HESSE, Grand Duchy of (the GROSSHER zocrum HESSEN), a state of the German Em pire lying between lat. 49° 24' and 50° 51' N. and long. 7° 51' and 9° 39' E. Its capital, Darmstadt, is a city of 87,089 inhabitants ac cording to the latest official census, which gave the total population of the state as 1,282,051. The area is 2,968 square miles. It is divided into two main parts, which are separated by Prussian territory, and 11 smaller outlying parts. The southern main constituent part is divided by the Rhine into the Starkenburg and Rheinhessen (Rhenish Hesse) provinces, and is bounded on the north by Prussia, on the east by Bavaria and Baden, on the south by Baden and on the west by the Bavarian Rheinpfalz and Rheinpreussen. The northern chief divi sion, called Oberhessen (Upper Hesse), lies wholly within Prussia. The outlying members of the state are: Wimpfen a. Berg, Wimpfen i. Tal, Hohenstadt, Helmhof (interpolated in Ba den), Steinbach (surrounded by Prussian terri tory), several afforested districts belonging to the province of Oberhessen but situated in Prussian territory southwest of that province, etc. A further division is made for administra tive purposes, according to which the provinces contain 18 Kreise (circles) and 983 communes. The fact that the members of this state are to such an extent dispersed, and that eight sepa rate parcels of territory belonging to Prussia and Baden are enclosed by Hessian land, finds its explanation in the circumstance that the grand duchy represents the present sum of par ticular additions made from time to time at the expense of older countries (Kataenelbogen, etc.) and that since 1803 it has secured portions of Kunpfalz and Kurmaina, the bishopric of Worms, the abbey of Seligenstadt, the old im perial cities of Wimpfen, Friedberg and Worms and a part of the old French department of Donnersberg; moreover it now embraces the baronies or principalities of Isenburg, Solms, Schlitz, Erbach, Stolberg, Liiwenstein-Wert heim, as well as the domains of the families of Riedesel, Wambolt, Gemmingen and Low.
Topography.— The larger and much more densely populated lower chief division, compris ing Starkenbnrg, with 1,169 square miles, and Rhenish Hesse, 530 square miles, although it is in a measure occupied by the Odenwald in the southeast, and to that extent resembles the rough country of Upper Hesse, has quite differ ent characteristics in the west, the centre and the northeast where it extends into the fruit ful valley of the Rhine or clings to the river. Main southeast of Frankfurt and Offenbach. Rhenish Hesse includes the fertile and thickly settled country between Krewznach, Worms and Mayence (Mainz). On the other hand the Upper Hesse province, with 1,269 square miles, partakes of the geographical and topographical characteristics described in the article HEssE NAssAu (q.v.). The rivers of the grand duchy belong to the Rhine system, except that the eastern parts of the Vogelsberg declivities send their streams to the Fulda. The principal river, the Rhine, enters the state at the cathe dral town of Worms, divides (as we have said) Rhenish Hesse from Starkenburg province, then forms the boundary with Prussia and leaves Hesse at Bingen. Its tributary streams, touch ing or flowing through Hesse, are the Neckar, which divides Starkenburg province from Ba den for a short distance; the Weschnitz; the Main (navigable where it forms the boundary with Prussia) ; the Miimling and the Lahn, the Salz and the Nahe. Tributary to the Fulda are the Schlitz and the Schwalm. In each of the three provinces there are mineral springs, of which the most widely known are the Sauer quellen at Schwalhein, the (Saline) Bad-Nau helm and Bad-Salzhausen in Upper Hesse. The climate in the southern valleys and plains is mild and well suited to the cultivation of fruits; in the mountainous districts, on the other hand, it is so much harsher, that only hardy crops are grown above a moderate alti tude.