Prairie

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) A meadow or tract of grass; especially, a so called natural meadow.

(2): ( n.) An extensive tract of level or rolling land, destitute of trees, covered with coarse grass, and usually characterized by a deep, fertile soil. They abound throughout the Mississippi valley, between the Alleghanies and the Rocky mountains.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Name given by the French to an extensive tract of flat or rolling land covered with tall, waving grass, mostly destitute of trees, and forming the great central plain of North America, which extends as far N. as Canada.