80 



GARCILASO 



GARDENIA 



pupils reached a high degree of excellence, but none 

 equalled his eldest daughter Maria, afterwards 

 Madame Malibran (q.v.). He was less successful 

 as a composer, although several of his works, such 

 as II Calif o di Bagdad, were much admired. 

 Garcia died at Paris, 10th June 1832. PAULINE 

 VlARDOT-GARClA, his second daughter, born at 

 Paris in 1821, acquired a considerable reputation as 

 a mezzo-soprano singer, and also composed several 

 operettas and songs. 



Garcilaso, a Spanish historian, surnamed the 

 Inca, from his mother, a princess of the royal race 

 of the Incas, was son of Garcilaso de la Vega, one 

 of the conquerors of Peru, and was born at Cuzco 

 in 1540. At the age of twenty he proceeded to 

 Spain, and lived the rest of his life at Cordova, 

 where he died in 1616. His first work was La 

 Florida del Ynca ( 1605), an account of the conquest 

 of that country by Fernando de Soto. In 1609 

 appeared the first, and eight years later the second 

 part of his great work on the history of Peru, 

 entitled Commentarios Reales, que tratan del regen 

 de los Incas reyes, que fueron del Peru. Garcilaso's 

 Royal Commentaries was translated into English 

 by Sir Paul Rycaut ( 1688), and by C. R. Mark ham 

 for the Hakluyt Society ( 1869 ). 



Garcilaso de la Vega, a great Spanish poet, 

 was born at Toledo about 1503. He early adopted 

 the profession of arms, and gained a distinguished 

 reputation for bravery in the wars carried on by the 

 Emperor Charles V. against the French and Turks, 

 but was mortally wounded while storming a castle 

 near Frejus, in the south of France, and died at 

 Nice, November 1536, in the thirty-third year of 

 his age. Though prematurely cut off, he lived long 

 enough to win immortality ; and, though lie wrote 

 little, he revolutionised the national poetic taste 

 of his countrymen. For the short metre of the 

 older romances and redondillas he substituted the 

 hendecasyllabic verse of the Italians. Strangely 

 enough, his poems contain not a trace of military 

 ardour, but are inspired by a tender sweetness and 

 melancholy which appear to have deeply affected 

 his countrymen. ' His sonnets,' says Ticknor, 

 ' were heard everywhere ; his eclogues were acted 

 like popular dramas. The greatest geniuses of his 

 nation express for him a reverence they show to 

 none of his predecessors. Lope de Vega imitates 

 him in every possible way ; Cervantes praises him 

 more than he does any other poet, and cites him 

 oftener. And thus Garcilaso de la Vega has come 

 down to us enjoying a general admiration, such as 

 is hardly given to any other Spanish poet, and to 

 none that lived before his time.' The best of the 

 numerous editions of his poems is that by Azagra 

 (Madrid, 1765). They have been translated into 

 English' by Wiffen (1823). 



Garcinia. See MANGOSTEEN. 



Gard, a department in the south of France, on 

 the Mediterranean, and bounded on the E; by the 

 river Rhone, with an area of 2245 sq. m. , one-third 

 of which is arable. It is watered mainly by the 

 Rhone, and by its tributaries the Gard from which 

 the department has its name and the Ceze. Of 

 its surface the north-west is occupied by a branch 

 of the Cevennes, the remainder slopes toward the 

 Rhone and the Mediterranean, the coast being 

 lined by extensive and unhealthy marshes ; the 

 climate here is unwholesome, ana in summer the 

 heat reaches 104 F. The soil is unequal, the best 

 land occurring in the river-valleys. The famous 

 grapes have almost disappeared before the ravages 

 of the phylloxera ; less and less land yearly is re- 

 tained for vineyards ; and the production of wine 

 has sunk to less than a fourth of what it was before 

 1875. The rearing of silkworms is widely engaged 

 in, and the cultivation of olives and chestnuts is of 



value. The minerals include coal, iron, argentifer- 

 ous lead, antimony, marble, and salt ; and the 

 department's iron and steel works are important. 

 The department is divided into the four arrondisse- 

 ments of Alais, Nimes, Uzes, and Vigan ; the chief 

 town is Nimes. Pop. (1861) 422,107; (1881) 

 415,629; (1886)417,099; (1891)419,388. 



Garda, LAGO DI (the Lacus Benacus of the 

 Romans), the largest lake of Italy, lies between 

 Lombardy and Venetia, its northern end extending 

 into the Austrian Tyrol. Situated 226 feet above 

 sea-level, it has an area of 115 sq. in., a greatest 

 length of 35 miles, a breadth of 2 to 11 miles, 

 and a maximum depth of 967 feet. Its chief 

 tributaries are the Sarca and Ponale, and it is 

 drained by the Mincio, a tributary of the Po. 

 The scenery is grand : at the north end alpine 

 spurs border the lake on both sides, and descend 

 steeply to its shores, but contain within them- 

 selves also many beautiful and fertile valleys ; 

 farther to the south the country sinks by gentle 

 slopes to the level of the plain of Lombardy. Along 

 the western shore the mulberry, fig, grape, myrtle, 

 and citron are grown in the sheltered gardens, 

 many of them terraced ; olives flourish most on the 

 opposite bank. The clear waters of the lake abound 

 in fish of various kinds. Its'surface is studded with 

 many islands, and steamers ply between the prin- 

 cipal points. The mild climate in the district of 

 the lake, and the beauty of its vicinity, have caused 

 its shores to be lined with beautiful villas ; and the 

 district between Garguano and Salo, called by the 

 people La Riviera, passes for the warmest point in 

 northern Italy. Arco, near the head of the lake, 

 is growing in favour as a winter-resort. The neck 

 of land jutting out for 2 miles from the southern 

 shore, and now called Sermione, is the Sirmio 

 praised by Catullus, who had a country-house here, 

 as the ' darling of peninsulas. ' 



Gardaia, or GHARDAIA, in the Algerian 

 Sahara, stands on a conical hill, in an oasis-valley 

 full of date-palms, 1740 feet above sea-level, and 

 about 200 miles south-west of Biskra. In 1882 a 

 fort was built by the Fre.ich, who placed a garrison 

 here. Pop. of the oasis ( which is the capital of the 

 Wady Mzab) with the garrison, 40,000. Roman 

 ruins show that the oasis was once much more ex- 

 tensive. Just 85 miles to the SE. lies the oasis 

 of Wargla (Ouargla), officially associated with 

 Gardaia. An extension hither of the Biskra rail- 

 way is projected. 



Gardelegen, an old town of Prussian Saxony, 

 on the Milde, 28 miles (53 by rail) NNW. of 

 Magdeburg, with a foundry, manufactures of 

 buttons, agricultural implements, &c. Pop. 7340. 



Garde Rationale. See NATIONAL GUARD. 



Garden City, the Episcopal cathedral town of 

 Long Island, in the barren Hempstead Plains, 19 

 miles E. of Brooklyn by rail, was laid out as a 

 town of model villas by the New York millionaire, 

 A. T. Stewart, who laid down 27 miles of boulevards, 

 and planted some 50,000 trees. His widow erected 

 here a small but notably beautiful cruciform Gothic 

 cathedral ( 1877-85 ), with Avestern spire and circu- 

 lar apse. Close by are the bishop's residence and 

 the cathedral schools. Garden City now forms part 

 of the Borough of Queens, New York City. 



Gardeners' Garters. See CANARY GRASS. 



Gardenia, a genus of Cinchonacese, tropical 

 and subtropical trees and shrubs, frequently intro- 

 duced for their beautiful and fragrant flowers 



e .g. G. florida and G. radicans from Japan, and 



other species from the Cape, where their hard 

 timber also is esteemed. The fruit of other species 

 is used in dyeing silks yellow. The colouring prin- 

 ciple is identical with that of saffron ( Crocin ). The 



