G O S 
G O S 
701 
of OiSlober, when very few of them have been liatched, 
one obfei ves only in the funihine a few (ingle threads of 
their webs, which ti cy extend from twig to twig, or 
from draw to (traw ; but about the middle of the month 
(heir threads become mure perceptible; and towards 
'the end, if people dapd or place themfelves in (uch a 
pofition that they can fee the fun-beams playing on the 
tender tlireads, they perceive hedges, meadows, corn¬ 
fields, Rubble land, and even whole oidricts, covered 
with a fine white thick fort of gauze. This fjiider be¬ 
longs to that kind which do not weave webs, but only 
extend (ingle threads from one place to another, and 
which Linnseus, on (hat account, includes in a particu¬ 
lar divifion. The threads, owing to the fmallnefs of 
the animal, are fo delicate that a fingle one cannot be 
didingui(lied by the naked eye unlefs when the fun 
(iiines upon it. A thread, to be viiible at other times, 
mud be compofed of at lead fix tlireads twided toge- 
ther; and (uch a thread, as the fingle ones arc exceed¬ 
ingly brittle and do not readily unite, may be again 
eafily divided into its component threads. 
During the ferene calm days of the above months 
thefe animals carry on their occupation with great dili¬ 
gence, efpecially after the morning fogs have difappear- 
ed. Bet'ween the hours of twelve and two, however, is 
the period when their great indudry excites molt admira¬ 
tion. If people are polfelfed of good eye-fight, or are 
furnilhed with a magnifying gbifs, they may find among 
the barley Rubble fuch a multitude of thefe fpiders em¬ 
ployed in extending their threads, that the fields appear 
as if covered with (warms of gnats, and they perform 
their labour fo fpeedily that they feem to fly from one 
Rubble to another. Thefe tender threads, w'hich are 
extended over whole fields, particularly in the lad half 
of OiSIober, become twided together with the gentled 
breath of wind, and form perceptible threads, that, 
being broken loofe by a dronger wind, are united into 
thick threads, and even balls, that float through the 
atmofphere. They are know'n then in Germany by the 
name of the flying Jiimmer, becaufe the fummer feems as 
it were to fly away at the fame time. The fpiders alfo 
are then conveyed along in them ; and it is not uncom¬ 
mon to find thefe animals entwided in fuch threads 
rvhich have been caught. Thefe webs, which confid of 
threads clolely joined togethef, ferve the inledts as nets, 
in which they catch very fmall gnats and aphides, the 
juices of which they fuck for their nouridiment. The 
goflamer, therefore, is often found filled with the dried 
luiiks of fuch infebls. 
GOSSE'INS, a town of Ada, in Thibet, near the 
ead coad of the Dewah river. Lat. 30. 30. N. Ion. 81. 
24. K. Ferro. 
GOSSILIE'RES, a town of the Netherlands, in the 
county of Namur : five miles from Charleroy. 
GOS'SIP, y. [from gob and J'yb, Sax. relation, affi¬ 
nity.] One who anfwers for the child in baptilin.—At 
the chridening of George duke of Clarence, who was 
born in the cadle of Dublin, he made both the earl of 
Kildare and the earl of Ormond h\s gqjjips. Davies on Ire¬ 
land .—A tippling companion: 
And fometimes lurk I in ts gojfip's bowl, 
In very likenefs of a roaded crab, 
And when die drinks againd her lips I bob. Shakefpeare. 
One who runs about tattling. The term is commonly 
applied to the good women who attend parturition : 
’Tis fung in every dreet. 
The common chat oigcjftps when they meet. Dryden. 
To GOS'SIP, v.n. To chat; to prate ; to be merry.— 
He gives himfelf up to an idle gojiping converfation. Law. 
His mother was a votrefs of my order. 
And, in the fpiced Indian air by night, 
Full often hath Ihe gojjipt by tny fide, Shakefpeare, 
I'o be a pot companion: 
VoL. VIII. No.537, 
Nor met with fortune, other thin at fead. 
Full warm of blood, of mirth oigoffipivg. Shakefpeare. 
GOS'SIPING, /I Ch.ittin:'-; holding a godip’s tale. 
A merry meeting of gollips ; a lying-in. 
GOS'SIPRKD, f. \,goffipvy, from gojfip^ ] Gofftpredy or 
compaternitv, by the canon law, is a fpiritual adi ;ity ; 
and the juror, th it was godip to eidierof the p.irdes, 
inighr, in former times, have been challenged as not in- 
difierent. Davits. 
GOS'S!PR,Y, y. A company of godips; a fpiritual 
affinity. Scott. 
GOSS'LAR, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Lov.cr Saxon}', oti the river Gofe, whicli, at a fmall 
didance from tlie town, runs into the Ocker. It is a 
fiee and imperial town, fuvrounded on one fide by the 
bidiopric of riildcdieim, and on the other by the princi¬ 
pality of Wolfenbuttel. The hotifes arc generally old, 
except in a part of the town which was burned down in 
1728, where the hotifes lu.ve been rebuiP in a more mo¬ 
dern dyie. The principal commerce of the town arifes 
from the mines of iron and lead found in the Rammcl 
mountiiin, near which it is fifuated; alfo in beer atid 
provilions. The town was founded in 9-22, by Henry 
the Fowler, who refided and held feveral diets here, as 
did fomeof his fuccefTors. Here arefour naridi churches, 
two chapters, and two Lutheran cenvents. The two 
chapters depend immediately upon the empire, the one 
is called the chapel of the emperor, the other the cha¬ 
pel of the emprefs. Gofslar occupies the feventh place 
at the diet on the Rhenilli bench, and the fecond at the 
affemblies of the circle: thirty miles fouth of Brunf- 
wick. Lat. 51.50. N. Ion. 28. 3. E. Ferro. 
GOSS'NITZ, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and principality of Altenburg: three 
miles ead of Schmollen. 
GOSS'WEINSTEIN, or Goss'mAnstein, a town 
of Germany, in the circle of Franconia, and bilhopric 
of Bamberg: twenty-three miles north-north-ead of Nu¬ 
remberg, and twenty ead-fouth-ead of Bamberg. Lat. 
49. 45. N. Ion. 29. 5. E. Ferro. 
GOSSYP'IUM, /. [Vodius is of opinion that this is 
an Egyptian word; it is called §vXoi/ in Greek. See 
Pliny, 1 . 19. c. I. ] Cotton. In botany, a genus of the 
clafs monadelphia, order polyandria, natural order of 
columniferae, {xna.\va.cex, JuJf.) The generic charadters 
are—Calyx: perianthium double ; outer one-leafed, tri¬ 
fid, flat, larger; inner one-leafed, bluntly emarginate in 
five rows, cup-form. Corolla ; petals five, obcordate, 
flat, fpreading, fadened by their bafe to the tube ot 
the damens. Stamina: filaments mtmerous, uniting at 
the bottom into a tube, feparate at and below the tip, 
lax, inferted into the corolla; anthene kidney-form. 
Pidillum : germ roundidi; dyle columnar, the length 
of the damens; digmas three or tour, thickifli. Peri- 
carpium : capfule roundidi, acuminate, three or four- 
celled ; partitions contrary. Seeds: very many, oval, 
involved in cotton. —Fffenlial CharaBer. Calyx double ; 
outer trifid; caplule four celled; (eeds wrapped in 
cotton. 
Species, i. Goffypium herbaceum, or common cotton: 
leaves five-lobed without glands underneath ; (iem her¬ 
baceous. Root tapering, woody, with numeious fibres, 
annual. Seed-lobes two, kidney-form, terminating gra¬ 
dually in a long petiole with the figure of a halved tun¬ 
nel. Stem three feet higli, upright, round, pubefeent, 
as is the whole of the herb, at the bottom brown with 
flight chinks, at the top fpotted with black; branches' 
axillary, fcarcely longer than the leaf at their origin. 
Leaves alternate, only halt the length of the petiole, 
tomentofe, odorous whild young. Germ fuperior, ovate; 
capfule bluntly three-cornered, three-valved, three, 
celled; feeds ovate, about three in each cell, convex 
on one fide, more flat on the other, immerfed in fine 
cotton. This is the common Levant cotton, which is 
cultivated alfo in feveral iflands of the Archipelago ; 
8 Q aud 
