GEN 



GEO 



pario, to bring forth). A designation of 

 that mode of propagation, which takes 

 place by the growth of the young, as of a 

 bud, from the parent, as in many of the 

 infusoria. 



GE'MMULE (dim. of gemma, a bud). 

 A term synonymous with plumule, and 

 denoting the growing point of the em- 

 bryo in plants. It is also applied to the 

 embryo of the radiated animals at that 

 stage of their existence when they re- 

 semble ciliated monads. 



GENDER. In Grammar, that acci- 

 dent of a noun which points out the sex 

 or the absence of sex. 



GENERALIZATION. The act of 

 comprehending under a common name 

 several objects agreeing in some point 

 which we abstract from each of them, 

 and which that common name serves to 

 indicate. Each of these names is called, 

 in Logic, a common term, from its be- 

 longing to them all alike ; or a predicable, 

 because it may be predicated affirma- 

 tively of them, or of any one of them. 

 See Abstraction. 



GENERATING FUNCTION. A term 

 applied by Laplace to any function of x, 

 considered with reference to the coeffi- 

 cients of its expansion in powers of x. 

 It is employed in solving equations of 

 differences, &c. 



GENERATION. In Geometry a line 

 is said to be generated by the motion of a 

 point, a surface by the motion of a line, 

 a solid by that of a surface. Thus, a 

 sphere is generated by the revolution of 

 a semicircle about its diameter ; a circle, 

 by the revolution of its radius about one 

 of its extremities. The figure thus gene- 

 rated is termed the generant. From this 

 mode of considering quantity as gene- 

 rated by motion, arose the terms fluxion 

 and fluent in infinitesimal analysis. 



GENI'CULATE (geniculum, a little 

 knee or joint). Knee-jointed ; bent ab- 

 ruptly in the middle, as the stems of 

 many grasses, the filament of certain 

 plants, &c. The term geniculum is ap- 

 plied to the node, or point of the stem 

 from which the leaves are developed. 



GENITIVE CASE {gig?io, to beget). 

 In Grammar, the getting case, known by 

 the sign of, and answering to the ques- 

 tion whose, or whereof? It denotes the 

 relation of property, and indicates the 

 subject to which a thing belongs. 



GENTIANA'CEiE. The Gentian tribe 

 of Dicotyledonous plants. Herbaceous 

 plants with leaves opposite ; flowers ter- 

 minal, axillary; stamens alternate with 

 149 



the segments of the corolla; ovarium 

 single, superior, 1 or 2-celled; fruit a 

 many-seeded berry. 



GE'NUS. In Logic, a predicable which 

 is considered as the material part of the 

 species of which it is affirmed. A subal- 

 tern genus is that which is capable of 

 being a species in respect of a higher 

 genus. A genus which is not considered 

 as a species of any thing, is called sum- 

 mum (the highest) genus. When it is 

 said of a magnet, that it is "a kind of 

 iron-ore," this is called its proximum 

 'genus, because it is the closest (or lowest) 

 genus which is predicated of it: " mine- 

 ral" is its more remote genus. — Whately. 



In Natural History, a genus denotes a 

 class of animals or plants which possess 

 some common property. The other per- 

 manent differences between the indivi- 

 duals of the same genus constitute a 

 species; and the accidental differences 

 found among the species are termed 

 varieties. 



GEOCENTRIC (7^. earth, Kev-rpov, 

 the centre). Having the same centre as 

 the earth, or having the earth for its 

 centre. Thus the moon's orbit is geo- 

 centric ; but the orbits of the other 

 planets, and of the earth itself, are helio- 

 centric, having the sun as their centre of 

 motion. The geocentric place of a planet 

 is the place in which it would appear to 

 an eye in the centre of the earth. The 

 geocentric latitude of a planet is its lati- 

 tude as seen from the earth ; or it is the 

 inclination of a line connecting the planet 

 and the earth to the plane of the ecliptic. 

 The geocentric longitude of a planet is 

 the distance, measured on the ecliptic, in 

 the order of the signs, between the geo- 

 centric place and the first point of Aries. 



GEOCO'RIS A (7^, earth, Kop*?, a bug). 

 The Land-bugs ; a section of Hetero 

 pterous insects, including several families 

 which strongly resemble the Cimicidae, 

 or common bugs. See Hydrocorisa. 



GEO'DES (7€a.aMc, earthy). A variety 

 of aetites, or eagle-stone, the cavity of 

 which, instead of containing a nodule, 

 contains only loose earth, and is gene- 

 rally lined with crystals. 



GEODE'SY {'ieuiiaKTia, a dividing of 

 earth). A term literally signifying a 

 division of the earth, and so far synony- 

 mous with geometry, or land-measuring. 

 In a more general sense, however, it sig- 

 nifies that branch of practical geometry 

 which comprehends all the operations, 

 geometrical and trigonometrical, required 

 for determining the general figure of the 

 H3 



