GNEISENAir 340 GNOME Mobile, on the Gulf of Mexico, which is built on a shell bank consisting chiefly of the two species. GNEISENAXJ (gnl'ze-nou), AUGUST WILHELM ANTON, GRAF NEIT- HARDT VON, a Prussian general; born in Schildau, Prussian Saxony, Oct. 27, 1760. In 1782 he accompanied the Ger- man auxiliaries of England to the American colonies. On his return he joined (1786) the Prussian army, and 20 years later fought at Saalfeld and in the battle of Jena. He gave convincing proof of his military genius in the de- fense of Colberg from April to July, 1807; and this led to his appointment on the commission for the reorganization of the Prussian army. In the war of libera- tion he rendered distinguished service at the battle of Leipsic (1813). But his most meritorious work was his share in the Waterloo campaign, in which he was chief of Bliicher's staff, and principally directed the strategy of the Prussian army. He had been 15 years on the re- tired list when, in 1831, on the outbreak of the Polish rebellion, he was made field-marshal and given command of the Prussian army on the Polish frontier. He died in Posen, Aug. 24, 1831. GNEISS (nis), a metamorphic rock, consisting of orthoclase, quartz, and mica. It is akin to mica schist, which, however, is distinguished by having less orthoclase and more mica. It has ex- actly the same materials as granite, but is stratified or foliated. Sometimes hand specimens are found, in which lamination is so little traceable that they might pass for granite. Fundamental gneiss, Lau- rentian gneiss, the name given by Sir Roderick Murchison to the oldest strati- fied rock in Scotland. It is found in the N. W. of Ross-shire and in Sutherland- shire, besides forming the whole of the adjoining island of Lewis in the Heb- rides. It has a strike from N. W. to S. E., nearly at right angles to the meta- morphic strata of the Grampians. The Lower Cambrian and various metamor- phic rocks rest on it unconf ormably. G N E I S T, HEINRICH RUDOLF HERMANN FRIEDRICH VON (nist), a German jurist; born in Berlin, Aug. 13, 1816. He entered official life as assessor in the Superior Court (Kammergericht) in 1841, and was successively assistant- judge of the same court and of the su- prems tribunal, till in 1850 he resigned this position in order to devote himself exclusively to teaching; for since 1844 he had held the chair of jurisprudence in Berlin University. From 1858 he sat in tha Prussian Lower House as a National Liberal, and was also elected to the Im- perial Parliament, of which he was a con- servative member until 1884. He wrote: "Organization of the German Jurv" (1849); "Nobility and Knighthood 'in England" (1853) ; "Present English Constitutional and Administrative Law" (3d edition, 1876-1884), his masterpiece; "Government of the City of London" (1867) ; "History of the English System of Government" (1882); "The English Parliament" (1886) ; etc. He was en- nobled in 1888, and died July 21, 1895. GNESEN (gna'zen) (Polish Gniezno), a Polish town, in a region of hills and lakes, 31 miles E. N. E. of Posen. It has a Catholic cathedral, dating from 965, and till 1320 was the coronation place of the Polish kings. It passed to Prussia in 1814 and was ceded to Poland in 1920. GNETACE-ffi (ne-ta'se-e) , in botany, joint-firs; an order of gymnogens, with repeatedly-branched jointed stems and simple net- veined leaves, opposite and en- tire, sometimes very minute and scale- shaped; flowers in catkins, or heads; the males with a one-leaved calyx, trans- versely slit at the end; a monadelphous filament, with one-celled anthers opening by pores; females, altogether naked or sheltered by a false calyx, consisting of two scales, each surrounding two flowers; ovary, none; ovule with a style-like proc- ess. Known genera, two — viz., Gnetum and Ephedra; species, 15, scattered over the world. GNETUM (ne'-) (Corrupted from gnemon, the name given to the plant in the island of Ternate), in botany, the typical genus of the order Gnetaceie {q. v.). The species are found in the hot- test parts of India and Guiana. In Am- boyna the seeds of G. gnemon are eaten boiled, roasted, or fried, and the green leaves, though tasteless, are used as spin- ach. GNOME (nom), in mediaeval mythol- ogy, the name given by cabalistic writers to one of the classes of imaginary beings which are supposed to be the presiding spirits in mysterious operations of na- ture in the mineral and vegetable world. They have their dwelling within the earth, where they preside specially over its treasures, and are of both sexes, male and female. The former are often rep- resented in the form of misshapen dwarfs, of whom the well-known "Rube- zahl," or "Number-nip," of German legend is a familiar example. Pope, m the "Rape of the Lock," and Darwm, m the "Loves of the Plants," have drawn on the more pleasing associations of this curious branch of mythology. Also a small and ill-favored person; a dwarf; a misshapen being.
