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Barren regions, especially in the western United States, where horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by canons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian Fre…

To challenge or defy to a match. [Colloq. Southern and Western U.S.]

-renewing crop in the alkaline soils of the Nile valley, and now introduced into the southwestern United States. It is more succulent than other clovers or than alfalfa. Called also Egyptian clover.

In the Southern and Southwestern States, a small silver coin (as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12 1/2 cents; also, the sum of 12 1/2 cents. Bit my bit, piecemeal. Pope.

ed or rosy color. The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set, But stayed, and made the western welkin blush. Shak.

The Osage orange. [Southwestern U.S.]

le-edged near the point; -- used as a hunting knife, and formerly as a weapon in the southwestern part of the United States. It was named from its inventor, Colonel James Bowie. Also, by extension, any large sheath knife.

A native or a Mexican horse of small size. [Western U.S.]

A genus of large extinct mammals from the miocene strata of western North America. They were allied to the rhinoceros, but the skull bears a pair of powerful horn cores in front of the orbits, and the fore feet were four-toed. See Illustration in Appendix.

table for making brooms to sweep with when bound together; esp., the Cytisus scoparius of Western Europe, which is a low shrub with long, straight, green, angular branches, mintue leaves, and large yellow flowers. No gypsy cowered o'er fires of furze and broom. Wordsworth.

d acorns inclosed in deep cups imbricated with pointed scales. It grows in the Middle and Western United States, and its wood is tough, close-grained, and durable. -- Bur reed (Bot.), a plant of the genus Sparganium, having long ribbonlike leaves.

ne point, are sure to burrow in another. Burke. Burrowing owl (Zoöl.), a small owl of the western part of North America (Speotyto cunicularia), which lives in holes, often in company with the prairie dog.

also Bizantine.] Byzantine church, the Eastern or Greek church, as distinguished from the Western or Roman or Latin church.See under Greek. -- Byzantine empire, the Eastern Roman or Greek empire from A.D. 364 or A.D. 395 to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D. 1453. -- Byzantine historians, historians and…

small cañon; a narrow valley or glen; also, but less frequently, an open valley. [Local, Western U. S.]

f varying size. In Cuba it is about 33 acres; in Porto Rico, about 194 acres; in the Southwestern United States, about 108 acres.

The act or state of declining or sinking. [Obs.] Now was the sun in western cadence low. Milton.

Partnership; as to go in cahoot with a person. [Slang, southwestern U. S.] Bartlett.

A blue-flowered liliaceous plant (Camassia esculenta) of northwestern America, the bulbs of which are collected for food by the Indians. [Written also camas, cammas, and quamash.]

small cañon; a narrow valley or glen; also, but less frequently, an open valley. [Local, Western U. S.]

p gorge, ravine, or gulch, between high and steep banks, worn by water courses. [Mexico & Western U. S.]