Sparseness synonyms

For those of you smarting from the sparseness of the Orr report, the Thornton site may be a welcomed balm.

The limit of each years increment of secondary wood, in those plants whose yearly activity is interrupted by a regular winter or dry season, is marked by a more or less distinct line, which is produced by the sharp contrast between the wood formed in the late summer of one year (characterized by the sparseness or small diameter of the tracheal elements, or by the preponderance of fibres, or by a combination of these characters, giving a denseness to the wood) and the loose spring wood of the next year, with its absence of fibres, or its numerous large tracheae.

The sparseness of the population throughout the Dutch territory is due to a variety of causes - to the physical character of the country, which for the most part restricts the area of population to the near neighbourhood of the rivers; to the low standard of civilization to which the majority of the natives have attained and the consequent disregard of sanitation and hygiene; to wars, piracy and head-hunting, the last of which has not even yet been effectually checked among some of the tribes of the interior; and to the aggression and oppressions in earlier times of Malayan, Arab and Bugis settlers.