Prairie

(pra're.) [Fr., a meadow.] (Geog.) A term applied in the U. States to designate the vast plains which are found principally in the northern portion of the Mi i ippi valley. They are cla ed as follows: the heathy or bushy, which have springs, and are covered with small shrubs, bushes, grape-vines, ., very common in Indiana, Illinois, and Mi ouri. 2. The dry or rolling, generally destitute of water, and almost all vegetation but gra . These are the most common and extensive: the traveller may wander for days in these vast and nearly level plains, without wood or water, and see no object rising above the horizon. In this kind of prairies roam large herds of buffaloes. 3. The alluvial, or wet prairies, form the third and smallest division; they are covered with a rich vegetation, and have a black, deep, and friable soil, of inexhaustible fertility; in a state of nature they are covered with tall rank gra , and in the rainy season are frequently over flowed, or contain numerous pools, the waters of which pa off solely by evaporation. [s. 728]