G A 
fcenf, unarmed, purpllfli brown at tlic joints, the inter, 
nodes a fpan in lengtli ; leaves fetlile, commonly in fe- 
vens, imicronate, fcarcely ferrulute at the edge, fmooth 
above, villofe underneath, efpecially on the keel ; fruit 
hifpid. Native of Smyrna. 
46. Galium microcarpiun, or fmall-frnited ladies bed- 
Sraw : leaves in fixes or thereabouts, louer ones oblong, 
upper ones briftle-lliaped ; peduncles trifid. Stems feve. 
ral, filiform, a hand and fometimes a finger high, erect, 
rugged at the corners below, but even above, branched at 
the bafe, dichotomous or trichotomous at top ; lower 
leaves in fours, petioled, obovate, fmall j the middle 
ones in fixes, a little longer, marked with two lines, ob¬ 
long, fiiarp at both ends ; flowers purple ; fruit minute, 
v/hitilh-hifpid. Native of the dry motintains of Tunis; 
a:td of Spain, but not fo common there. 
47. Galium tuberofum, or tuberous ladies bedflraw ; 
leaves in fives, lanceolate ; peduncles heaped, axillary. 
The root is a fmall, oblong, irregularly-fliaped white, 
farinaceous, tuber; ftem herbaceous, a foot and a half 
high, rufous, procumbent, Ample ; flowers white ; fruit 
roundilh, rough. It is cultivated in China and Cochin- 
china for the roots, which are eaten boiled, either whole 
or in meal. 
48. Galium cruciatum, or crofs-wort : leaves in fours, 
ovate hairy ; ftem fimple above, hairy, bunches of flow¬ 
ers, lateral with two leaves ; flowers polygamous ; fruit 
fmooth. Root perennial, creeping, llender; ftenis 
branched only at the bafe, weak and fupporting them- 
felveson buflies, quadrangular, very hairy, jointed; hav¬ 
ing at every joint four ovate, entire, foft, hairy, leaves, 
from the axils of thefe all the w’ay up the ftem arife feve- 
ral flender, forked, many-flowered, peduncles, each fur- 
nifhed with two fmall leaves at the firft divilion. The 
flowers are yellow, formed exadlly like the galiums, ex¬ 
cept that fome are only male, and fome of the hermaphro¬ 
dites are five-cleft. Crolfwort is not uncommon about 
hedges and in thickets, flowering early in fummer. 
Propagation and Culture. Moft'of thefe plants, being 
deftitute of beauty, and being fubje£t to fpread, and over¬ 
run whatever plants grow near them, are feldom cultiva¬ 
ted except in botanic gardens. The perennial forts may 
eafily be propagated, by parting their roots either in 
fpring or autumn ; and they will grow in almoft any foil 
and fituation. If the annual forts are permitted to fcatter 
their feeds, they will maintain themfelves in a garden 
withoutany culture, except that of preventing other weeds 
from overgrowing them. The common goofegrafs pro¬ 
pagates itfelf prodigioufly, by the adhefion of its fruits to 
the hairy coats of cattle, &c. If it ftiould be thought ad. 
vifeable to propagate the galium verum for the ufe of the 
roots in dyeing, the beft foil is a fandy loam ; heavy foils 
will not anfwer. Prepare the land as for flax ; fow four 
pounds of feed on an acre. In April hoe out the plants to 
fix inches fquare ; the crop will require three or four hoe- 
ings more the firft feafon. In May or June take up as 
many plants as will leave the reft at the diftance of one 
foot fquare; in March following take up again as many 
as will leave the reft ftanding at two feet fquare ; and in 
the fourth take up the whole crop in March ; keeping it 
all the while clean from weeds. See Asperula, Rubia, 
SheRARDIA, andVALANTIA. 
GALL,yi [geala, Sax. galle, Dut.] The bile, an 
animal juice remarkable for its fuppofed bitternefs.— Gall 
is the greateft refolvent of curdled milk: Boerhaave has 
given at a time one drop of the gall of an eel with fuccels. 
Arbuihnot. 
A honey tongue, a heart o[gall, 
Is fancy’s fpring, but forrow'’s fall. Sliakefpeare. 
The part which contains the bile.—The married couple, 
asa'teftimony of future concord, did caft the galloi the 
facrifice behind the altar. Brown, —Any thing extremely 
bitter : 
VoL.' VIII. No, 494. 
L t;. 1 SJJ 
Poifon be their drink! 
Gall, worfe than ^a//, the daintieft meat they tafte. Slhnkef. 
Rancour ; malignity.—They did great hurt unto his title, 
and have left a perpetual ga'lin the mind of the people. 
Sprnjcr on Ireland, —Anger ; bitternefs of mind : 
Suppofe your hero were a lover, 
Though he before had gall and rage ; 
He grows difpirited and low, 
He hates the fight, and ftiuns the blow. Prior. 
A flight hurt by fretting off the fkin.—This is the fataleft 
wound ; as much fuperior to the former, as 3 gangrene is 
to a gall or fcratch.. Government of the Tongue. —The ga-’l 
or bile of animals, being of a faponaceous quality, is 
■found particularly ufeful iucleanfing orwaftiing coloured 
fluffs, the dye of which is apt to fade. It was alfo em¬ 
ployed by tlie ancients for removing difcolourations or 
fpots of the ftcin. For its mode of fecretion, and chemical 
properties, fee Chemistry, vol. iv. p.361; and Ana- 
TOMY, vol. i. p. 616. 
Tlie juice of animal gall was generally given amoagft 
the Jews, to perfons fuffering death under the execution 
of the law, to affuage third, and alleviate pain ; but gall 
and myrrh, in thofe cafes, are fuppofed to have been the 
fame thing ; becaufe at our Saviour’s crucifixion, St. 
Mattliew fays, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled 
with gall ; whereas St. Mark calls it wine mingled wiili 
myrrh: the truth is, that they diftinguifhed every thing 
bitter hy the name oigall. The Greeks and Romans ai(o 
gave fuch a mixture to perfons fuffering death by torture. 
GALL, in natural hiftory, a protuberance or nut, pro. 
duced on plants and trees of difl'erent kinds, by the punc¬ 
ture of infects. They are of various forms and fizes, and 
no lefs different with regard to their internal ftnitture. 
Some have only one cavity, and others a number of (mall 
cells communicating with each other. Some of them are 
as hard as the wood of the tree they grow on, whilil 
others are foft and fpongy; the firft being termed gall- 
nuts, and the \Mer berry-galls, or apple-galls. 'Yht gall-nut 
is nothing more than the nidus of the cynipides, in which 
the eggs of thefe infetfs are depofited. See the article 
Ca'nips, vol. V. p. 519. They afford a fecitre lodgment 
for tlie larvae of the fly, until they are capable of eating 
a paifage through, in order to aft'ume the winged ftate. 
The tear which ifl'ues from the pun6fured leaf wounded 
for this purpofebythe parent infeCT:, gradmtlly increafSng 
by acceflions of frcfli matter, forms a covering to the egg 
and fucceeding larva. Thofe gfl/A which have no hole, 
are found to have the dead worm remaining in them. 
Two forts are diftinguiflied in the (hops, one brought 
from Aleppo, called Oriental, or Aleppo nut, or gfilla 
fpinofa; the other from the foutliern parts of Europe, 
called European galls. The former are generally of a 
bluifli colour, or greyifti or blackifh, verging to a blue ; 
unequal in tlieir furface, hard to break, and of a clofe 
texture : the others are of a pale brownifh or whitifti co¬ 
lour, fmooth, round, eafily broken, lefscoinpadt, andof a 
much larger fize. The two forts differ in ftrength, but 
in other refpedts are of the fame quality. The beft are 
the fmall, protuberant, bluifli, and heavy ones. ' • 
Galls are a powerful aftringent, fuppofed to be one of 
the ftrongeft in the vegetable kingdom. Th?y have no 
peculiar fmell or tafte; their medical charatber is fimple 
aftringency. Both water and fpirit take up nearly all 
their virtue. The fpirituous extract is the (frongelt'me- 
dical preparation; but the fimple powder is as good as 
any other mode of adminiftering them. The dole of the 
powder is from a few grains to a dram. Tliey are not, 
iiovvever, much ufed in medicine, though they have been 
faid to be beneficial in interniittents, aiid one of the moft 
powerful of the vegetable aftringents. Dr. Cullen has 
cured interniittents, by giving half a dranf of the powder ■ 
of galls every tw'o or three hours, during the interniiflion; 
and both by itfelf, and joined w ith camomile flowers, has 
3 C pieveiucd 
