196 DICTIONAHY OF POPULAR NAMES GOOSEBERKY 



parts of tHs country, and is supposed to be indigenous. It is 

 recorded to have been grown in tlie garden of Edward I. at 

 Westminster in 1276 as an indigenous fruit. 



The Gooseberry appears to have been well known in the 

 time of Henry VIIL and Elizabeth. The name is of uncertain 

 derivation; it is probably a corruption of the French word 

 groseille, from grosse, large, meaning large berries ; and if the first 

 in gooseberry is read r, we have the Erench word Groseberry, 

 hence the Scotch name Grosers and Groserts ; and as the kind first 

 cultivated in Scotland, and the only kind grown in some old 

 gardens up to the beginning of the present century, was known 

 by the name of Green Gascoyns, it leads to the inference that 

 the first bushes came from Gascony in Erance, and that the 

 word Gooseberry should be read Groseberry, By cross breeding 

 many fine varieties have been raised, and are now in general 

 cultivation in this and all temperate cou.ntries. 



Grooseberry, Barbadoes (PeresMa amleata), a genus of the 

 Cactus family (Cactacese), a hard-wooded, trailing or climbing, 

 leafy, prickly, bramble-like shrub, native of the West Indies. 

 Its fruit is about the size of a gooseberry, and is made into a 

 preserve. F, grandifiorus is an allied but larger growing sj^ecies 

 with a hard woody stem, several inches in diameter, and densely 

 covered with long, black spines of formidable character. It has 

 pretty pink flowers. 



Gooseberry, Cape. (& Winter Cherry.) 



Gorgon Plant {Euryah ferox), a plant of the Water Lily 

 family (Nymphseacese), native of India, having circular leaves 

 2 or 3 feet in diameter, lying flat on the water, very prickly on 

 their upper surface. The fruit is also prickly, about the size of 

 a small orange, containing black seeds the size of peas, which 

 are full of albumen, and are used by the Hindoos and Chinese 

 for food. It is said to have been cultivated in China for 

 upwards of 3000 years. 



Gorse. {See Eurze.) 



Gourd, a general name for an extensive family of plants, 

 called the Gourd family (Cucurbitacese), represented by the 



