a province of the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, in Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, in contact with Nassau on the north, with Hesse Casel on the north-east, with Bavaria on the east, with Baden on the south, and on the west with the Darmstadt dominions to the west of the Rhine. It is 1102 square miles in extent, and contains thirty-six cities and towns, and 811 villages, with about 235,000 inhabitants, nearly one-half of whom are Lutherans, two-fifths Catholics, and the remainder Calvinists, Mennonites, and Jews. The eastern part contains the mountainous forest country called the Odenwald; but the western part is a level and fertile country, well cultivated, and yielding good crops of corn, fruit, potatoes, flax, hemp, and tobacco. It also produces good wine and abundance of cider. The chief occupation, except agriculture, is spinning flax and hemp, and in converting the trees of the forests into woodware. The province is divided into thirty bailiwicks, and the capital is that of the principality, the city of Darmstadt.