Images may be two-dimensional, such as a photograph, screen display, and as well as a three-dimensional, such as a statue. They may be captured by optical devices—such as cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces.

The word image is also used in the broader sense of any two-dimensional figure such as a map, a graph, a pie chart, or an abstract painting. In this wider sense, images can also be rendered manually, such as by drawing, painting, carving, rendered automatically by printing or computer graphics technology, or developed by a combination of methods, especially in a pseudo-photograph.

A volatile image is one that exists only for a short period of time. This may be a reflection of an object by a mirror, a projection of a camera obscura, or a scene displayed on a cathode ray tube. A fixed image, also called a hard copy, is one that has been recorded on a material object, such as paper or textile by photography or digital processes.

An empire is a State with politico-military dominion of populations who are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling) ethnic group and its culture [3] — unlike a federation, an extensive State voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples. As a State, an empire might be either territorial or a hegemony, wherein the empire’s sphere of influence dominates the lesser state(s) via divide and conquer tactics, i.e. “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, (cf. superpower, hyperpower).

What physically and politically constitutes an empire is variously defined; it might be a State effecting imperial policies, or a political structure, or a State whose ruler assumes the title of “Emperor”, thus re-denominating the State (country) as an “Empire”, despite having no additional territory or hegemony, e.g. the Central African Empire or the Korean Empire (proclaimed in 1897 when Korea, far from gaining new territory, was on the verge of being annexed by Japan). The terrestrial empire’s maritime analogue is the thalassocracy, an empire comprehending islands and coasts to its terrestrial homeland, e.g. the Athenian-dominated Delian League.

Unlike an homogeneous nation-state, an heterogeneous (multi-ethnic) colonial empire usually has no common tongue, thus, a lingua franca is most important to governing (administratively, culturally, militarily) to establish imperial unity. To wit, the Macedonians imposed Greek as their unifying, imperial language, yet most of their subject populations continued speaking Aramaic, the lingua franca of the previous, Persian Empire, overlord. The Romans successfully imposed Latin upon Western continental Europe, but less successfully in Britain and in Western Asia; in the Middle East, the Arab Empire established politico-cultural unity via language and religion; the Spanish Empire established Spanish in most all of the American continent, but less so in Paraguay and in the Philippines; the British Empire established itself with English in northern North America; elsewhere, despite Russian not supplanting the indigenous tongues of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Russians learned the tongues of their imperial subjects.

They are evergreen shrubs (rarely small trees) growing to 0.5-5 m tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, tough and leathery, simple, linear to lanceolate, 2-12 cm long and 0.5-3 cm broad, with a serrated margin or serrated at the leaf apex only. The flowers are produced in dense inflorescences, which have large numbers of prominent styles, which inspires the name.

The genus is closely related in evolution and appearance to the Australian genus Banksia.
Species
Leucospermum album Bond
Leucospermum arenarium – Redelinghuis Pincushion
Leucospermum attenuatum R.Br.
Leucospermum bolusii E.Phillips – Gordon’s Bay Pincushion
Leucospermum calligerum – Arid Pincushion
Leucospermum catherinae Compton – Catherine-wheel Pincushion
Leucospermum conocarpodendron (L.) H.St.John – Tree Pincushion
Leucospermum conocarpum R.Br.
Leucospermum cordatum – Heart-leaf Pincushion
Leucospermum cordifolium (Salisb. ex Knight) Fourc.
Leucospermum cuneiforme (Burm.) Rourke – Wart-stemmed Pincushion
Leucospermum erubescens – Oudtshoorn Pincushion
Leucospermum formosum – Silver-leaf Wheel Pincushion
Leucospermum gerrardii – Soapstone Pincushion
Leucospermum glabrum – Outeniqua Pincushion
Leucospermum gracile – Hermanus Pincushion
Leucospermum grandiflorum R.Br. – Grey-leaf Fountain Pincushion
Leucospermum gueinzii – Kloof Fountain Pincushion
Leucospermum harmatum – Ruitersbos Pincushion