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FLATBUSH

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 482 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FLATBUSH , formerly a township of See also:

Kings See also:county, See also:Long See also:Island, New See also:York, U.S.A., annexed to See also:Brooklyn in 1894, and after the 1st of See also:January 1898 a See also:part of the See also:borough of Brooklyn, New York See also:City. The first See also:settlement was made here by the Dutch about 165r, and was variously called " Midwout," " Midwoud "and " Medwoud " (from the Dutch words, med, " See also:middle " and woud, "See also:wood ") for about twenty years, when it became more commonly known as Vlachte See also:Bos (vlachte, " wooded "; bos, " See also:plain ") or Flackebos, whence, by further corruption, the See also:present name. Farming was the See also:chief occupation of the See also:early settlers. On the 23rd of See also:August 1776 the See also:village was occupied by See also:General See also:Cornwallis's See also:division of the invading force under See also:Lord See also:Howe, and on the 27th, at the disastrous See also:battle of Long Island (or " battle of Flatbush," as it is sometimes called), " Flatbush Pass," an important strategic point, was vigorously defended by General See also:Sullivan's roops. See also:FLAT-See also:FISH (Pleuronectidae), the name See also:common to all those fishes which swim on their See also:side, as the See also:halibut, turbot, See also:brill, See also:plaice, See also:flounder, See also:sole, &c. The side which is turned towards the bottom, and in some kinds is the right, in others the See also:left, is generally colourless, and called " See also:blind," from the See also:absence of an See also:eye on this side. The opposite side, which is turned upwards and towards the See also:light, is variously, and in some tropical See also:species even vividly, coloured, both eyes being placed on this side of the See also:head. All the bones and muscles of the upper side are more strongly See also:developed than on the See also:lower; but it is noteworthy that these fishes when hatched, and for a See also:short See also:time afterwards, are symmetrical like other fishes. Assuming that they are the descendants of symmetrical fishes, the question has been to determine which See also:group of Teleosteans may be regarded as the ancestors of the flat-fishes. The old notion that they are only modified Gadids (Anacanthini) was the result of the artificial See also:classification of the past and is now generally abandoned. The See also:condition of the caudal fin, which in the See also:cod tribe departs so markedly from that of See also:ordinary Teleostcans, is in itself a sufficient See also:reason for dismissing the See also:idea of the homocercal flat-fishes being derived from the Anacanthini, and the whole structure of the two types of fishes speaks against such an See also:assumption. On the other See also:hand it has been shown, as noticed in the See also:article See also:DORY, that considerable, deep-seated resemblances exist between the Zeidae or See also:John Dories and the more generalized of the Pleuronectidae; and that a fossil fish from the Upper See also:Eocene, Amphistium paradoxum, evidently allied to the Zeidae, appears to realize in every respect the prototype of the Pleuronectidae before they had assumed the asymmetry which characterizes them as a group.

In accordance with these views the flat-fishes are placed by G. A. Boulenger in the suborder Acanthopterygii, in a division called Zeorhombi. The three families included in that division can be traced back to the Upper Eocene, and their common ancestors will probably be found in the Upper Cretaceous associated with the Berycidae, to which they will no doubt prove to be related. The very See also:

young are transparent and symmetrical, with an eye on each side, and swim in a See also:vertical position. As they grow, the eye of one side moves by degrees to the other side, where it becomes the upper eye. If at that See also:age the dorsal fin does not extend to the frontal region, the migrating eye simply moves over the See also:line of the See also:profile, temporarily assuming the position which it preserves in some of the less modified genera, such as Psettodes; in other genera, the dorsal fin has already extended to the snout before the See also:migration takes See also:place, and the eye, passing between the frontal See also:bone and the tissues supporting the fin, appears to make its way from side to side through the head, as was believed by some of the earlier observers. About 500 species of flat-fish are known, mostly marine, a few species allied to the sole being confined to the fresh See also:waters of See also:South See also:America, See also:West See also:Africa, and the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago, whilst a few others, such as the See also:English flounder, ascend streams, though still breeding in the See also:sea. They range from the See also:Arctic Circle to the See also:southern coasts of the southern hemisphere and may occur at See also:great depths. (G. A.

End of Article: FLATBUSH

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