Indian species, and G. mndagascariensis 

 are occasionally met with as stove shrubs, 

 with fine pinnated foliage and panicles of 

 yellow flowers. [M. T. M.] 



GAR VANCE. (Fr.) Cicer arietinum. 



GASTERIA. The name of certain species 

 of Aloe, which are regarded by some as 

 being distinct from that genus. They are 

 mostly dwarf stemless plants with the 

 thick succulent spotted or warted tongue- 

 shaped leaves often rigidly two-ranked, 

 and the long arching spikes of green-tip- 

 ped red flowers freely produced. The cur- 

 vature and bellying of the flower-tubes has 

 suggested the name ; the distinguishing 

 character of the group is indeed furnished 

 by the curved tube of the perianth swollen 

 at the base, by the stamens being adgluti- 

 nated to the perianth at the base, and by 

 the capsule being subcostate. They are 

 mostly ornamental plants, and, like the 

 other aloes, natives of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. [T. MJ 



GASTEROMYCETE3. One of the six 

 great divisions of Fungi, containing those 

 genera with naked spores in which the 

 fruit-bearing surface is either permanently 

 concealed in a surrounding peridium, or 

 in which, when the peridium bursts, the 

 hymenium is complicated like the crumb 

 of a loaf, so that a small portion only is 

 exposed. InATontagnites, however, the hy- 

 menium consists of true gills. The genera 

 are divisible into six natural groups as fol- 

 lows: — Podaxinei: mostly clavate; hyme- 

 nium sinuous, enclosed at first in a volva- 

 like peridium, and exposed partially by its 

 , rupture, withering or entirely drying up 

 so as to form a dusty mass. Hypogmi : 

 subterraneous ; peridium seldom distinct. 

 Phalloidei: hymonium at first enclosed in 

 a gelatinous volva, at length diffluent. 

 Nidttfariaeei : peridium mostly cup-shaped, 

 enclosing several sporangia. Trichogastres : 

 subglobose, not having a distinct volva ; 

 hymenium at first cellular, at length leav- 

 ing a dusty mass of threads and spores. 

 Mn.r.ga.stres : hymenium and mycelium at 

 first gelatinous. [M. J. BJ 



GASTONIA. The name of a genus of 

 ivyworts, distinguished by having the co- 

 rolla with five or six petals; the stamens 

 ten to twelve, attached to the petals, and 

 apparently in pairs opposite to them ; the 

 fruit a dry berry with eighteen cells, each 

 of which contains one seed. The name 

 I was given by Commerson in honour of 

 Gaston de Bourbon, son of Henry IV. The 

 only species, G. palmata, is a native of 

 Mauritius. [G. D.] 



GASTRANTHFS. A genu3 of Ges- 

 neracecB containing two species from 



| South America. They are undershrubs 

 with opposite oblong crenate leaves, and 



i few umbellate flowers. The divisions of 

 the calyx are lanceolate ; the corolla 

 oblique and shortly spurred, with the 

 limb cut into five unequal small roundish 

 lobes : the four didynamous stamens in- 

 cluded ; the disk very 3mall, but swelled on 



one side into a large gland half covering 

 the ovary ; and the apex of the style cup- 

 shaped, and slightly bilobed. [W. C] 



GASTRIDIUM. A genus of grasses of 

 the tribe Agrostidece, consisting of a single 

 species, G.lendigerum, or, as it is sometimes 

 called, G. australe, one of our rarer British 

 ! species, and very common in the Mediter- 

 ranean region. It is an elegant erect- 

 growing annual plant, six or eight inches 

 high, with the panicle contracted into a 

 loose tapering spike two to three inches 

 long, of a pale green, and shining with a 

 satiny lustre. It has been separated from 

 Agrostis on account of the polished en- 

 larged base of the outer glumes. [T. M.] 



GASTROCHILTJS. A genus of Zingibe- 

 racece, whose flowers have a tubular calyx, 

 and a corolla with a long tube, the outer 

 segments of the limb equal, the inner ones 

 unequal, the two lateral wide, united at 

 the base with the filament to form a kind 

 of tube, the middle segment or lip large 

 and distended, whence the name. G.pul- 

 cherrima, a native of Rangoon, and one or 

 two other Indian species, are occasionally 

 met with in cultivation, and are very orna- 

 mental. [31. T. M.] 



GASTRODIA. This is the genus which 

 gives its name to a small tribe (Gastrodieo?) 

 of the orchid family characterised by the 

 granular instead of waxy or powdery pol- 

 len-masses. There are two known species, 

 G. Cunninghamii from New Zealand, and 

 G. sesamoides from Tasmania and Australia, 

 both leafless parasites with the aspect of 

 Orobanche, and like that found growing on 

 the roots of other plants. The whole plant 

 is of a uniform pale brown colour, the 

 stems one to three feet high, furnished 

 1 with a few obtuse bracts, and terminating 

 ! in a long raceme of flowers, the sepals and 

 I petals united so as to form a tubular peri- 

 anth, but the lip free and not connate with 

 the perianth as in Gamoplexis. The root 

 of the New Zealand species is eaten by the 

 natives, who call it Peri ; it is about 

 eighteen inches long, as thick as the finger, 

 and full of starch. [A. A. R] 



GASTROLOBIUM. An extensive genus 

 of the pea family, peculiar to the south- 

 western portions of Australia. It is known 

 by the two-lipped and five-toothed calyx 

 I without bracts; the pea-flower corolla with 

 I petals nearly equal in length ; and the 

 stalked two-seeded ventricose or inflated 

 pods, seldom larger than a pea. Pultencea 

 differs in having sessile pods, as well as 

 , heath-like foliage. Most of the Gastro- 

 lobes are bushes of two to four feet high, 

 with twiggy stems furnished with opposite 

 often whorled leaves varying much in form, 

 and pretty yellow blossoms, sometimes in 

 twos in the axils of the leaves, but more 

 usually in short racemes arising from near 

 the apex of the twigs. A number of the 

 species of this and of allied genera are 

 known in "Western Australia as Poison- 

 plants; and farmers lose annually a large 

 number of cattle through their eating the 

 foliage. Mr. James Drummond, in Hooker's 



