Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

box turtle

(Encyclopedia)box turtle, hard-shelled land turtle of the genus Terrapene, native to North America. Its lower shell, or plastron, has a hinge dividing it into front and rear sections; the animal can raise these sec...

horse chestnut

(Encyclopedia)horse chestnut, common name for some members of the Hippocastanaceae, a family of trees and shrubs of the north temperate zones and of South America. The horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum, a...

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, S central Idaho; est. 1924. The monument (53,438 acres/21,625 hectares) lies at the north end of the much larger preserve (698,940 acres/282,851 hec...

Rivera, Diego

(Encyclopedia)Rivera, Diego ᵺyāˈgō rēvāˈrä [key], 1886–1957, Mexican mural painter, studied as a youth with Posada and other Mexican painters; husband of Frida Kahlo. The native sculpture of Mexico deepl...

Netzahualcóyotl

(Encyclopedia)Netzahualcóyotl nātsäwälkōˈyōtəl [key], city (1990 pop. 1,255,456), Mexico state, S central Mexico. It is a one of Mexico City's largest and poorest suburban municipalities. The city is offici...

Naucalpan

(Encyclopedia)Naucalpan noukälˈpän [key], city (1990 pop. 772,483), Mexico state, S central Mexico, on the Hondo River. It is an industrial extension of Mexico City and is officially called Naucalpan de Juárez....

reductions

(Encyclopedia)reductions, Span. reducciones, settlements of indigenous peoples in colonial Latin America, founded (beginning in 1609) to utilize efficiently native labor and to teach the natives the ways of Spanish...

Salish

(Encyclopedia)Salish, indigenous people of North America, also known as the Flathead, who in the early 19th cent. inhabited the Bitterroot River valley of W Montana. Their language belongs to the Salishan branch of...

Anáhuac

(Encyclopedia)Anáhuac änäˈwäk [key] [Aztec and Nahuatl,=near the water], geographical term used variously in Mexico before the Spanish Conquest. Today it commonly refers to that part of the central plateau of ...

spiraea

(Encyclopedia)spiraea spīrēˈə [key], any plant of the genus Spiraea, Northern Hemisphere deciduous shrubs of the family Rosaceae (rose family). Most are indigenous to central and E Asia, whence come most of the...