gira] 



®I)e CreaSuri? of 33afang. 



532 



cymes, densely clothed with stinging hairs. 

 G. heterophylla, one of the commonest 

 Himalayan species, has three to seven lobed 

 leaves, Ave inches to a foot long. Dr. 

 Hooker, in his Himalayan Journals, al- 

 luding to this plant, says : 'The quantity 

 of gigantic nettles growing on the border 

 of maize fields was quite wonderful ; their 

 long white stings look most formidable, 

 but, though they sting powerfully, the pain 

 only lasts half an hour or so.' According 

 to the same authority, a sort of cloth, and 

 also a sort of cordage, are made from fibre 

 furnished by the stems of this plant in 

 Sikkim. In Southern India, the stems of 

 G. Leschenaultiana, which is closely allied 

 to the preceding, yield a good silken fibre 

 which is made into thread. The process 

 of separation, in some places, is performed 

 by boiling the stems; in others, by steep- 

 ing them in water for twelve days or so, 

 when the outer or fibrous portion is readily 

 removed, and afterwards spun into a beau- 

 tiful soft thread. The fibre exists in large 

 proportions, and the tow bears great re- 

 semblance to sheep's wool. [A. A. BJ 



GIRAUMONT. (Fr.) CucurMta Pepo. 

 The seeds of some cucurbitaceous plant, 

 bearing the name of Giraumont seeds, are 

 used to destroy tape-worm. 



GIREOUDIA. A genus of Begoniaceay, 

 named after M. Gireoud, a Berlin horticul- 

 turist. Flowers monuecious : thestaminate 

 ones with two obovate petals, numerous 

 stamens of nearly equal length, and oblong 

 anthers opening laterally; the pistillate 

 ones with two petals, a trigonal inferior 

 three-celled ovary which is unequally 

 winged, and crescentic stigmas surrounded 

 at the margin by a papillose band. The 

 capsule is triquetrous and top-shaped, open- 

 ing by curved chinks at the origin of the 

 wings. They are fleshy undershrubs, erect 

 or creeping, found in Central America and 

 in Mexico, and have usually entire lobed 

 leaves with long petioles and large sti- 

 pules. The flowers are in axillary dichoto- 

 mous cymes. There are about thirty spe- 

 cies, all of which were formerly included 

 in Begonia. [J. H. B.] 



GIROFLFlE. (Fr.) Clteiranthus. — DES 

 JARDINS. Matthiola incana. — DE 

 MAHON. Malcohnia maritima. — DE 

 MURAILLE. Clteiranthus Cheiri. — 

 JAUNATRE. Cheiranthus ochroleucus. — 

 JAUNE. Cheiranthus Cheiri. — QUA- 

 RANTAINE. Matthiola annua. — VIO- 

 LETTE. Clieiranth as Cheiri. 



GIROFLIER, or G. AROMATIQUE. (Fr.) 

 Caryophyllus aromaticus. 



GIROLLES. (Fr.) Slum Sisarum. 

 GIROSELLE. (Fr.) Bodecatheon. 

 GITH. The Corn Cockle, Agrostemma 

 Githago. 



GITHAGINEUS. Greenish-red. 



GITHAGO. The name of one of the 

 groups included in Lychnis, and repre- 

 sented by the Agrostemma Githago of Lin- 



naeus. The lamina of the petals is entire 

 and without appendages. [T. M.] 



GITHOPSIS. A genus of Campanulacem, 

 nearly allied to Specularia, but differing in 

 the narrow-campanulate, not rotate, co- 

 rolla, in the filaments without hairs, and 

 in the capsule opening in terminal pores. 

 It comprises two Californian annuals, with 

 small blue flowers, scarcely showing be- 

 tween the long segments of the calyx. 



GLABER, GLABRATE, GLABROUS. 



Smooth ; having no hairs. 



GLACIALE. (Fr.) Mesembryanthemum 

 crystallinum. 



GLADDON, GLADEN, or GLADER. Iris 



fcetidissima. 



GLADTATE. Sword-shaped; the same 

 as Ensiform. 



GLADIOLE, WATER. Butomus umoel- 

 latus. 



GLADIOLUS. An extensive and very 

 beautiful genus of Iridacea?, found spa- 

 ringly in the warmer parts of Europe and 

 in the Mediterranean region, and much 

 more abundantly in South Africa. They 

 form fleshy corms, from which grow the 

 erect stems, terminating in a spike of 

 flowers of greater or less length, the leaves 

 being distichous and equitant, and either 

 narrow and grass-like or rush-like, or 

 broader and sword-shaped. The flowers 

 consist of an irregular perianth, with a 

 terete tube, and six-parted bilabiate limb ; 

 three stamens inserted in the tube; and 

 an obtusely three-cornered three-celled 

 ovary, containingnumerous ovules in seve- 

 ral rows in the central angle of the cells. 

 The ovary is crowned by a filiform style, 

 with three petaloid stigmas. There is great 

 variety amongst the species, not only in 

 aspect, but also in size, and in the form 

 of the flowers. Certain of them, chiefly 

 67. natalensis, floribundus, and cardinalis, 

 have, by cross-breeding and continued 

 seeding, yielded a race of half-hardy so- 

 called bulbs, which rank amongst the most 

 ornamental of our popular garden flowers, 

 and of which new varieties are raised an- 

 nually in large quantities. These are all 

 stately plants, growing from three to six 

 feet in height, and producing long spikes 

 of large blossoms of the most varied and 

 striking colours. The European species 

 are hardy garden flowers in favourable 

 situations. [T. M.] 



GLADWYN. Iris fcetidissima. 



GLAIVANE. (Fr.) Xiphidium. 



GLAND DE TERRE. (Fr.) Lathyrus 

 tuberosus. 



GLANDACEUS. Yellowish-brown, the 

 colour of an acorn. 



GLANDS, GLANDULES. Wart-like 

 swellings found on the surface of plants, 

 or at one end of their hairs. They are ex- 

 tremely various in form. 



