Trousset encyclopedia

GERASA (now Jerash), ruined city of Palestine, east of the Jordan, part of the former Decapolis, 80 km (49.7 miles) N-E. of Jerusalem, divided in two by the Golden River. Its most interesting ruins are the Corinthian temple, a triumphal arch, five or six other temples and two theaters, all made of marble, a nymphaeum, a small temple (with a semi-circular ionic colonnade), at which starts a street with a row of columns, that runs through …Read more »

HAMSTER substantive (german word). Mamm. genus of rodent, close to the rat, and characterized by a short and hairy tail and by elongated fur lined pouches, that these animals use for the transport of grain they store in their underground dwellings. There are various species of hamsters, in Europe as well as in the north of Asia. The common species, known as the Black-bellied Hamster (cricetus vulgaris, Cuv.), includes rodents a bit larger than the rat, with …Read more »

GYNERIUM s. (greek gune, pistil; erion, wool; woolly pistil) Bot. Genus of arundinaceae⁽¹⁾ in the family gramineae, whose main species is the pampas grass (gynerium argenteum⁽²⁾) or Uruguayan pampas grass, a big herbaceous perennial plant native to the plains of South America: This plant flowers at the end of summer or at the beginning of fall and produces a lot of stems, sometimes as many as 40 or 50, which can be from …Read more »

HALLE, city in prussian Saxony, on the Saale, 28 km (17.4 miles) N.W. of Leipzig; population 60,120. It comprises Halle itself, with five suburbs and the former cities of Glaucha and Neumarkt. The university, founded in 1694 and merged in 1815 with that of Wittenberg, had 90 teachers and 888 students in 1876. A seminar, many medical institutions, an academy of natural sciences, a botanical garden, an observatory and a library with 100 000 volumes. The Francke institutions, in the Glaucha suburb, include an orphan asylum, several …Read more »

GYROSCOPE s. (Gr. guros, circle; skopéô, I watch). Phys. A device that is used to demonstrate the existence of the diurnal rotation of the earth: the gyroscope was developed in 1852 by Foucault. The simplest form of gyroscope essentially consists of a disk rotating on pivots in a circle, and bearing on one side, on the line extending its axis, a rod with a conical depression underneath, to hold the tip of a vertical …Read more »

HAKODATE, a city in Japan, in the province of Matsmai, near the southern tip of the Yezo⁽¹⁾ island, on the northern coast of the Strait of Sangar⁽²⁾; by 42° N. Population approximately 50 000. It stretches for nearly 4 km (2.48 miles) at the base of a promontory, whose summit rises above 400 metres (1312 ft) above sea level; it has one of the best harbours in the world. It consists of rows of wide streets, parallel to the …Read more »

HADROSAURUS s. (gr. hadros, thick; sauros, lizard). Gigantic dinosaurian fossil reptile that lived in the fields and in the forests …Read more »