G‘ L O 
fpreading, acute ; at the tip of each a linear-lanceolate, 
truncate, (trap, nearly the length of the petal, and lying 
on it. Stamina: filaments five, very fiiort; antherae 
roundifh. Piftillum : germ roundifh, furrounded by a 
gland, bearing the petals and ftamens; fiyle none ; 
“Itigmas five, acute. Pericarpium : berry roundifh, five- 
grooved, one-celled. Seeds : five, angular.— EJftntial 
CharaBcr. Calyx, very fmall, five-toothed; petals, five, 
with a firap at the tip of each. 
Species, i. Gloffopetalum glabrum, or fmooth glof- 
fopetalum ; leaves fmooth. A tree, the trunk of which 
rifes to the height of fixty feet and more, and is from 
two to three feet iiv diameter; the bark is fmooth and 
grey ; the wood white and of a loofe texture ; leaves 
alternate, fmooth, fhining, firm, entire, ovate-lanceo¬ 
late, ending in a long point ; the midrib divides them 
unequally ; peduncles folitary, axillary, two inches 
long, bearing many flowers in a fplierical head ; corolla 
yellow ; berry black. Native of Guiana, flowering in 
November. The natives make canoes of the trunk. 
2. GloflTopetalum hirfutum, or hairy gloflbpetalum : 
leaves hairy. The trunk of this fpecies is only from 
twenty to twenty-five feet in height; the bark is 
wrinkled, blackifli marked with white ; the leaves are 
covered with fhort hairs on both fides : thefe are ufed 
againft inflammations in the eyes; they are bitter, as is 
alfo the bark. Native of Guiana and Cayenne. Goupi 
is the vernacular name. 
GLOS'SY, [from ^/^.] Shining; fmoothly po- 
liflied ; 
His furcoat was a bearfkin on his back ; 
His hair hung long behind, and gloj/y raven black. Dryd. 
GLOT'TIS,y. [from y.'wT/a:,Gr. the tongue.] In ana¬ 
tomy, the narrow flit at the upper part of the afpera 
arteria, which is covered by the epiglottis when we 
hold our breath, and when we fvvallow. The glottis, 
by its dilatation and contraftion, modulates the voice. 
GLOU'CESTER, the metropolis of Gloucefterfhire, 
called by the ancient Britons Caerglow, the Fair City, 
from its fine and gently elevated lituation; by the Ro¬ 
mans it was named Clevum, or Glevum, to which the Sax¬ 
ons, according to their cuftom, added Cejler, which fig- 
nifies a caftle or fortification, and thus called it Gteav- 
cejler, whence its prefent name. Leland fays, that in 
his time it was a large place, well built with timber, 
and defended with firong walls, except ob the fouth 
fide, where it is wafhed by the Severn, over which 
noble river it has a good (tone bridge. Tliis city is al- 
lowed by all antiquarians to have been a Roman fiation ; 
and Camden fays that the famous Roman way called 
Ermin-Jlreet, which begins at St. David’s in Pembroke- 
Ihire, and reaches to Winchefter and Southampton, 
pafles through Gloucefler. After the Saxon heptarchy, 
it continued to be a place of confiderable note ; and a 
little before the Norman conquefl, Breicktric, a Saxon, 
was lord of Gloucefler; but, refufing to marry Maud, 
who became the confort of William tlie Conqueror, Ihe 
caufed him to be imprifoned, and his eftate feized by 
the crown. Afterwards it was given by Rufus to Ro¬ 
bert Fitz Hamon, lord of Corbaille in Normandy. It 
has fufi'ered conflderably by fire at different periods ; 
its abbey was burnt down in 1102, and again in 1122. 
It ffands upon a hill; and from the middle of the city, 
where the four principal ftreets meet, there is a defccnt 
every way, which keeps it not only clean and healthy, 
but adds to the beauty of the place. Henry VIII. 
made it the fee of a bifliop, with a dean and fix pre¬ 
bends. Its caffle, which was erected in the time of 
William the Conqueror, is very much decayed : part of 
it is leafed out by the crown; and part has been con¬ 
verted into a fpacious county gaol. 
King John, in the firff year of his reign, made it a bo- 
rough-lown, and Henry III. erected it into a corpora- 
G L O 623 
tion. _ It was befieged and taken in four days by the ba¬ 
rons, in the reign of the laft-mentioned king. It was, 
however, foon retaken by his fon, who pardoned the 
burgefles upon their paying a thoufand marks. In 1272, 
Edward I. held a parliament here, in which fome ufeful 
laws were made, now called the Statutes of Gloucefler, 
Richard II. held a parliament here alfo; and Richard III. 
in confequence of bearing the title of duke of Glou- 
cefter before he obtained the crown, added the two ad¬ 
jacent hundreds of Dudflon and King’s Barton to it, 
gave it his fword and cap of maintenance, and made it 
a county of itfelf, by the name of “the county of the 
city of Gloucefler;’’ but, after the refloration, the hun¬ 
dreds were taken away by a6i: of parliament, and the 
walls of the city razed, becaufe the inhabitants hadfliut 
the gates, in 1643, againlt Charles I. by whom it was 
befieged. The city had once eleven parifli churches ; 
but, fix being demoliflied in 1643, there only now re¬ 
main five, and the cathedral. This city gives the title 
of duke to his royal highnefs William Henry, nephew 
of George III. 
This largt and populous city is delightfully fituated 
on the banks of the Severn. It was formerly famous 
lor its iron forges (even fo early as the time of William 
the Conqueror) ; but thofe have long ceal'ed : its chief 
trade, at prefent, confifls in pin-making, which is car¬ 
ried on to a very great extent ; wcol-ftapling, malting, 
and rope-making. The ftreets are fpacious, and well 
paved and lighted ; its boundaries are about three miles 
in circumference. 
The cathedral of Gloucefler is juftly admired as one 
of the fincfl pieces of Gothic architecture in Eingland. 
Aldred bifliop of Worcefter, in 1047, and afterwards 
archbifliop of York, who crowned William the Con¬ 
queror, built and decorated it about the year 1060- 
Abbot Horton, in 1551, added the north aifle, and a 
great hall in which the parliament was afterwards held, 
and which is now a library. In 1381, abbot Trocefler 
began the building of the large cloifter ; and abbot Sea- 
brook began the ftately tower, and appointed Robert 
Tull, a monk of this church, to take care of the finifh- 
ing it, who afterwards was confecrated bifh'op of St. Da¬ 
vid’s in 1450. This appears by two verfes written in 
tiie choir, over the arch of the tower: 
Hoc quod digeftum fpecularis opufque politum 
Tulhi hasc ex onere, Seabrooke abbate jubente. 
Abbot Hanley, in 1457, laid the foundation of the 
Virgin Mary’s chapel. Abbot Parker was the laft ab¬ 
bot ; in whofe time the abbey wasrefigned to Henry VIII, 
by the prior, and not by the abbot. The abbey-church 
was then made a cathedral, in the year 1541, by Henrv 
Vlll . who appointed John Wakeman, abbot of Tewkef- 
bury, to be its firff bifliop. Abbot Morewent, in 1419, 
built the frontifpiece at the well end entirely from the 
ground. The following are the dimenflons of tiie ca¬ 
thedral as it now Hands :—The Virgin Mary’s chapel, 
in length ninety feet, in breadth twenty-leven, and in 
height fixty-lix feet. The choir is one hundred and 
forty-one feet in length, thirty-feven and a half in breadth, 
and in height eighty-five feet. The great window at 
the end of the choir is eighty-three feet high. The 
body of the church in length is one hundred and fe- 
venty-one feet nine inches, in breadth eighty-five feet, 
in height feventy-one feet. 'Fhe length of the whole, 
is four hundred and forty-four feet eight inches. Each 
aifle in the large cloiller (which contains four) is in 
length one luindred and forty-feven feet, in breadth 
thirteen, in height lixteen feet and a half; and always 
kept locked up, unlefs in the time of divine fervice. 
There is alfo a fmaller cloifter,/which is inhabited, and 
contains four ailles, and a palfage for people to pals 
through. There is a place called the Whllpering-gal- 
lery, and very renyirkable ; it is a long alley from one 
