GORDONIA, in botany: A genus of the polyanthia order, belonging to the monadelphia class of plants. The calyx is simple; the style five-cornered, with the stigma quinquefid; the capsule quinquelocular; the seeds two-fold with a leafy wing. This is a tall and very straight tree, with a regular pyramidal head. Its leaves are shaped like those of the common bay, but serrated. It begins to blossom in May, and continues bringing forth its flowers the greatest part of the summer. The flowers are fixed to foot-stalks, four or five inches long; are monopetalous, divided into five segments, encompassing a tuft of lamina headed with yellow apices; which flowers, in November, are succeeded by a conic capsula having a divided calyx. The capsula, when ripe, opens, and divides into five sections, disclosing many small half-winged seeds. This tree retains its leaves all the year, and grows only in wet places, and usually in water. The wood is somewhat soft; yet Mr Catesby mentions his having seen some beautiful tables made of it. It grows in Carolina, but not in any of the more northern colonies.