GAR
GAR
ib'on^cft and fharpeft claws of all the birds of that kind. Its back is of a dufky, brownifh, or ferrugineous gray, like that of the buzzard ; its belly and breaft are paler, but of the fame dye, and its long wing feathers are black ; its tail alfo is all black. It is a very bold and voracious bird j it follows the fhoals of pilchards and other fifh, and picks up vaft numbers of them. It is very common in the weftern coafts of England. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 26. GAONS, a certain order of jewifh doctors; who appeared in the eaft, after the clofmg of the talmud. The word gaons fignifies excellent, fublime, as in the divinity fchools, we formerly had irrefragable, fublime; refolute, angelic; and fubtle doctors. The gaons fuccee.ded the Seburxans, or Opi- ners, about the beginning of the fixth century. Chanari Meifchtia was the head, and firft of the excellents ; he re- stored the academy of Pandebita, which had been fhut up for thefpace of thirty years. Cahn. Diet. Bibl. Bafnag. Hift. des Juifs. Tom. 6. 1. 9. c. 5. Art. 3. GARAB, and Algarab, names given by Avicenna to the
segilops, or wild oat. GARAGAY, in zoology, the name of a rapacious bird of Mexico, of the fize of our kite ; its head and the tips of its wings are white, it makes but fhort flights, it Is Very fond of the eggs of tortoifes and crocodiles, and hunts the places where they have buried them la the fands. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 752. GARANHA, in zoology, a name by which fome have called a larsc Brafilian fifh, of the fhape of our carp, more ufually known among authors, by its BrafiHun name acaraaya. See the article Acaraaya. Wilkughby, Hift. p. 329. GARATRONIUM, in natural hiftory, the name of a foflile body, commonly fuppofed the feme with the bufonites, but very improperly j the only juft account of it is that of Fer- rante Imperato, who tells us, that it is a purple ftone with variegations of a gold yellow, difpofed in the manner of the veins of many lorts of marble ; and that the Persians, and many other of the eaftern people, cut it into the handles of their (abres. It appears by this defcription to be a kind of jafper ; and is very improperly Confounded with the bufo- nites, a fmall ftone fit only to be worn in rings. GARB, a name given by the Moors, to an African fpecies of
willow. , Ray. GA&BOARD-Jlrake, in a fhip, is the firft feam next to the
keel. Garbo Anb-pianli in a fhip, the firft plank fattened on the
keel. GARCINIA; in botany, the name of a genus of plants, called by Garcias Magojlans ; the characters of which are thefe. The perianthium is compofed of four roundifh, hollow, ob- tufe leaves, which remain after the flower is fallen. The flower conftfts of four roundifh and hollow petals, which ftarid expanded, and are twice as large as the leaves of the cup. The ftamina are fixteen erect and fimple filaments, placed together in form of a cylinder, and longer than the cup. The antheras are roundifh; the germen of the piftill is of an oval figure ; there is fcarce any ftyle, the ftigma is flat and peltated, and divided into eight obtufe fegments ; the fruit is a large coriaceous globofe berry, having only one cell, in which are eight hairy and flefhy feeds, convex on one fide, and angular oh the other. Linntei, Gen; PL p. 212. Gave. AA. 431. t. 1. GARDEN (Cycl.) — The principal things to be confidered in the forming a garden, are the fituatioh, form, foil, afpect, and expofure; as to the form, a fquare, or rather an oblong, is the moft eligible ; if the ground be irregular, it may be made uniform by art; A triangle is a beautiful figure, as well as a fquare, and the moft irregular fpots of ground may, by borders and walks, be brought to one or other of thole figures.
The fituation ought to be neither too high nor two low, for the winds in one of thefe extremes, and the damps in the other are equally to be avoided. The fides of a hill are always the moft eligible* and if the declivity be eafy, and there are fprings of water, the fituation is as happy as any thing can be. Gardens on level ground have their advantages, and are lefs expenfive ; but they want profpect, and feveral other very agreeable things in thofe on the fides of hills not too fteep. The foil is greatly to be regarded, as it is not poffible to make a good garden when this is bad. Great expences may be incurred in meliorating the ground, and when that is done, the advantages of it will be loft in a little time; nay, where three feet of good earth have been laid over the whole furfuce of a garden, when the trees have been rooted enough to ftrike into the natural bottom, the whole plantation has been known to dwindle away. Places naturally producing heath and thirties are to be rejected, and where the trees arc feen to be ftubbed, and ftunted, it is an ill omen. When the grafs grows well, and there is not Iefs than three feet earth, gardens are fure to fucceed. The ground muft not be too ftoney, nor of all things, a hard ftiff clay, which is moft to be avoided of all foils for gardening. A third requifite is water, without which a garden muft fuffer extremely in droughts. And to thefe may be added, a very advantageous and pleating, though not absolutely neceflary thing, the profpect of a pleafant coun-
try. The area of a handfome garden may take up thirty 01; forty acres, not more, and the following rules fhould be ob- ferved in the difpofition of it. There mould always be a, defcent from the houfe to the garden of not fewer than three fteps ; this will render the houfe more dry and wholefome, and the profpect on entering the garden more extenfive. Miller's Gard. Diet.
The firft thing prefenting itfelf to view in a garden, fhould be a fine level piece of grafs, full as broad as the front of the building, and this fhould be furrounded with a gravel walk, for the convenience of walking in damp weather. On the outfide of thefe gravel walks fhould be borders of three or four feet wide for flowers: And from the back of thefe a Hope of ever-green fhrubs will terminate the profpect very agreeably : but whenever there are good profpects, or agree- able buildings to terminate the view, there then fhould be left open viftas.
Groves make the moft agreeable part of a garden, fo that there cannot be too many of them ; only they muft not be too near the houfe, nor be fuffered to block up agreeable profpects. To accompany parterres, groves opened in compartments; quincunxes, and arbour work with fountains, &£. are very agreeable. . Some groves, all of evergreens, fhould be planted in proper places, and fome fquares of trees of this kind among the othCr wood.
The head of the parterre fhould be adorned with bafons and waterworks ; and behind them fhould be a circular line of palifades, or woodwork, cut into a goofe foot, and leading into the principal walks. The principal walk muft be In front of the houfe, and mould extend from the grafs plat next the houfe, to the end of the garden, and at the end ter- minated by a folic to continue the view. The feveral parts of every piece in the garden fhould alfa be divcrfified ; if a bafon be round, the walk ought to be octangular ; and the fame is to be obferved in grafs plats, and bowling greens; which are the midft of groves. In x places where the eye takes in the whole at once, the two fides fhould be always the fame j in all others they mould be varied, and above all things, fmall bafons, narrow walks, and other littleneffes in contrivance, are to be avoided. Before a garden is plan'd out, it ought alfo ever to be con- fidered, what it will be when the trees have had twenty years growth. The corners and angles of every part of a garden ought to be doped, or cut hollow.
The feveral forts of gardens may be properly enough ranged under three general heads. I. Gardens on a perfect level. 2 Gardens on an eafy afcent. 3. Gardens, whofe ground and level are interrupted by falls and terraces, banks, flopes, or flights of fteps. Gardens on a perfect level have the ad- vantages of lefs expence, and an eafy walking. Thofe on an afcent fatigue people in walking, but they entertain the eye with air agreeable profpect. Thofe with frequent terraces have the advantage of prefenting, in different places, fo many different views of the compartments, as to give the pleafure of feveral gardens. Miller's Gard. Diet.
Kitclun Garden. See Kitchin.
Pendant Gardens. See Pensiles horti.
GARDECAtTT, or Gard du Cord, in a watch, that which flops the fufee, when wound up, and for. that end is driven up by the firing ; fome call it guard-cock ; others guard du gut.
GARDON, in zoology, the narrie of a fifh of the roach kind, fuppofed by many not to differ in any thing effential from the common Roach of the Englifh rivers ; fome authors call it the gar don fargus, and cephalus ; others leuclfcus. WiUugh* by's Hift: Pif. p. 260. See Leuciscus and Sargus.
GARDUS, iii ichthyology; a name given by fome writers on fifties, to that kind of cyprinus, called by Gefnsr and others, the fargus. See Gardon and Cyprinus.
GARE, in our old writers, a coarfe wool, full of flaring hairs, fuch as grows about the thanks of fheep. 3! Edw. 3. c. 8. Ri'Jl. Diet, in voc.
GARGANEY, in zoology, the name of a frefli water fowl of the duck kind ; it is fomewhat larger than the teal, but very like it in fhape. Irs beak is black, and its legs and feet livid with a faint mixture of green ; the upper part of the head is almoft wholly black, but it has on each a white itreak drawn from the eyes to the back part of the head, the throat and lower part of the neck are variegated with white and a redifli brown ; juft under the beak it has a black fpot, the breaft is beautifully variegated with tranfverfe undulated lines of black, and a dufty brown ; the belly is white, or yellowifh. The female is fmaller than the male, and has net the bright colours about the head, which are fo beautiful in that.
GARICON, in the materia medica, a name given by the Ara- bian writers to the drug called agaric by the antients. The Arabians have laid nothing of this drug, but what they have tranferibed from the Greek of Diofcorides and others ; it is certain however from the concurrent tcftimony of all the antients, as to the form, nature, and virtues of agaric, that theirs was not the fame fubftance which we call by this name; See Agaric.
The antients knew two kinds of what they called agaric ; they diftinguifhed thefe by the common terms of male and
female.
