a lowland region shut in by the mountains of the Elburz range ; and though the Kyzyl Usen, which has its sources in the mountains of Kurdistan, is the only river of any size, the country is abundantly watered, and vast stretches of swamp are found in various directions. This is mainly due to the character of the climate, which is distinguished by a very heavy precipitation both in winter and summer. Vegetation is almost tropic-ally luxuriant, and the forests are as dense as an Indian jungle. Oaks, maples, ash trees, plrmeras, lime trees, and parrottz'ns, are among the prevail- ingr types. The chestnut-leaved oak attains colossal propor— tions, and a height at times of 130 or 140 feet; and the box tree comes to rare perfection, and forms an important source of wealth. Vines and pomegranates, walnuts, plums, pears, and apples grow wild; and oranges, lemons, peaches, and other fruits are easily cultivated, though some- times a severe winter proves fatal to the trees. The olive snececls well in the valley of the Scfudrood, but the oil is extracted in a very primitive manner. Rice is largely cul— tivated, and forms the principal food of the inhabitants, except in the west, where its place is partially taken by wheat, a cereal indeed to which the Ghilancse farmer is more and more directing his attention. Cotton and sugar are both grown in small quantities, and the character of the climate gives reason to hope that tea plantations may be rendered profitable in some districts. Hitherto the most successful occupation has been silk-growing ; but frequcut failures in the crop have disheartened, if they have not ruinel, many of the silk-masters. The quantity produced in 1866 was valued at £743,300, while the average between 1870 and 1875 was only about £270,000. In quality the silk does not rank Very high, the greater portion being the produce of Japanese seed. Animal life is nearly as well represented in Ghilan as vegetable life. Tigers, wild bears, deer, and a considerable variety of snakes are found in the jungles; pheasants are a common form of game; aquatic birds of various kinds—pelicans, storks, heron, gulls, ducks, &.c., swarm along the coast _; and the fisheries ‘ in the Caspian are highly productive. The ordinary cattle, a small humped species like that of India, form an article ‘ of export; sheep and goats are not so plentiful, but they furnish very fine wOol, and the horses are a hardy race, greatly prized in other parts of Persia, and especially in the capital. Wild horses are to be met with in the forests. Trade and commerce are in a very undeveloped state,—and no wonder when, with one trifling exception, there is no carriageable road in the province, and merchandise has to be transported on the backs of horses, mules, or camels. A striking instance of the primitive state of matters is furnished by Mr Mounsey, who tells how the machinery ordered by the Shah from Europe for his new mint was allowed to go to ruin in the sand at Enzelli, because it was found impossible to provide for its conveyance. The port of Enzelli, though it boasts of a lighthouse and three small forts, is little more than a natural harbour, and in rough weather it is not accessible to the mail steamers, which in
the ordinary course call once a week.The administration of the province is nearly as primitive as its system of roads, and consists of nothing but machinery for the collection of the taxes, which yield about ‘ £63,000 to the royal revenue. The capital is Resht, and the administrative districts are Besht, Lahijan, F omen, Gesku, Talishan, Sheft, Rustemabad, Rudbar, Menjech, Lengerood, Siah Kuh, and Dilman. Every able-bodied man is enrolled in a sort of frontier guard in the district of Talishan, but no regular police is maintained throughout the province. The population is of very various composi- tion ; but the main stock, including the Tats and the Gileki, is of Iranian origin. The Gilek is strongly built, but lank, and his complexion is a sort of olive or copper colour ; the Tat, on the other hand, has a tendency to corpuience, and his complexion is swarthy. According to different estimates, the inhabitants of the province number 150,000, 200,000, or 275,000 ; but it is more than usually difficult to ascertain the truth of the case, as they are for the most part scattered through the country in small hamlets. Ghilan is part of the ancient district of Hyrcania. The name is usually explained as equivalent to Mud-land; but Spiegel objects to this derivation, and says the true form of the word is Gelau, which has received no interpretation. There is nothing very distinctive about the history of the province ; but its position, its climate, and its soil should secure it a flourishing future were its political condition improved.
See Melgunolf, The Soul}er Shore of the Caspian (in Russian); Mounsey, Journey through tlw Caucasus, 820., 1872; Tictze, Zeitschrg‘ft dcr (i'cs. fiirErclkundc, Vienna, 1875 ; and Consular Reports.
illustrious Florentine painter. His full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi; it appears therefore that his father's surname was Curradi, and his grandfather’s Bigordi. The painter is generally termed Domenico Bigordi, but some authors give him, and apparently with reason, the paternal surname Curradi. Ghirlandajo (garland—maker) was only a nickname, coming to Domenico from the employment of his father (or else of his earliest instructor), who was renowned for fashioning the metallic garlands worn by Florentine damsels; he was l not, however, as some have said, the inventor of them. Tommaso was by vocation a jeweller on the Ponte Vecchio, or perhaps a broker. Domenico, the eldest of eight children, was at first apprenticed to a jeweller or goldsmith, probably enough his own father , in his shop he was continually making portraits of the passers-by, and it was thought expedient to place him with Alessio Baldovinetti to study painting and mosaic. His youthful years were, however, entirely undistinguished, and at the age of thirty-one he had not a fixed abode of his own. This is remarkable, as immediately afterwards, from 1480 onwards to his death at a comparatively early age in 1494, he became the most proficient painter of his time, incessantly employed, and condensing into that brief period of fourteen years fully as large an amount of excellent work as any other artist that could be named; indeed, we should properly say eleven years, for nothing of his is known of a later date than 1491. In 1480 Ghirlandajo painted a St Jerome and other frescos in the church of Ognissanti, Florence, and a life-sized Last Supper in its refectory, noticeable for individual action and expression. From 1481–1485 he was employed upon frescos in the Sala dell’ Orologio in the Palazzo Vecchio; he painted the apotheosis of St Zenobius, a work beyond the size of life, with much architectural framework, figures of Roman heroes, and other detail, striking in perspective and structural propriety. While still occupied here, he was summoned to Home by Pope Sixtus IV. to paint in the Sixtine Chapel ; he went thither not earlier than 1482. In the Sixtine he executed, probably before 1484, a fresco which has few rivals in that series, Christ calling Peter and Andrew to their Apostleship,—a work which, though somewhat deficient in colour, has greatness of method and much excellence of finish. The landscape background, in especial, is very superior to anything to to found in the Works, which had no doubt been zealously studied by Ghirlandajo, of Masaccio and Masolino in the Brancacci Chapel. He also did some other works in Rome, now perished. Before 1485 he had likewise produced his frescos in the chapel of S. Fina, in the Tuscan town of S. Gemignano, remarkable for grandeur and grace, two pictures of Fina, dying and dead, with some accessory work. Sebastian Mainardi assisted him in these productions in
Rome and in S. Gemignano ; and Ghirlandajo was so well