Gwynn
ELEANOR, better known by the name of "Nell," a celebrated mistress of King Charles II.; born in London about 1650. She was at first an orange girl, and also gained her bread by singing from tavern to tavern. About 1667 she became the mistress of Lord Buckhurst, who surrendered her about 1670 to the king. As mistress of the king she had an establishment, and was made lady of the privy chamber to Queen Catharine. She was merry and open-hearted, is said to have been faithful to Charles, mindful of old friends, and a liberal patroness of the poets Dryden, Lee, Otway, and Butler. From her are sprung the dukes of St. Albans. She died about 1690.
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Gyges
The first king of Lydia of the dynasty of the Mermnadae, dethroned Candaules and succeeded to the kingdom. He reigned B. C. 716-678. He sent magnificent presents to Delphi , and the riches of Gyges became a proverb.
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Gypseous Series
in geology, the lower freshwater limestone and marl constituting the Upper beds of the Middle Eocene in the vicinity of Paris, France. They are of white and green marls with subordinate beds of gypsum. At the Hill of Montmartre is a quarry of gypsum valuable for the manufacture of plaster of Paris. Splendid fossil remains of Eocene mammals have been found in it. Similar gypseous marls are worked for gypsum at St. Romain, on the right bank of the Allier.
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Gypsy Moth
the Bombyx dispar an insect abounding in central Europe, where it does much damage to trees. Linnæus was the first to describe it. The eggs are laid in August and hatch in the spring in the trunks of trees, and on rocks and fences, the caterpillars feeding on plants and trees. After a few months the caterpillars, having attained their full growth, pupate, the moths emerging from the cocoon some weeks after. The insect was brought to America by Leopold Trouvelot, who was experimenting at Medford, Mass., with silkworms, and the specimens escaped. Twenty years later the damage caused by the caterpillars attracted public notice, and since that time, despite public measures taken to cope with the ravage, the gypsy moth has become a pest in many localities in Massachusetts. An effort was made by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture to exterminate the insect, and was carried on over a period of ten years, at an expenditure of over a million dollars. The work was not thorough, however, and in recent years the presence of the moth has become so noticeable that public measures have had to be resumed to counteract the injury to plants, shrubs, and trees caused by it. The Massachusetts Board of Agriculture has issued bulletins giving the results of the methods originated by it, and, in so far as these methods have by the various municipalibeen followed ties that have been obliged to deal with the insect, they have borne fruit.
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Gyrate
To revolve around a central point. See Center of Gyration<??>.
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Gyrogonite
the sporangium, or seed-vessel, of the flowerless plant-genus Chara. It is very rough and hard, consisting of a membranous nut, covered by an integument, both of which are spirally streaked or ribbed. The integument is ment is composed of fine spiral is valves of a quadrangular for form.
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Gyromancy
Was performed by going round continually in a circle, the circumference of which was marked by letters. The presage was drawn from the words formed by the letters on which the inquirers stumbled when they became too giddy to stand. The object of this circumcursation was simply to exclude the interference of the will, and reduce the selection of letters to mere chance. In some species of enchantment, however, the act of turning round was to produce a prophetic delirium. The religious dances, and the rotation of certain fanatics on one foot, with their arms stretched out, are of this nature. These cases really indicate a magical secret, of which, however, the deluded victims rarely possessed any knowledge. In the phenomenon known as St. Vitus's Dance, and the movements of the convulsionaries, manifestations of spiritual intelligence were quite common. The tendancy of the spiritual force is to act spirally, rhythmically, whether in the use of language or of the bodily members. H
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