166 



GEORGIA 



GERARD 



(1846; new ed. 1886); Prof. A. Tsagarelli's notices of 

 Georgian literature and Georgian studies (in Russian) 

 and documents illustrating Georgian literature ( St Peters- 

 burg, 1886-95); and A. Leist's Georgien (1885) and 

 Georyische Dichter verdeutscht (Leip. 1887) may be 

 mentioned. See also French books on Georgia by Lang- 

 lois and Villeneuve ; Wardrop, The Kiiujdom of Georgia 

 ( 1888 ), and Georgian Folk Talcs ( 1894 ). For the Church 

 in Georgia, see GREEK CHURCH, Vol. V. p. 400. 



Georgia* GULF OF, an arm of the Pacific, 

 between Vancouver's Island and the mainland of 

 British Columbia, communicating with the ocean 

 by Queen Charlotte's Sound in the north, and by 

 the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the south. It is 

 250 miles long by a little over 30 broad. 



Georgian Bay. See HURON (LAKE). 



Georgium Sidus. See HERSCHEL, PLANETS. 



GeorgSWalde, a town on the northern border 

 of Bohemia, 112 miles N. of Prague by rail, with a 

 mineral spring and linen manufactures. Pop. 5808. 



Gephyrea, a class of unsegmented marine 

 worms, divided into two distinct sub-groups : (a) 

 the Gephyreans proper, without bristles ( G. 

 achceta) e.g. Sipunculus (q.v.), Priapulus, Phasco- 

 losoma ; and (b) the Echiuroids or armed Gephy- 

 reans (Gephyrea chcetifera)e.g. Echiurus, Thalas- 

 sema, Bonellia. They live at the bottom of the 

 sea, in sand, mud, or among rocks. While the 

 adults of both sub-groups are not segmented, the 

 larvae of the Echiuroids are, and on this and other 

 grounds many authorities place them apart from 

 the other Gephyreans and nearer the Annelids. 



See Selenka, ' Gephyrea,' Challenger Rep. xiii. (1885) ; 

 De Mace, Biilow, and Selenka, 'Die Sipunculiden,' in 

 Semper's Reisen im Archipel der Philippinen, part ii. 

 (1884); Rietsch, 'Monograph of Echiuridse,' ftecueil 

 Zool. Suisse, iii. (1886). 



Gepidae, a people of Germanic origin, whom we 

 first read of as settled about the mouth of the 

 Vistula in the 3d century. Before the 5th century 

 they had migrated to the Lower Danube, where 

 they were subjugated by the Huns ; but, revolting 

 against Attila's son, they recovered their freedom 

 and established themselves in Dacia. There their 

 power grew so great that they levied tribute from 

 the Byzantine emperors down to Justinian's days. 

 In the end of the 5th century a powerful enemy 

 arose to them in the Ostrogoths ; and after them 

 came the Longobards, who, in alliance with the 

 Avars, inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Gepidse 

 in 566. A part of the last-named then submitted 

 to the Avars, whilst a part accompanied the Longo- 

 bards to Italy. Henceforward we hear of them no 

 more. 



Gera, a town of Germany, capital of the small 

 principality of Reuss-Schleiz, is pleasantly situated 

 on the White Elster, 42 miles E. by S. of Weimar 

 by rail. Nearly destroyed by fire in 1780, it is for 

 the most part a modern town, with broad and 

 regular streets, but its older buildings include a 

 castle and a fine town-hall. There are over a 

 score of extensive woollen factories, besides cotton- 

 works, dyeing and printing works, manufactures 

 of machinery, leather, tobacco, and beer for export, 

 and four publishing houses ; and eight establish- 

 ments, employing 1500 hands, turn out thousands 

 of melodeons, accordions, and jews'-harps yearly. 

 Pop. (1843) 11,300; (1880) 27,118; (1885) 34,152; 

 (1890) 39,599 ; (1895) 42,300, nearly all Protestants. 



Gerace, a town of southern Italy, 4 miles from 

 the sea, and 37 (58 by rail) NE. of Reggio. It has 

 a cathedral, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783, 

 and a trade in wine, especially the esteemed 

 Lacrima di Gerace. There are iron-mines and a 

 hot sulphur-spring close by, and on a neighbouring 

 plain are the ruins of the ancient Locri. Pop. 5265. 



Gerando. See DE GERANDO. 



Geraniaceae, an order of thalamifloral dicoty- 

 ledons, herbs or undershrubs of temperate coun- 

 tries, particularly abundant at the Cape, and of 

 which the leading genera Geranium, Pelargonium, 

 and Erodium yield a great number of garden and 

 greenhouse plants (see GERANIUM). In a wider 

 sense the order is extended to include the closely 

 related Lints (Linacese) and Sorrels (Oxalidacea3), 

 together with the curiously specialised Balsam- 

 inacese, and sometimes also the Tropaeolacese (see 

 TROP^EOLUM), of which, however, the affinity is 

 more doubtful. 



Geranium, the typical genus of Geraniaceae, 

 which includes about 100 perennial and annual 

 herbs. The popular name (Crane's-bill) is derived 

 from the resemblance to the crane's beak pre- 

 sented by the beak-like process attached to the fruit, 

 this curiously assists in the distribution of the 

 seed by its characteristic mode of splitting spirally 

 into awn-like processes and carrying the seed 

 along with them. Twelve species are natives of 

 the woods, hedgerows, and fields of Britain. Of 

 these several are cultivated in gardens, especially 

 G. sanguineum, with its variety lancastriense, and 

 the double-flowered form of G. sylvaticum, one of 

 the handsomest of border flowers, while among 

 pretty exotic species may be named G. armenum, 

 platypetalum, &c. Several are of old medicinal 



Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum). 



repute, notably G. Robertianum (Herb Robert or 

 Stinking Crane's-bill), which emits a strong dis- 

 agreeable odour that is said to banish bugs : it is 

 indigenous in the United States. G. maculatum 

 is the Alum Root of North America a root 

 so powerfully astringent as to be employed, both 

 by the Indians arid the European settlers in the 

 United States, in domestic medicine for many 

 disorders requiring the exhibition of astringents. 

 G. carolinianum is another American species. A 

 few species produce edible tubers e.g. G. t'uberosum 

 of South Europe, and G. parviflorum, the Native 

 Carrot of Tasmania. The name Geranium is, how- 

 ever, often popularly misapplied to the members 

 of the allied genus Pelargonium ; witness the so- 

 called 'scarlet geranium,' 'ivy-leaved geranium,' 

 &c. See PELARGONIUM. 



Ge*rard, ETIENNE MAURICE, COMTE, Marshal 

 of France, was born at Damvilliers, in Lorraine, 

 4th April 1773. Volunteering into the army in 

 1791, he associated his fortunes for some years with 

 those of Bernadotte, serving on the Rhine, in Italy, 

 in the Vendee campaign, in Germany, and in Spain, 

 where he especially distinguished himself at Fuentes 

 de Onoro. For his brilliant services at Austerlitz 

 (1805) he was appointed general of brigade; he 

 also took a notaole part at Jena (1806), Erfurt 

 (1806), and Wagram (1809). During the Russian 

 campaign of 1812 he rendered conspicuous service 

 at the capture of Smolensk, in the battle of Valon- 



