Raritan, river, 85 mi (137 km) long, rising in N central N.J., and flowing generally SE to Raritan Bay, an arm of Lower New York Bay, at Perth Amboy. Through pumping the Raritan supplies water...

Unalaska, rugged island, 30 mi (48 km) long, off SW Alaska, one of the largest Aleutian Islands. Visited (c.1759) by Russian explorers, the island was a center of Russian fur trade until it wa...

Chewing gum, confection consisting usually of chicle, flavorings, and corn syrup and sugar (or artificial sweeteners). Prehistoric people are believed to have chewed resins. Spruce resin was c...

Allegheny Plateau, dissected plateau, western part of the Appalachian Mts., extending c.500 mi (800 km) SW from N Pa. to SW Va., rising to c.4,860 ft (1,480 m) at Spruce Knob, the highest peak...

McMinnville, city (1990 pop. 17,894), seat of Yamhill co., NW Oreg.; inc. 1876. It is a trade and processing center in the fertile Willamette valley. Foods, textiles, and building materials ar...

Clapboard, board used for the exterior finish of a wood-framed building and attached horizontally to the wood studs. The word, in its original and strict use, refers to a product of New Englan...

Nelson, river, c.400 mi (640 km) long, issuing from the northeast end of Lake Winnipeg, central Man., Canada, and flowing NE to Hudson Bay at Port Nelson. With the Bow–South Saskatchewan–Saska...

Sawfly, common name for insects of several families of the order Hymenoptera, which also includes the ants, wasps, and bees. Sawflies are named for the two sawtoothed blades of the female's ov...

Taiga, northern coniferous-forest belt of Eurasia, bordered on the north by the treeless tundra and on the south by the steppe. This vast belt, comprising about one third of the forest land of...

Bonsai, art of cultivating dwarf trees. Bonsai, developed by the Japanese more than a thousand years ago, is derived from the Chinese practice of growing miniature plants. In bonsai cultivatio...