garden city Ideal planned community as envisioned by the British town planner Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928). It was to be a small city that
Greta Garbo in Camille (1936).
CULVER PICTURES
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
736 I Garden Grove ► Garibaldi
combined the amenities of urban and rural life; it would be compact, with contained growth. At the center would be a garden ringed with a civic and cultural complex, a park, housing, and industry, the whole surrounded by an agricultural green belt. Traffic would move along radial avenues and ring roads. The first garden city was built at Letchworth, England, in 1903. Though Howard’s ideas have been widely influential, imitators have often ignored his stipulation that the town be a self-contained, true mixed-use community.
Garden Grove City (pop., 2000: 165,196), southwestern California, U.S. Located south of Anaheim, it is a growing suburban residential area. It is the site of the Crystal Cathedral, a church sheathed in 10,000 panes of glass, designed by Philip Johnson.
gardenia Any of the approximately 200 species of ornamental shrubs and trees in the genus Gardenia, in the madder family, native to tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia. Gardenias have white or yellow tubular flowers, evergreen leaves, and large, berrylike fruits containing a sticky, orange pulp. Cape jasmine (G. jasminoides ), native to China, is the fra¬ grant species sold by florists.
gardening Laying out and tending of a garden. Though palatial gar¬ dens existed in ancient times, small home gardens became prevalent only in the 19th century. Gardening as a pastime grew with the increase in home ownership and leisure time. A well-designed flower garden displays blends and contrasts of colours and forms, and it takes into account the effect of seasonal changes. Essential tasks include soil maintenance, water regulation, control of weeds, and protection of plants from pests and dis¬ eases. Though chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are widely used, less-toxic organic supplements and pest controls, predatory insects, and hand-weeding have become increasingly popular.
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (b. March 4, 1829, Ropley, near Alres- ford, Hampshire, Eng.—d. Feb. 23, 1902, Sevenoaks, Kent) English his¬ torian whose career was dedicated to the study of the English Civil Wars. He taught at King’s College, London, and was a fellow at Oxford. His researches among manuscript collections gave unrivaled authority to his monumental undertaking. Its principal volumes were History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603- 1642 (1883-84); History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (1886, 1893); and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 (1903).
Gardner, Alexander (b. Oct. 17, 1821, Paisley, Scot.—d. 1882, Washington, D.C., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. photographer. In 1856, the year he emigrated from Scotland, he was hired by Mathew B. Brady as a portrait photographer, and within two years he opened a studio for Brady in Washington, D.C. In 1861 he began to assist Brady in making a pho¬ tographic record of the American Civil War. Brady refused to give him public credit, so in 1863 he opened his own portrait studio and continued photographing the war on his own. He published a collection of 100 original prints in 1866. From 1867, as photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad in Kansas, he chronicled the building of the railroad and the new settlements built around it.
Gardner, Ava (Lavinia) (b. Dec. 24, 1922, Grabtown, N.C., U.S.—d. Jan. 25, 1990, London, Eng.) U.S. film actress. Bom to a tenant farmer, she appeared in minor film parts until her role in The Killers (1946) made her a star. She played temptresses and seductive heroines in films such as One Touch of Venus (1948), Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kiliman¬ jaro (1952), and The Barefoot Contessa (1954). A sensuous, dark-haired beauty, she was praised for her powerful and touching performances in films such as Mogambo (1953), On the Beach (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1964).
Gardner, Erie Stanley (b. July 17, 1889, Malden, Mass., U.S.—d. March 11, 1970, Temecula, Calif.) U.S. detective novelist. He dropped out of college and was admitted to the California bar after three years as a law-firm typist. While practicing trial law, he wrote pulp fiction, basing the courtroom scenes and brilliant legal maneuvers on his own tactics. He gave up law following the success in 1933 of The Case of the Velvet Claws and The Case of the Sulky Girl, his first novels featuring the lawyer- detective Perry Mason. Eighty Perry Mason novels followed. He also wrote two other series of detective stories, one under the pseudonym A. A. Fair.
Garfield, Janies A(bram) (b. Nov. 19, 1831, near Orange, Ohio, U.S.—d. Sept. 19, 1881, Elberon, N.J.) 20th president of the U.S. (1881). He was the last president born in a log cabin. He attended Western Reserve
Eclectic Institute (later Hiram Col¬ lege) at Hiram, Ohio, and graduated (1856) from Williams College. He returned to the Eclectic Institute as a professor of ancient languages and in 1857, at age 25, became the school’s president. In the American Civil War he led the 42nd Ohio Volunteers and fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga.
He resigned as a major general to serve in the U.S. House of Represen¬ tatives (1863-80). As a Radical Repub¬ lican, he sought a firm policy of Reconstruction in the South. In 1876 he served on the Electoral Commis¬ sion that decided the presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden. He was House Republican leader from 1876 to 1880, when he was elected to the Senate by the Ohio legislature. At the 1880 Republican nominating con¬ vention, the delegates supporting Ulysses S. Grant and James Blaine became deadlocked. On the 36th ballot, Garfield was nominated as a compromise presidential candidate, with Chester Arthur as vice president; they won the election by a narrow margin. His brief term, lasting less than 150 days, was marked by a dispute with Sen. Roscoe Conkling over patronage. On July 2 he was shot at Washington’s railroad station by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. He died on Sept. 19 after 11 weeks of pub¬ lic debate over the ambiguous constitutional conditions for presidential succession (later clarified by the 20th and 25th Amendments).
Garfunkel, Art See Paul Simon
Gargano \gar-'ga-no\ Promontory ancient Garganum Moun¬ tainous promontory jutting into the Adriatic Sea from eastern coast of Italy. Called “the spur of the Italian boot,” it is 40 mi (65 km) long and 25 mi (40 km) at its widest, rising to 3,494 ft (1,065 m) at Mount Calvo. The northern coast has citrus and olive groves and vineyards along the shore; the southern slopes, facing the Foggia plain, are known for pro¬ ducing red wines.