in botany: A genus of the polyan- dria order, belonging to the monadelphia clas 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, encom- passing a tuft of stamens headed with yellow apices; which flowers, in November, are succeeded by a co- nic capsule having a divided calyx. The capsule, when ripe, opens, and divides into five sections, dis- closing many small half-winged seeds. This tree re- tains 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.

GORGE, in heraldry, one of the abatements, which, according to Gullim, denotes a coward. It is a figure conflicting of two arch lines drawn one from the sinister chief, and the other from the sinister base, both meet- ing in an acute angle in the middle of the fess point. See HERALDRY.