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Garcia (His second daughter born)
his second daughter, born in Paris in 1821, acquired a considerable reputation as a mezzo-soprano singer, and also composed several operettas and songs.
GARCILASO (gär-the-lä'sō), a Spanish historian; born in Cuzco, Peru, in 1540. He was son of Garcilaso de la Vega, one of the conquerors of Peru, and was surnamed the Inca, from his mother, a princess of the royal race of the Incas, At the age of 20 he went to Spain, and lived the rest of his life at Cordova.
His first work (1605) was an account of the conquest of Florida by Fernando de Soto. In 1609 appeared the first, and eight years later the second part of his great work on the history of Peru, entitled "Royal Commentaries"; translated into English by Sir Paul Rycaut (1688), and by C. R. Markham for the Hakluyt Society (1869). He died in Cordova, Spain, in 1616.
GARCINIA (named after Laurent Garcin, an Oriental traveler), in botany, a genus of guttifers, the typical one of the tribe Garciniex. The fruit of G. mangostana is the highly-prized mangosteen. The fruits of G. pedunculata, G cornea, and G. kydiana are also eaten, but are not greatly valued. G. cambogia and other species of the genus furnish GAMBOGE (q. v.).
GARD (gär), a department in the S. of France, on the Mediterranean; bounded on the E. by the Rhône river; area, 2,253 square miles, one-third of which is arable; pop. about 414,000. It is watered mainly by the Rhône, and by GARDEN its tributaries, the Gard-from which the department has its name and the Cèze.
Of its surface the N. W. is occupied by a branch of the Cévennes, the remainder slopes toward the Rhône and the Mediterranean, the coast being lined_by extensive and unhealthy marshes. The soil is unequal, the best land occurring in the river valleys. The famous grapes have almost disappeared before the ravages of the phylloxera. The rearing of silkworms is widely engaged in, and the cultivation of olives and chestnuts is of value. The minerals include coal, iron, argentiferous lead, antimony, marble, and salt; and the department's iron and steel works are important. Chief city, Nîmes. Pop. about 80,000.