34 in article GREEK ART (the west
pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia) represents the attempt of
the Centaurs to carry off the bride of Peirithous.

CENTAURUS ("THE CENTAUR"), in astronomy, a constellation of the southern
hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd
century B.C.), Ptolemy catalogued thirty-seven stars in it.
_[alpha]-Centauri_ is a splendid binary star. Its components are of the
1st magnitude, and revolve in a period of eighty-one years; and since
its parallax is 0.75", it is the nearest star to the earth;
_[omega]-Centauri_, the finest globular star-cluster in the heavens,
consists of about 6000 stars in a space of about 20' diameter, of which
about 125 variables have been examined. _Nova Centauri_, a "new" star,
was discovered in 1895 by Mrs Fleming in photographs taken at Harvard.

CENTAURY (_Erythraea Centaurium_, natural order Gentianaceae), an annual
herb with erect, smooth stem, usually branched above, and a terminal
inflorescence with numerous small red or pink regular flowers with a
funnel-shaped corolla. The plant occurs in dry pastures and on sandy
coasts in Britain, and presents many varieties, differing in length of
stem, degree of branching, width and shape of leaves, and laxity or
closeness of the inflorescence. Several other species of the genus are
grown as rock-plants.

CENTENARY (from Lat. _centenarius_, of or belonging to a hundred, from
_centeni_, distributive of _centum_, hundred), a space of a hundred
years, and particularly the celebration of an event on the lapse of a
hundred years, a centennial anniversary. The word "centennial" (from
Lat. _centennis_, from _centum_, and _annus_, a year), though usually an
adjective as in "the Centennial State," the name given to Colorado on
its admission to statehood in 1876, is also used as a synonym of
centenary.

CENTERVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Appanoose county, Iowa,
U.S.A., in the south part of the state, about 90 m. N.W. of Keokuk. Pop.
(1890) 3668; (1900) 5256; (1905, state census) 5967 (487 being
foreign-born); (1910) 6936. Centerville is served by the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Iowa
Central railways. Among the principal buildings are the county
court-house and the Federal building, and the city has a public library
and a hospital. It is in one of the most productive coal regions of the
state; it ships coal, limestone a