GEN 



GEQ 



form well, and easily, that which others 

 can do but indifferently, and with a great 

 deal of pains. 



GENTIAN, in pharmacy, is to be found 

 in many countries, but particularly in 

 some parts of France, on the Alps, Py- 

 renees, and the mountainous districts of 

 Germany. That used in this country is 

 mostly brought from Germany. The roots 

 are the only^part of the plant made use of 

 in medicine. Gentian stands at the head 

 of the stomachic bitters. 



GENTIANA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Digynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Rotacese. Gentians, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : corolla 

 monopetalous ; capsule superior, two- 

 valved, one celled, with two longitudi- 

 nal receptacles. There are fifty-three 

 species. 



GENUS, among metaphysicians and 

 logicians, denotes a number of beings, 

 which agree in certain general properties, 

 common to them all ; so that a genus is 

 an abstract idea, expressed by some ge- 

 neral name or term. 



A genus is an assemblage of several 

 species: that is, of several plants which 

 resemble one another in their most essen- 

 tial parts. Hence it is aptly enough com- 

 pared to a family, all the relations of 

 which bear the same surname, although 

 every individual is distinguished by a par- 

 ticular specific name. In botany the es- 

 tablishment of genera renders the subject 

 more simple and easy, by abridging the 

 number of names, and arranging under 

 one denomination, termed the generic 

 name, several plants, which, though dif- 

 ferent in many other respects, are found 

 invariably to possess certain relations in 

 those essential parts, the flower and fruit. 

 Planis of this kind are termed by bota- 

 nists planUt congeneres, that is, plants of 

 the same genus. 



Linna.us's genera contain a description 

 of each particular part of fructification, 

 its various relations and different modes 

 with respect to number, figure, situation, 

 and proportion. Thus, all the different 

 species of calyx, corolla, nectarium, stami- 

 na, &c. furnish the observer with so many 

 sensible and essential characters. These 

 characters the author denominates the let- 

 ters or alphabet of botany. By studying, 

 comparing, and, as it were, spelling these 

 letters, the student in botany comes, at 

 length, to read and understand the gene- 

 rical characters which the great Creator 

 has originally imprinted upon vegetables : 

 for the genera and species, according to 

 Linnaeus, are solely the work of nature ; 



whilst the classes and orders are a com- 

 bination of nature and art. Upon these 

 principles, Linnaeus, in his genera planta- 

 rum, determines the generical characters 

 of all the plants there described. 



GENUS, in natural history, a sub-divi- 

 sion of any class or order of natural be- 

 ings, whether of the animal, vegetable, or 

 mineral kingdoms, all agreeing in certain 

 common characters. 



GEOCENTRIC latitude of a planet, is 

 its distance from the ecliptic as it is seen 

 from the earth, which, even though the 

 planet be in the same point of her orbit, 

 is not constantly the same, but a'ters ac- 

 cording to the position of the earth in re- 

 spect to the planet. 



GEOCENTRIC place of a planet, the 

 place wherein it appears to us from the 

 earth, supposing the eye there fixed : or 

 it is a point in the ecliptic to which a pla- 

 net seen from the earth is referred. 



GEOU^ESIA, the same with surveying. 

 See SURVEYING. 



GEOFFROYA, in botany, so named in 

 honour of Monsieur Geoffrey, a member 

 of the academy at Paris, a genus of the 

 Diadelphia Decandria class and order. 

 Natural order of Papilionacese or Legu- 

 minosae. Essential character : calyx five- 

 cleft ; drupe ovate ; nut flatted. There 

 are two species. 



GEOGRAPHY, is that science which 

 exhibits the results of our investigations 

 respecting the planet we inhabit, whether 

 we consider its figure and the disposition 

 of the lands and water upon its surface, 

 or the subdivisions which the different 

 nations who inhabit it have made, by 

 which it is considered as forming king- 

 doms and states. 



The general curvature of the earth's 

 surface is easily observable in the disap- 

 pearance of distant objects; and, in par- 

 ticular, when the view is limited by the 

 sea, the surface of which, from the com- 

 mon property of a fluid, becomes natu- 

 rally smooth and horizontal ; for it is 

 well known that the sails and rigging of 

 a ship come into view long before her 

 hull, and that each part is the sooner seen 

 as the eye is more elevated: 



On shore the frequent inequalities of 

 the solid parts of the earth usually cause 

 the prospect to be bounded by some ir- 

 regular prominence, as a hill, a tree, or a 

 building, so that the general curvature is 

 the less observable. 



The surface of a lake, or sea, must be 

 always perpendicular to the direction of 

 a plumb line, which may be considered as 

 the direction of the force of gravity ,- and 



