerapaquá circuit had been demolished to make way for the construction of facilities for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a new circuit is to be built in the Deodoro neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. However, this was denied by Formula One's commercial manager Sean Bratches.

Winners.

Repeat winners (drivers).

"Drivers in bold are competing in the Formula One championship in the current season."<br> "A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship."

Repeat winners (constructors).

"Teams in bold are competing in the Formula One championship in the current season."<br> "A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship."

Repeat winners (engine manufacturers).

"Manufacturers in bold are competing in the Formula One championship in the current season."<br> "A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship." <nowiki>*</nowiki> Built by Cosworth, funded by Ford  <nowiki>**</nowiki> Between 1998-2005 built by Ilmor, funded by Mercedes  <nowiki>***</nowiki> Built by Porsche

By year.

The Brazilian Grand Prix () is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos neighborhood, Socorro district, São Paulo.

一级方程序赛车巴西大奖赛从1973年起开始举行一直至今,1972年也曾经举行过一次比赛,但该场比赛不计入当年的积分榜。


Description.

Armadillos have dorsal armor that is formed by osteoderms, plates of dermal bone covered in relatively small, overlapping keratinized epidermal scales called "scutes". Most species have rigid shields over the shoulders and hips, with three to nine bands separated by flexible skin covering the back and flanks.  Pampatheres also had shells that were flexible due to three movable lateral bands of osteoderms. The osteoderms of pampatheres were each covered by a single scute, unlike those of armadillos, which have more than one. Glyptodonts, on the other hand, had rigid, turtle-like shells of fused osteoderms.  Both groups have or had a cap of armor atop their heads. Glyptodonts also had heavily armored tails; some, such as "Doedicurus", had mace-like clubs at the ends of their tails, similar to those of ankylosaurs, evidently used for defensive or agonistic purposes.  Most armadillos eat insects and other invertebrates; some are more omnivorous and may also eat small vertebrates and vegetable matter. Pampatheres are thought to have been specialized for grazing, and isotopic analysis indicates the diet of glyptodonts was dominated by C4 grasses. Euphractinae is unique for speciations towards carnivory, culminating in the macropredatory genus "Macroeuphractus".

Classification.

The taxonomic table below follows the results of a phylogenetic analysis published by Delsuc "et al.", 2016. While glyptodonts have traditionally been considered stem-group cingulates outside the group that contains modern armadillos, this 2016 study conducted an analysis of "Doedicurus" mtDNA and found that it was, in fact, nested within the modern armadillos as the sister group of a clade consisting of Chlamyphorinae and Tolypeutinae. (No pampathere DNA sequence findings are yet available.)  Order CINGULATA

Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. Dasypodids and chlamyphorids, the armadillos, are the only surviving families in the order. Two groups of cingulates much larger than extant armadillos (maximum body mass of 45 kg (100 lb) in the case of the giant armadillo) existed until recently: pampatheriids, which reached weights of up to 200 kg (440 lb) and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, which attained masses of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) or more.

有甲目(学名:),又名贫齿目,是异关节总目下两个目的其中之一。有甲目代表了美洲大陆上有甲的 胎盘类动物。<unk>狳科和倭<unk>狳科是本目现时仍有现生种的两个科。 另外还有两个已灭绝的科的物种,与现存最大的<unk>狳——大<unk>狳的相比,仍要巨大得多。 分别是于约一万年前消失的潘帕兽科,其体重可达,以及于最后的冰河时期灭绝的倭<unk>狳科雕齿兽亚科物种,体重更可达以上。


List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom

Before 1721.

Prior to the Georgian era, the Treasury of England was led by the Lord High Treasurer. By the late Tudor period, the Lord High Treasurer was regarded as one of the Great Officers of State, and was often (though not always) the dominant figure in government: Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (Lord High Treasurer, 1547–1549), served as Lord Protector to his prepubescent nephew ; William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (Lord High Treasurer, 1572–1598), was the dominant minister to; Burghley's son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, succeeded his father as chief minister to (1598–1603) and was eventually appointed by as Lord High Treasurer (1608–1612).  By the late Stuart period, the Treasury was often run not by a single individual, i.e. Lord High Treasurer, but by a commission of Lords of the Treasury, led by the First Lord of the Treasury. The last Lords High Treasurer, Lord Godolphin (1702–1710) and Lord Oxford (1711–1714), ran the government of Queen Anne.  After the succession of in 1714, the arrangement of a commission of Lords of the Treasury (as opposed to a single Lord High Treasurer) became permanent. For the next three years, the government was headed by Lord Townshend, who was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Subsequently, Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland ran the government jointly, with Stanhope managing foreign affairs and Sunderland domestic. Stanhope died in February 1721 and Sunderland resigned two months later; Townshend and Robert Walpole were then invited to form the next government. From that point, the holder of the of First Lord also usually (albeit unofficially) held the status of prime minister. It was not until the Edwardian era that the title was constitutionally recognised. The prime minister still holds the office of First Lord by constitutional convention, the only exceptions being Lord Chatham (1766–1768) and Lord Salisbury (1885–1886, 1887–1892, 1895–1902).

Living former officeholders.

As of, there are five living former British prime ministers. The most recent to die was Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), on 8 April 2013.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of the Government of the United Kingdom, and chairs Cabinet meetings. There is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not created but rather evolved over a period of time through a merger of duties. However, the term was regularly if informally used of Walpole by the 1730s. It was used in the House of Commons as early as 1805, and it was certainly in parliamentary use by the 1880s. In 1905 the post of prime minister was officially given recognition in the order of precedence. Modern historians generally consider Sir Robert Walpole, who led the government of Great Britain for over twenty years from 1721, as the first prime minister. Walpole is also the longest-serving British prime minister by this definition. However, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was the first and Margaret Thatcher the longest-serving prime minister officially referred to as such in the order of precedence. The first to use the title in an official act was Benjamin Disraeli, who signed the Treaty of Berlin as "Prime Minister of her Britannic Majesty" in 1878.

英国首相(英语:Prime Minister of the United Kingdom),是大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国(通称英国)的政治领导人及政府首脑。其主要职责是领导执政党和主持内阁会议,从而掌握立法权和行政权。根据英国首相的意见,英国君主还会行使其法定权力及特权,包括任命英国政府高级官员、司法人员和英国国教会的相关人员,以及颁授勋衔等。


Taxonomy.

The poinsettia was described as a new species in 1834 by German scientist Johann Friedrich Klotzsch. Klotzsch credited Carl Ludwig Willdenow with the species name ""pulcherrima"", and the authority is given as Willd. ex Klotzsch. The holotype had been collected in Mexico during an 1803–1804 expedition by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland.  It was known by the common name "poinsettia" as early as 1836, derived from Joel Roberts Poinsett, a botanist and the first US Minister to Mexico. Possibly as early as 1826, Poinsett began sending poinsettias from Mexico back to his greenhouses in South Carolina. Prior to poinsettia, it was known as "Mexican flame flower" or "painted leaf".

Description.

"Euphorbia pulcherrima" is a shrub or small tree, typically reaching a height of. The plant bears dark green dentate leaves that measure in length. The colored bracts—which are most often flaming red but can be orange, pale green, cream, pink, white, or marbled—are often mistaken for flower petals because of their groupings and colors, but are actually leaves. The colors of the bracts are created through photoperiodism, meaning that they require darkness (at least fourteen hours at a time for 6–8 weeks in a row) to change color. The plants also require abundant light during the day for the brightest color.  The flowers of the poinsettia are unassuming and do not attract pollinators. They are grouped within the cyathia (small yellow structures found in the center of each leaf bunch, or false flowers). Nothing is known about pollination in wild poinsettias, though wasps are noted to occasionally visit the cyathia.

Toxicity.

Poinsettias are popularly, though incorrectly, said to be toxic to humans and other animals. This misconception was spread by a 1919 urban legend of a two-year-old child dying after consuming a poinsettia leaf. In 1944, the plant was included in H. R. Arnold's book "Poisonous Plants of Hawaii" on this premise. Though Arnold later admitted that the story was hearsay and that poinsettias were not proven to be poisonous, the plant was thus thought deadly. In 1970 the US Food and Drug Administration published a newsletter stating erroneously that "one poinsettia leaf can kill a child", and in 1980 they were prohibited from nursing homes in a county in North Carolina due to this supposed toxicity.  An attempt to determine a poisonous dose of poinsettia to rats failed, even after reaching experimental doses equivalent to consuming 500 leaves, or nearly of sap. Contact with any part of the plant by children or pets often has no effect, though it may cause nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting if swallowed. External exposure to the plant may result in a skin rash for some. A survey of more than 20,000 calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1985–1992 related to poinsettia exposure showed no fatalities. In 92.4% of calls, there was no effect from exposure, and in 3.4% of calls there were minor effects, defined as "minimally bothersome". Similarly, a cat or dog's exposure to poinsettias rarely necessitates medical treatment. If ingested, mild drooling or vomiting can occur, or rarely, diarrhea. In rare cases, exposure to the eye may result in eye irritation. Skin exposure to the sap may cause itchiness, redness, or swelling.

Range and habitat.

The poinsettia occurs in Central America, occurring from Mexico to southern Guatemala. Its range is about long, encompassing mid-elevation tropical dry forests. Most wild populations are on Pacific-facing slopes in steep canyons. Populations were once found in rolling hill areas, though many have gone extinct. It has been hypothesized that the inaccessibility of the canyons may protect the wild populations from human disturbance. There is a somewhat anomalous population of wild poinsettias in the northern part of the Mexican state of Guerrero and Oaxaca, which is much further inland in the hot and seasonally dry forests than the rest of the species' range. Genetic analyses showed that the wild populations in northern Guerrero are the likely ancestors of most cultivated poinsettias.

Conservation.

The tropical dry forests where wild poinsettias grow experience largely unregulated deforestation, resulting in habitat loss. Its natural habitat is thus highly fragmented, particularly near metropolitan areas such as Taxco. Population sizes are frequently very small, with as few as a dozen individuals. Populations can be up to several hundred individuals, but this is not typical. A conservation risk typical for species with wild and cultivated populations is the contamination of the wild gene pool by hybridization with cultivated individuals. This has not been documented in wild poinsettias though, as cultivars seldom flower and do not produce fruits. As of 2012, wild poinsettias are not protected by Mexican law.

In culture.

Aztec people use the plant to produce red dye and as an antipyretic medication. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the plant is called "Cuetlaxochitl", meaning "flower that grows in residues or soil" Today it is known in Mexico and Guatemala as "flor de Nochebuena", meaning Christmas Eve flower. In Spain it is known as "Flor de Pascua" or "Pascua", meaning Easter flower. In Chile and Peru, the plant became known as Crown of the Andes.  The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or María, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias. From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the blood sacrifice of Jesus's crucifixion.  Poinsettias are popular Christmas decorations in homes, churches, offices, and elsewhere across North America, as a result of an extensive marketing campaign by the Ecke family that began by shipping free poinsettias to televesion stations for use on-air. In the US, December 12 is National Poinsettia Day, marking the anniversary of Joel Roberts Poinsett's death.

Cultivation.

The Aztecs were the first to cultivate poinsettias. Cultivation in the US began when diplomat Joel Roberts Poinsett sent some of the plants back to his greenhouses in South Carolina in the 1820s. Specific details about its spread from there are largely unverifiable, but it was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1829 by Colonel Robert Carr.  The poinsettia is the world's most economically important potted plant. Each year in the US, approximately 70 million poinsettias are sold in a period of six weeks, at a value of US$250 million. In Puerto Rico, where poinsettias are grown extensively in greenhouses, the industry is valued at $5 million annually. There are over 100 cultivated varieties of poinsettia that have been patented in the US.  To produce extra axillary buds that are necessary for plants containing multiple flowers, a phytoplasma infection—whose symptoms include the proliferation of axillary buds—is used. The discovery of the role phytoplasmas play in the growth of axillary buds is credited to Ing-Ming Lee of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

American industry.

Albert Ecke emigrated from Germany to Los Angeles in 1900, opening a dairy and orchard in the Eagle Rock area. He became intrigued by the plant and sold them from street stands. His son, Paul Ecke, developed the grafting technique, but it was the third generation of Eckes, Paul Ecke Jr., who was responsible for advancing the association between the plant and Christmas.  Besides changing the market from mature plants shipped by rail to cuttings sent by air, he sent free plants to television stations for them to display on air from Thanksgiving to Christmas. He also appeared on television programs like "The Tonight Show" and Bob Hope's Christmas specials to promote the plants.  Until the 1990s, the Ecke family, who had moved their operation to Encinitas, California, in 1923, had a virtual monopoly on poinsettias owing to a technique that made their plants much more attractive. They produced a fuller, more compact plant by grafting two varieties of poinsettia together. A poinsettia left to grow on its own will naturally take an open, somewhat weedy look. The Eckes' technique made it possible to get every seedling to branch, resulting in a bushier plant.  In the late 1980s, university researcher John Dole discovered the method previously known only to the Eckes and published it, allowing competitors to flourish, particularly those using low-cost labor in Latin America. The Ecke family's business, now led by Paul Ecke III, decided to stop producing plants in the US, but as of 2008, they still served about 70 percent of the domestic market and 50 percent of the worldwide market.

Diseases.

Poinsettias are susceptible to several diseases, mostly fungal, but also bacterial and parasitic. Conditions that promote poinsettia propagation also favor certain diseases. Fungal diseases affecting greenhouse poinsettia operations include "Pythium" root rot, "Rhizoctonia" root and stem rot, black root rot, scab, powdery mildew, and "Botrytis" blight. Bacterial diseases include bacterial soft rot and bacterial canker, while a viral disease is "Poinsettia mosaic virus". Infection by poinsettia branch-inducing phytoplasma is actually desirable, as it keeps the plants shorter with more flowers. It is the first known phytoplasma that has economically advantageous effects.

The poinsettia ( or ) ("Euphorbia pulcherrima") is a commercially important plant species of the diverse spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). Indigenous to Central America, it was described as a new species in 1834. It is particularly well known for its red and green foliage and is widely used in Christmas floral displays. It derives its common English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Minister to Mexico, who is credited with introducing the plant to the US in the 1820s. Poinsettias are shrubs or small trees, with heights of. Though often stated to be highly toxic, the poinsettia is not dangerous to pets or children. Exposure to the plant, even consumption, most often results in no effect, though it can cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.

一品红(学名:'),又名为-{zh-cn:圣诞红;zh-hk:圣诞红;zh-tw:一品红;}-、圣诞花,大戟科大戟属植物,在圣诞节用来摆设的著名红色花卉。大红大绿的叶片相间,外观色彩充满圣诞节的应景气氛,因而称为圣诞红。


History.

Merton applied this concept to a fictional situation. In his book "Social Theory and Social Structure", he uses the example of a bank run to show how self-fulfilling thoughts can make unwanted situations happen. He mentions how a number of people falsely believe the bank was going to file for bankruptcy. Because of this false fear, many people decide to go to the bank and ask for all of their cash at once. These actions cause the bank to indeed go bankrupt because banks rarely have the amount of cash on hand to satisfy a large number of customers asking for all of their deposited cash at once.  Merton concludes this example with the analysis, “The prophecy of collapse led to its own fulfillment.”  While Merton's example focused on self-fulfilling prophecies within a business, his theory is also applicable to interpersonal communication since it is found to have a “potential for triggering self-fulfilling prophecy effects.” This is due to the fact “that an individual decides whether or not to conform to the expectations of others.” This makes people rely upon or fall into self-fulfilling thoughts since they are trying to satisfy other's perceptions of them.  Self-fulfilling theory can be divided into two behaviors, one would be the Pygmalion effect which is when “one person has expectations of another, changes her behavior in accordance with these expectations, and the object of the expectations then also changes her behavior as a result.”  Additionally, philosopher Karl Popper called the self-fulfilling prophecy the "Oedipus effect":  An early precursor of the concept appears in Edward Gibbon’s "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire": "During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment" (chapter I, part II).

Applications.

Examples abound in studies of cognitive dissonance theory and the related self-perception theory; people will often change their attitudes to come into line with what they profess publicly.  Teacher expectations influence student academic performance. In the United States, the concept was broadly and consistently applied in the field of public education reform, following the "War on Poverty". Theodore Brameld noted: "In simplest terms, education already projects and thereby reinforces whatever habits of personal and cultural life are considered to be acceptable and dominant." The effects of teacher attitudes, beliefs and values, affecting their expectations have been tested repeatedly. Students may study more if they had a positive experience with their teacher. Or female students may perform worse if they expected their male instructor is a sexist.  The phenomenon of the "inevitability of war" is a self-fulfilling prophecy that has received considerable study.  The idea is similar to that discussed by the philosopher William James as "The Will to Believe." But James viewed it positively, as the self-validation of a belief. Just as, in Merton's example, the belief that a bank is insolvent may help create the fact, so too, on the positive side, confidence in the bank's prospects may help brighten them. Similarly, Stock-exchange panic episodes, and speculative bubble episodes, can be triggered with the belief that the stock will go down (or up), thus starting the selling/buying mass move, etc.  A more Jamesian example: a swain, convinced that the fair maiden "must" love him, may prove more effective in his wooing than he would had his initial prophecy been defeatist.  There is extensive evidence of "Interpersonal Expectation Effects", where the seemingly private expectations of individuals can predict the outcome of the world around them. The mechanisms by which this occurs are also reasonably well understood: it is simply that our own expectations change our behaviour in ways we may not notice and correct. In the case of the "Interpersonal Expectation Effects", others pick up on non-verbal behaviour, which affects their attitudes. A famous example includes a study where teachers were told arbitrarily that random students were "going to blossom". Oddly, those random students actually ended the year with significantly greater improvements. Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968 Other specific examples discussed in psychology include:

Sports.

In Canadian ice hockey, junior league players are selected based on skill, motor coordination, physical maturity, and other individual merit criteria. However, psychologist Robert Barnsley showed that in any elite group of hockey players, 40% are born between January and March, versus the approximately 25% as would be predicted by statistics. The explanation is that in Canada, the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1, and the players who are born in the first months of the year are older by 0–11 months, which at the preadolescent age of selection (nine or ten) manifests into an important physical advantage. The selected players are exposed to higher levels of coaching, play more games, and have better teammates. These factors make them actually become the best players, fulfilling the prophecy, while the real selection criterion was age. The same relative age effect has been noticed in Belgian soccer after 1997, when the start of the selection year was changed from August 1 to January 1.

Stereotype.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are one of the main contributions to racial prejudice and vice versa. According to the "Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity & Culture" "Self-fulfilling prophecy makes it possible to highlight the tragic vicious circle which victimizes people twice: first, because the victim is stigmatized (STIGMA) with an inherent negative quality; and secondly, because he or she is prevented from disproving this quality." To prove this, the author uses the example that Merton used in his book about how white workers expected that black people would be against the principles of trade unionism because white workers considered black workers to be “undisciplined in traditions of trade unionism and the art of collective bargain-ing.” This prediction caused the event to happen (black workers would be against trade unionism), because this forecast became fact when all white people started to believe this and did not let the black workers get a job at any white men's business. Which made black workers unable to learn or approve the principles of trade unionism since they were not given the chance of working in a work environment where these principles were seen or experienced.  In the article “The Accumulation of Stereotype-based self-fulfilling Prophecies.” The authors mention how teachers can encourage stereotype-based courses and can interact with students in a manner that encourages self-fulfilling thoughts. The example that was given was the one of a female student who seemed to do bad in math and her math teacher and counselor “channel her in the direction of confirming sex stereotypes” By this the author means that the teachers never encouraged her to improve her abilities in math. Instead, the teacher and the counselor recommended classes that were dominated by females.

Literature, media, and the arts.

In literature, self-fulfilling prophecies are often used as plot devices. They have been used in stories for millennia, but have gained a lot of popularity recently in the science fiction genre. They are typically used ironically, with the prophesied events coming to pass due to the actions of one trying to prevent the prophecy (a recent example would be the life of Anakin Skywalker, the fictional Jedi-turned-Sith Lord in George Lucas' "Star Wars" saga). They are also sometimes used as comic relief.

Classical.

Many myths, legends, and fairy tales make use of this motif as a central element of narratives that are designed to illustrate inexorable fate, fundamental to the Hellenic world-view. In a common motif, a child, whether newborn or not yet conceived, is prophesied to cause something that those in power do not want to happen. This may be the death of the powerful person; in more light-hearted versions, it is often the marriage of a poor or lower-class child to his own. The events come about, nevertheless, as a result of the actions taken to prevent them: frequently child abandonment sets the chain of events in motion.

Greek.

The best-known example from Greek legend is that of Oedipus. Warned that his child would one day kill him, Laius abandoned his newborn son Oedipus to die, but Oedipus was found and raised by others, and thus in ignorance of his true origins. When he grew up, Oedipus was warned that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Believing his foster parents were his real parents, he left his home and travelled to Greece, eventually reaching the city where his biological parents lived. There, he got into a fight with a stranger, his real father, killed him and married his widow, Oedipus' real mother.  Although the legend of Perseus opens with the prophecy that he will kill his grandfather Acrisius, and his abandonment with his mother Danaë, the prophecy is only self-fulfilling in some variants. In some, he accidentally spears his grandfather at a competition—an act that could have happened regardless of Acrisius' response to the prophecy. In other variants, his presence at the games is explained by his hearing of the prophecy, so that his attempt to evade it does cause the prophecy to be fulfilled. In still others, Acrisius is one of the wedding guests when Polydectes tried to force Danaë to marry him, and when Perseus turns them to stone with the Gorgon's head; as Polydectes fell in love with Danaë because Acrisius abandoned her at sea, and Perseus killed the Gorgon as a consequence of Polydectes' attempt to get rid of Danaë's son so that he could marry her, the prophecy fulfilled itself in these variants.  Greek historiography provides a famous variant: when the Lydian king Croesus asked the Delphic Oracle if he should invade Persia, the response came that if he did, he would destroy a great kingdom. Assuming this meant he would succeed, he attacked—but the kingdom he destroyed was his own. In such an example, the prophecy prompts someone to action because he is led to expect a favorable result; but he achieves another, disastrous result which nonetheless fulfills the prophecy.  When it was predicted that Cronos would be overthrown by his son, and usurp his throne as King of the Gods, Cronus ate his children, each shortly after they were born. When Zeus was born, Cronos was thwarted by Rhea, who gave him a stone to eat instead, sending Zeus to be raised by Amalthea. Cronos' attempt to avoid the prophecy made Zeus his enemy, ultimately leading to its fulfilment.

Roman.

The story of Romulus and Remus is another example. According to legend, a man overthrew his brother, the king. He then ordered that his two nephews, Romulus and Remus, be drowned, fearing that they would someday kill him as he did to his brother. The boys were placed in a basket and thrown in the Tiber River. A wolf found the babies and she raised them. Later, a shepherd found the twins and named them Romulus and Remus. As teenagers, they found out who they were. They killed their uncle, fulfilling the prophecy.

Arabic.

A variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy is the self-fulfilling dream, which dates back to medieval Arabic literature. Several tales in the "One Thousand and One Nights", also known as the "Arabian Nights", use this device to foreshadow what is going to happen, as a special form of literary prolepsis. A notable example is "The Ruined Man Who Became Rich Again Through a Dream", in which a man is told in his dream to leave his native city of Baghdad and travel to Cairo, where he will discover the whereabouts of some hidden treasure. The man travels there and experiences misfortune after losing belief in the prophecy, ending up in jail, where he tells his dream to a police officer. The officer mocks the idea of foreboding dreams and tells the protagonist that he himself had a dream about a house with a courtyard and fountain in Baghdad where treasure is buried under the fountain. The man recognizes the place as his own house and, after he is released from jail, he returns home and digs up the treasure. In other words, the foreboding dream not only predicted the future, but the dream was the cause of its prediction coming true. A variant of this story later appears in English folklore as the "Pedlar of Swaffham".  Another variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be seen in "The Tale of Attaf", where Harun al-Rashid consults his library (the House of Wisdom), reads a random book, "falls to laughing and weeping and dismisses the faithful "vizier"" Ja'far ibn Yahya from sight. Ja'far, "disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in Damascus, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries." After returning to Baghdad, Ja'far reads the same book that caused Harun to laugh and weep, and discovers that it describes his own adventures with Attaf. In other words, it was Harun's reading of the book that provoked the adventures described in the book to take place. This is an early example of reverse causality. In the 12th century, this tale was translated into Latin by Petrus Alphonsi and included in his "Disciplina Clericalis". In the 14th century, a version of this tale also appears in the "Gesta Romanorum" and Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron".

Hinduism.

Self-fulfilling prophecies appear in classical Sanskrit literature. In the story of Krishna in the Indian epic "Mahabharata", the ruler of the Mathura kingdom, Kansa, afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of his sister Devaki's son, had her cast into prison where he planned to kill all of her children at birth. After killing the first six children, and Devaki's apparent miscarriage of the seventh, Krishna (the eighth son) was born. As his life was in danger he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda in the village of Gokula. Years later, Kansa learned about the child's escape and kept sending various demons to put an end to him. The demons were defeated at the hands of Krishna and his brother Balarama. Krishna, as a young man returned to Mathura to overthrow his uncle, and Kansa was eventually killed by his nephew Krishna. It was due to Kansa's attempts to prevent the prophecy that led to it coming true, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Rusan.

Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled over the Rus people during the early tenth century. As old East Slavic chronicles say, it was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg's stallion would be the source of Oleg's death. To avoid this he sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died. He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy. In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, ironically referring to the circumstances of his death. The story was romanticized by Alexander Pushkin in his celebrated ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg". In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of Orvar-Odd.

European fairy tales.

Many fairy tales, such as "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs", "The Fish and the Ring", "The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars", or "The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate", revolve about a prophecy that a poor boy will marry a rich girl (or, less frequently, a poor girl a rich boy). This is story type 930 in the Aarne–Thompson classification scheme. The girl's father's efforts to prevent it are the reason why the boy ends up marrying her.  Another fairy tale occurs with older children. In "The Language of the Birds", a father forces his son to tell him what the birds say: that the father would be the son's servant. In "The Ram", the father forces his daughter to tell him her dream: that her father would hold an ewer for her to wash her hands in. In all such tales, the father takes the child's response as evidence of ill-will and drives the child off; this allows the child to change so that the father will not recognize his own offspring later and so offer to act as the child's servant.  In some variants of "Sleeping Beauty", such as "Sun, Moon, and Talia", the sleep is not brought about by a curse, but a prophecy that she will be endangered by flax (or hemp) results in the royal order to remove all the flax or hemp from the castle, resulting in her ignorance of the danger and her curiosity.

Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is another classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The three witches give Macbeth a prophecy that Macbeth will eventually become king, but afterwards, the offspring of his best friend will rule instead of his own. Macbeth tries to make the first half true while trying to keep his bloodline on the throne instead of his friend's. Spurred by the prophecy, he kills the king and his friend, something he, arguably, never would have done before. In the end, the evil actions he committed to avoid his succession by another's bloodline get him killed in a revolution.  The later prophecy by the first apparition of the witches that Macbeth should "Beware Macduff" is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Macbeth had not been told this, then he might not have regarded Macduff as a threat. Therefore, he would not have killed Macduff's family, and Macduff would not have sought revenge and killed Macbeth.

Modern.

Fiction.

Similar to Oedipus above, a more modern example would be Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films, or Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise and the Big Three in Percy Jackson & the Olympians – each attempted to take steps to prevent action against them which had been predicted could cause their downfall, but instead "created" the conditions leading to it.  Another, less well-known, modern example occurred with the character John Mitchell on BBC Three's "Being Human". The Disney television series "That's So Raven" stars Raven-Symoné as the title character with the ability to see into the future with a strange situation. The extreme steps that the character takes to prevent the situation are almost always what lead to it. In George R. R. Martin’s book series "A Song of Ice and Fire", Cersei Lannister kills a friend of hers after hearing a prophecy, from Maggy the Frog, that said friend will soon die.  The song "Iron Man" by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath follows the story of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

New Thought.

The law of attraction is a typical example of self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the name given to the belief that "like attracts like" and that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results. According to this law, all things are created first by imagination, which leads to thoughts, then to words and actions. The thoughts, words and actions held in mind affect someone's intentions which makes the expected result happen. Although there are some cases where positive or negative attitudes can produce corresponding results (principally the placebo and nocebo effects), there is no scientific basis to the law of attraction.

Causal loop.

A self-fulfilling prophecy may be a form of causality loop, only when the prophecy can be said to be "truly" known to occur, since only then events in the future will be causing effects in the past. Otherwise, it would be a simple case of events in the past causing events in the future. Predestination does not necessarily involve a supernatural power, and could be the result of other "infallible foreknowledge" mechanisms. Problems arising from infallibility and influencing the future are explored in Newcomb's paradox. A notable fictional example of a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs in classical play "Oedipus Rex", in which Oedipus becomes the king of Thebes, whilst in the process unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. The prophecy itself serves as the impetus for his actions, and thus it is self-fulfilling. The movie "12 Monkeys" heavily deals with themes of predestination and the Cassandra complex, where the protagonist who travels back in time explains that he cannot change the past.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is the sociopsychological phenomenon of someone "predicting" or expecting something, and this "prediction" or expectation coming true simply because the person "believes" it will. and the person's resulting behaviors aligning to fulfill the belief. This suggests that people's beliefs influence their actions. The principle behind this phenomenon is that people create consequences regarding people or events, based on previous knowledge of the subject. A self-fulfilling prophecy is applicable to either negative or positive outcomes.

自证预言(英语:Self-fulfilling prophecy;又称「自我应验预言」或「自我实现预言」),是由美国社会学家罗伯特·金·莫顿提出的一种社会心理学现象,是指人们先入为主的判断,无论其正确与否,都将或多或少的影响到人们的行为,以至于这个判断最后真的实现。通俗的说,自证预言就是我们总会在不经意间使我们自己的预言成为现实。


承德避暑山庄及其周围寺庙

History.

Built between 1703 and 1792 during the Qing dynasty, the Mountain Resort took 89 years to complete. It covers a total area of, almost half of Chengde's urban area. It is a vast complex of palaces and administrative and ceremonial buildings. Temples of various architectural styles and imperial gardens blend harmoniously into a landscape of lakes, pastureland and forests.  The Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing emperors often spent several months a year here to escape the summer heat in the capital city of Beijing and the palace zone in the southern part of the resort was therefore designed to resemble the Forbidden City in Beijing. It consists of two parts: a court in front, where the emperor received high officials, nobles of various minority nationalities, and foreign envoys; and bed chambers in the rear, which were the imperial family's living quarters, notably the Yanbozhishuang Hall, where the Kangxi Emperor spent a total of 12 summers while the Qianlong Emperor spent 52 summers in the hall during the course of their reign. The Jiaqing and Xianfeng emperors both died while staying at Chengde in 1820 and 1861 respectively.

Climate.

Chengde Mountain Resort is located in the transition zone from warm temperate zone to cold temperate zone. It has semi - temperate, semi - arid continental monsoon climate. It has a large difference in temperature between day and night. In winter, it is cold and has little snow. It has much thundershowers in summer, basically there is no hot period. Chengde Mountain Resort is suitable for traveling in every season, but best from April to October.

Scenic spots.

The Mountain Resort is most famous for the 72 scenic spots which were named by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. Many of the scenic spots around the resort's lake area were copied from famous landscaped gardens in southern China. For instance, the main building on the Green Lotus Island, "Tower of Mist and Rain," () is modeled upon a tower in Nanhu Lake at Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province.  The resort's plain area also possesses characteristics of the scenery of the Mongolian grasslands. Forested mountains and valleys are dotted with various buildings. This includes a tall stone Chinese pagoda, one of the tallest in China, built in 1751 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. The pagoda is shaped with an octagonal base, while the pagoda's nine stories are decorated with colorful glazed tiles and the steeple is crowned with a gilded round spire.  In December 1994 the Mountain Resort was listed by UNESCO on its list of World Heritage Sites.

Events.

The 2018 Women's Bandy World Championship was held at a naturally frozen ice at the lake in the complex.

The Mountain Resort in Chengde (; Manchu: "Halhūn be jailara gurung") or Ligong (), is a large complex of imperial palaces and gardens situated in the city of Chengde in Hebei, China. Because of its vast and rich collection of Chinese landscapes and architecture, the Mountain Resort in many ways is a culmination of all the variety of gardens, pagodas, temples and palaces from various regions of China.

承德避暑山庄及其周围寺庙()是被联合国教科文组织评定为世界遗产时使用的登录名称(The Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde)。其中的避暑山庄是中国现存最大的皇家园林。