G A U 
him separated from it, as differing in the form of the 
flower. 
It grows wild in Candia, and on mount Baldus, in 
Italy, as alfo in Provence, where it was difcovered by 
Dr. Garidel, who fent the feeds to Dr. Tournefort, 
for the Royal Garden at Paris. 
This is an annual plant, which rifes with an upright 
ftalk a foot high, dividing into feveral (lender 
branches, garnifhed at their joints with very (lender 
leaves like thofe of Fennel. The (talks are terminated 
by one fmall flower, of a pale herbaceous colour, 
which is fucceeded by three capfules, each containing 
two or three fmall feeds. It flowers in June and July, 
and the feeds ripen in September. It is propagated 
by feeds, which fhould be fown in autumn, on a bed 
or border of light frefli earth, where the plants are 
defigned to remain (for they feldom thrive if they are 
tranfplanted ;) when the plants are come up, they 
muff be carefully cleared from weeds, and where 
they are too dole, they muff be thinned, leaving 
them about four or five inches apart ; this is all the 
culture the plants require, and if the feeds are per- 
mitted tofcatter, the plants will come up without any 
farther care. 
GAULTHERI A. 
The Characters are. 
It hath a double ■permanent empalement •, the outer has 
two oval , concave , Jhort leaves the inner has one bell- 
Jhaped leaf cut into five fiegments •, the flower has one oval 
petal , cut half-way into five fiegments , which are reflexed ; it 
has ten awl-fhaped nedtarii , which are jhort , furrounding 
the germen and Jiamina , and ten awl-Jhaped incurved fta- 
mina infer ted to the receptacle , terminated by bifid horned 
fummits , and a roundijh deprejj'ed germen , f upper ting a 
cylindrical fiyle , crowned by an obtufe fiigma •, the ger- 
men afterward becomes an obtufe five-cornered capfule , 
having five cells , fafiened to the interior empalement , 
which turns to a berry open at the top , filled with hard 
■' angular feeds. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the fir(l feCtion of 
Linnaeus’s tenth clafs, intitled Decandria Monogynia, 
the flower having ten (lamina and one (lyle. 
We know but one Species of this genus, viz. 
Gaultheria ( Procumbens .) Amoen. Acad. 3. p. 14. 
Trailing Gaultheria. Vitis Idaea- Canadenfis, pyrolae 
folio. Tourn. Inft. 608. Canada IVor tie-berry with a 
winter-green leaf. 
This plant grows naturally in feveral parts of North 
America upon fwampy ground, fo is with difficulty 
preferved in the Englifh gardens. The branches of 
this trail upon the ground, and become ligneous, but 
never rife upward •, they are garniflied with oval en- 
tire leaves, placed alternate ; the flowers are produced 
on the fide of the branches •, they are of an herba- 
ceous colour, fo make little appearance, and very 
rarely are fucceeded by fruit in England. 
The only method in which I have fucceeded to keep 
this plant, was by planting of it in a pot, filled with 
loofe undunged earth, placing it in the (hade, and 
frequently watering it •, with this management I have 
kept the plant alive three years, and have had flowers 
but no fruit. 
G AURA. 
The Characters are, 
It hath an .empalement of one leaf which falls off, with 
a long-cylindrical tube , having four cblong glands fafiened to 
it •, the upper part is cut into four oblong fiegments , which 
are reflexed. I he flower hath four oblong rifling petals, 
which are broad at the top but narrow at their bafe , 
fitting upon the tube of the empalement \ and eight upright 
Jlender jiamina which are floor ter than the -petals , and a 
nefiarious gland between the bafe of each , with cblong 
moveable fummits. The oblong germen is fituated under 
the flower, flupporting a jlender fiyle the length of the 
jiamina , crowned by four oval fpr ending fiigmas the 
flower is fucceeded by , an oval four-cornered comprejfed 
capfule , containing one oblong angular feed. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the firfl; feiStion of 
Linnasus’s eighth clafs, intitled OCtandria Monogy- 
nia, the flower having eight (lamina and one (lyle. 
We know but one Species of this genus, viz. 
Gaura {Biennis.) Amoen. Acad. 3. p. 2 6 . Gaura. Uy- 
(imachia chamasnerio fimilis floridana, foliiisnigris 
punCtis capfulis carfnatis in ramulorum cymis. Pink. 
Amalth. 139. tab. 428. f. 1. 
This is a biennial plant, which grows naturally in Vir- 
ginia and Penfylvania : the ftalk rifes four or five feet 
high, fending out feveral branches, which are gar- 
niihed with oblong, fmooth, pale, green leaves, fit- 
ting pretty dole. The flowers are produced in clofe 
tufts at the end of the branches 5 they are compofed 
of four oblong petals, of a pale Rofe colour, irregu- 
larly placed, having eight (lamina furrounding the 
(lyle. The flowers appear in September, and when 
the autumn proves favourable, the feeds will ripen 
toward the end of OCtober. 
If the feeds of this plant are fown on open borders 
foon after they are ripe, they will more certainly (uc- 
ceed than when they are fown in the fpnng. When 
the plants come up, they mu ft be kept clean from 
weeds and if they are too clofe, fome of them 
fhould be drawn out, and planted in a bed to allow' 
room for the other to grow ; in the autumn they 
fhould be all tranfplanted to the place where they are 
defigned to (land for flowering and perfecting their 
feeds, and will require no other culture but to fup- 
port their branches to prevent the autumnal winds 
from breaking them down. 
GENERATION is, by naturaiifts, defined to be 
the aCt of procreating and producing a thing which 
before was not ; or, according to the fchoolmen, it is 
the total change or converfion of a body into a new 
one, which retains no fenfible part or mark of its 
former (late. 
Thus we fay, fire is generated, when we perceive it 
to be where before there was only wood, and other 
fuel, or when the wood is fo changed, as to retain no 
fenfible character of wood •, in the like manner a chick 
is faid to be generated, when we perceive a chick, 
where before was only an egg, or the egg is changed 
into the form of a chick. , 
In generation there is not properly any production 
of new parts, but only a new modification or manner 
of exiftence of the old ones, and thus generation is 
diftinguifhed from creation. 
Generation alfo differs from alteration, in that in al- 
teration the fubjeCt remains apparently the (ame, and 
is only changed in its accidents or affeCtions, as iron, 
which before was fquare, is now made round , or when 
the fame body which is well to-day, is fick to-morrow. 
1 Again : generation is the oppoiite to corruption, 
which is the utter extinction of a former thing •, as, 
when that which before was an egg, or wood, is no 
longer either the one or the other ; whence it appearsy 
that the generation of one thing is the corruption of 
another. 
The Peripateticks explain generation by a change of. 
pafiage from a privation, or want of a fubftantial 
form, to the having luch a ’form. 
The moderns allow of no other change in generation, 
than what is local ; and, according to their no- 
tion, it is only a tranfpofition, or new arrangement 
of parts , and, in this fenfe, the fame matter is capa- 
ble of undergoing an infinite number of generations. 
As for example ; A grain of Wheat, being committed 
to the ground, imbibes the humidity of the foil, be- 
comes turgid, and dilates to fuch a degree, that it 
becomes a plant ; and, by a continual acceilion of 
matter, by degrees, ripens into an ear, and at length 
into a feed •, this feed, when ground in a mill, appears 
in the form of a flour, which, being mixed up with 
water, makes - a pafte, of which bread is generated 
by the addition of yeaft, and undergoing the operation 
of fire, i. e. by baking , and this bread being comi- 
nuted by the teeth, digefted in the (tomach, and con- 
veyed through the canals of the body, becomes flefh, 
or, in other words, flefh is generated. 
Now the only thing effected in all this feries of gene- 
ration, is a local motion of the parts of the matter, 
and their fettling again in a different order $ fo that 
a where” 
\ 
