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bittersweet

(Encyclopedia)bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. One, called also woody nightshade...

fur

(Encyclopedia)fur, hairy covering of an animal, especially the skins of animals that have thick, soft, close-growing hair next to the skin itself and coarser protective hair above it. The underhair is frequently ca...

Hakluyt, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Hakluyt, Richard hăkˈlo͞ot, hăkˈəlwĭt [key], 1552?–1616, English geographer. He graduated in 1574 from Oxford, where he later lectured on geography. A passionate interest in the history of di...

Spangenberg, August Gottlieb

(Encyclopedia)Spangenberg, August Gottlieb ouˈgo͝ost gôtˈlēp shpängˈənbĕrk [key], 1704–92, a bishop of the Moravian Church and a founder of that church in America, b. Prussia. While at the Univ. of Jena,...

pelican

(Encyclopedia)pelican, common name for a large, gregarious aquatic bird of warm regions, allied to the cormorants and gannets. Pelicans are heavy-bodied, long-necked birds with large, flat bills. They are graceful ...

wintergreen

(Encyclopedia)wintergreen or checkerberry, low evergreen plant (Gaultheria procumbens) of the family Ericaceae (heath family), native to sandy and acid woods (usually of evergreens) of E North America and frequentl...

coyote

(Encyclopedia)coyote kīˈōt, kīōˈtē [key] or prairie wolf, small, swift wolf, Canis latrans, native to W North America. Historically found in deserts, prairies, open woodlands, and brush country, it is increa...

Native American languages

(Encyclopedia)Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arriv...

Churchill, rivers, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Churchill. 1 River, c.600 mi (970 km) long, issuing as the Ashuanipi River from Ashuanipi Lake, SW Labrador, N.L., Canada, and flowing in an arc north, then southeast through a series of lakes to Chur...

aster

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cross section of a sunflower, a member of the aster family aster [Gr.,=star], common name for the Asteraceae (Compositae), the aster family, in North America, name for plants of the genus Aste...