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Smith, Jedediah Strong

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799–1831, American explorer, one of the greatest of the mountain men, b. near Binghamton, N.Y. Early in 1824, Smith took a party through South Pass, beginning the regular us...

Conway, Moncure Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Conway, Moncure Daniel mŏnkyo͝orˈ, mŏnˈkyo͝or [key], 1832–1907, American author and preacher, b. Stafford co., Va. An ardent abolitionist, Conway lectured in England during the Civil War in th...

Norton, Charles Eliot

(Encyclopedia)Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827–1908, American scholar and teacher, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1846. As professor of the history of art at Harvard (1875–98) and as a man of letters he had a s...

ninebark

(Encyclopedia)ninebark, any plant of the genus Physocarpus of the family Rosaceae (rose family). Ninebarks are North American (one is Asian) deciduous, hardy, spring-blooming shrubs, with thin bark which peels off ...

Cairnes, John Elliot

(Encyclopedia)Cairnes, John Elliot kârnz [key], 1823–75, Irish economist, a follower of John Stuart Mill. His Slave Power (1862), a defense of the North in the American Civil War, made a great impression in Engl...

Veríssimo, Érico Lopes

(Encyclopedia)Veríssimo, Érico Lopes ĕˈrēko͝o lo͝opəs vərēsˈsēmo͝o [key], 1905–75, Brazilian writer. Veríssimo lectured and taught in the United States. He wrote (in English) Brazilian Literature (1...

larkspur, in botany

(Encyclopedia)larkspur, any north temperate, Old World annual of the genus Consolida of the buttercup family. Consolida species were formerly classified in the genus Delphinium, which includes similar annual, bienn...

Vance, Zebulon Baird

(Encyclopedia)Vance, Zebulon Baird, 1830–94, American political leader, Confederate governor of North Carolina (1862–65) in the Civil War, b. Buncombe co., N.C. A lawyer and a Whig, he served in the state legis...

toothwort

(Encyclopedia)toothwort, any species of the genus Dentaria [Lat. dens=tooth, for the toothed rhizomes of some species], slender perennials of the family Cruciferae (or Brassicaceae; mustard family), native to north...

Gray, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Robert, 1755–1806, American sea captain, discoverer of the Columbia River, b. Tiverton, R.I. He probably served in the Continental navy in the American Revolution. In 1787 he and Capt. John Ke...