GOURD GOURGAUD 131 gained possession of the district in the 18th century. Its decline, however, began about 1574, when Monaim Khan, commander of kbar's troops, captured it and made it the 3at of an independent power, but in a few lonths fell a victim, with nearly all his troops, 3 the deadly climate. No cause lias since con- ributed so much to its decay as the diversion )f the Ganges from its former to its present lannel, 4 or 5 m. distant, in the 17th century. GOURD (Fr. gourde, a swelling), a name ap- )lied in Europe to plants of the order cucurbi- aceas in general, but restricted in the United States to the lagenaria, the hard shell of which put to various domestic uses. To the gourd mily belong the pumpkin, squash, watermel- i, cucumber, muskmelon, and several others jultivated for ornament or known as weeds, members of the family are succulent ten- ril-bearing herbs with a watery juice ; alter- ,te and palmately ribbed, lobed, or Dangled ives, and monoecious, sometimes dioecious Common Gourd (Lagenaria vuigaris). >wers; the calyx coherent with the ovary ower superior) ; corolla mostly monopetalous; e stamens are usually three and singularly ntorted and united ; the fruit generally fleshy, t sometimes with a hard shell when ripe, e common gourd, bottle or calabash gourd, jenaria vulgaris, is a native of Asia and Af- ca; it climbs to a great distance, and has my, unpleasantly scented leaves. The lie flowers are on long stalks, white with enish veins ; the fertile on short stalks, and roducing a fruit that varies much in shape, "le commonest form is shaped like a water ttle with a large base and a swollen handle ; e rind of this when ripe is very hard and oody. By making an opening at the place here the stem joins the fruit and removing ie contents, it makes, after soaking to re- move the bitterness, an excellent water bottle. With an opening in the side it is a convenient er; and when sawed in two across the larger part, the lower portion forms a dish, while the upper serves as a funnel. A variety is known at the west as sugar-trough gourd, the large flattened-spherical shell of which will hold several gallons. Hercules' s club or Cali- fornia gourd produces a fruit sometimes 5 or 6 ft. long. Under the name of ornamental or fancy gourds several, mostly species of cucur- lita, are grown for their small, handsomely marked, and variously shaped fruit. (See PUMPKIN, and SQUASH.) GOURGAUD, Gaspard, baron, a French general, born in Versailles, Sept. 14, 1783, died July 26, 1852. He studied at the polytechnic school, and at that of Chalons, entered the army in 1802, and fought in the campaigns of Germany (1805-'6), of Poland (1807), of Spain (1808), and again in Germany (1809). Sent to Dantzic in 1811 to examine the strength of its fortifications, his reports gained the favor of Napoleon, whom he accompanied to Russia in 1812. He was wounded at Smolensk ; at Mos- cow he prevented an explosion of 5,000 cwt. of gunpowder stored in the Kremlin, and was rewarded with the title of baron. On the re- treat he proved his bravery at the passage of the Beresina. He was first officier Cordon- nance to Napoleon during the campaign in Saxony in 1813, where after the battle of Leipsic he saved the corps of Oudinot by de- laying the command of Napoleon to destroy the bridge of Freiberg. After the battle of Brienne in the campaign of 1814, he saved Na- poleon at Mezieres from a troop of Cossacks, one of whom was already aiming his lance at the emperor. After the fall of Napoleon he was well treated by the Bourbons, on whose flight he joined the emperor (1815). Made general after the battle of Fleurus, he was among the last on the battle field of Waterloo, followed Napoleon to Malmaison and Roche- fort, and carried his letter to the prince regent of England. Chosen one of the three who were allowed to follow the emperor in his exile, he lived three years at St. Helena, but left the island in consequence of illness and misunder- standings, went to England, and tried in vain to interest the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle and Maria Louisa in favor of the emperor. In 1821 he was allowed to return to France, where a legacy from Napoleon enabled him to live independently, though deprived of his titles. Together with Gen. Montholon he pub- lished the Memoires de Napoleon d Sainte- Helene (8 vols., London, 1823). His Examen critique (1825) of Segur's "History of the Grand Army " caused a duel between the two generals, and was followed by a sharp contro- versy with Sir Walter Scott, who accused him of having compromised his master at St. He- lena. Under Louis Philippe he was made peer of France, and in 1840 accompanied the duke de Joinville on his voyage to St. Helena, to bring the remains of Napoleon to Paris. In 1849 he was elected to the legislative assembly, where he voted with the conservatives.
