360 



GRAPPLE-PLANT 



GRASSES 



surface, and the chalk brushed away from between 

 the lines. From the chalk an electrotype could be 

 taken. It had a temporary partial success, but has 

 been in turn completely superseded by the zinco- 

 type and other processes. See ILLUSTRATION. 



Grapple-plant ( Uncaria procumbens ), a pro- 

 cumbent plant of the same genus with the Gambir 

 (q.v.), a native of South Africa. The seed-vessel 

 lias many hooked thorns, and clings most tenaciously 

 to any animal a provision for the distribution of 

 the seed. When it lays hold of the mouth of an 

 ox, Livingstone says, the animal stands and roars 

 with pain and a sense of helplessness. 



Graptolites, 1 group of fossil hydrozoa, appar- 

 ently related to the recent Sertularia. They nad 

 simple or branched polyparies, formed of a chit- 

 inous substance, and the polyparies were usually 

 strengthened by a horny-like rod, which is called 

 the 'solid axis.' Professor Nicholson thinks that 

 the term ' solid ' is probably a misnomer, and that 

 the axis was most likely hollow and filled with 

 living material. The cellules in which the poly- 

 pites lived were arranged in a single series on one 

 side of the axis, or in a double series on both 

 sides ; the axis was generally prolonged beyond the 

 cells at the growing end of the polypary. Re- 

 productive buds, or ovarian vesicles, have been 

 observed attached to the polypary, exhibiting a 

 method of reproduction similar to that in the hydro- 

 zoa, but they differ from the ovarian vesicles of 

 the modern Sertularians in becoming detached from 

 the parent colony. The graptolites appear to have 

 been free-floating organisms. They are generally 

 divided into Monoprionidian and Diprionidian 

 groups. In the first named the polypary, whether 

 single or branched, had only one row of cellules, 

 or ' hydrothecfe ; ' in the second the polypary was 

 furnished with a row of cellules on each side. The 

 former group ranges from the base to the top of the 

 Silurian system, while the latter is confined chiefly 

 to the Lower Silurian. To this system the grapto- 

 lites may be said to be confined. Numerous species 

 have been described, and from their abundance in 

 the argillaceous shales and grey wackes it is obvious 

 that they must have swarmed in the Silurian seas. 

 There are several other Sertulariari-like fossils 

 often described as graptolites ; such as Dendro- 

 qraprus a rooted plant-like form (Cambrian and 

 Lower Silurian); Dictyonema, also plant-like, 

 and probably rooted (Silurian); Retiolites, with 

 no solid axis (Silurian), but otherwise resembling 

 the graptolites. 



Graslitz, a town of Bohemia, on the border 

 of Saxony, 142 m. WNW. of Prague by rail. Musi- 

 cal instruments are manufactured. Pop. 9780. 



GraSHiere, a Westmorland village, 4 miles 

 NW. of Ambleside. There are four hotels. Pop. 

 684. Its antique church is the church of the 

 Excursion; and in the churchyard, washed by the 

 Rothay, are the graves of Wordsworth and Hartley 

 Coleridge. ' Grasmere's peaceful lake,' with its 

 ' one green island,' lies | mile to the south, between 

 Loughrigg Fell (1101 feet) and Helm Crag (1299). 

 Measuring 1 by ^ mile, it is 208 feet above sea- 

 level, and 130 feet deep. 



Grass-Cloth. This name is sometimes given 

 by travellers and missionaries to different kinds of 

 coarse cloth, made by various savage races, the 

 fibre of which is rarely that of a grass. Cloth is, 

 or at least has been, made from Bamboo (q.v. ), and 

 a coarse matting is made from Esparto (q.v.), both 

 of which are true grasses. A fine cloth is woven 

 from the fibre of a species of Boehmeria (q.v.), 

 popularly called China-grass, but the plant is 

 really a nettle. To the nettle order also belongs 

 the so-called Queensland Grass-cloth plant (Pip- 

 turus argenteus ), which yields a fine, strong fibre. 



Grasse, a town in the French department of 

 Alpes-Maritimes, is situated on the southern slope 

 of the Basses- Alpes, 1066 feet above sea-level, and 

 12 miles N. of Cannes by rail. An ancient place, 

 the seat of a bishopric from 1244 to 1801, it has 

 steep, narrow, crooked streets, a cathedral, and an 

 interesting h6tel-de-ville. Grasse is second only to 

 Paris in its manufactures of essences and perfumes, 

 made from the roses, orange-flowers, heliotropes, 

 mint, &c., which, thanks to the mildness of the 

 climate, are most successfully grown in the neigh- 

 bourhood. It has also manufactures of olive-oil, 

 silk, &,c. , and is growing in favour as a winter 

 resort. Pop. (1891) 9786. 



Grasses form the order Gramineae, which with 

 Cyperaceai (Sedges) makes up the second great 

 division (Glumaceae) of Monocotyledons (q.v.). 

 The first division ( Petaloidese ) consists of orders 

 whose flowers are of the liliaceous or orchidaceous 

 type ; while the flowers of Glumacese are best 

 described as 'grassy.' The following character* 

 are sufficient to distinguish grasses from sedges : 

 grasses have generally cylindric or compressed 

 jointed stems, usually with internodes becoming 

 hollow ; leaves alternate with sheath clasping the 

 stem, but edges of sheath not joined ; em Dry o at 

 one side of the base of the endosperm (albumen). 

 Sedges have generally triangular, sometimes cylin- 

 dric, stems, jointed but solid ; leaves in three 

 vertical rows with leaf-sheath entire and forming 

 a hollow cylinder round the stem ; embryo within 

 the base of the endosperm. The term ' grass ' is. 

 often applied to any herbaceous plant that helps to 

 form pasture, and agriculturists speak of natural 

 and artificial grasses, the former only belonging to 

 Graminese. Cereals (q.v.) and some pasture grasses 

 are annual, but most pasture and woody grasses are 

 perennial. Cereals and pasture grasses are herba- 

 ceous ; bamboos are woody and may grow to a 

 height of 100 feet in one season. There are 

 250 genera of grasses, and 3200 distinct species ; of 

 these 41 genera with more than 100 species are 

 natives of the British Isles, and fully 800 species 

 and varieties within the limits of the United 

 States. 



Description. The leaves are long and tapering, 

 one being given off at each node of the stem ; the 

 leaf-sheath is a modified stalk, and is often pro- 

 longed upwards for a short distance beyond its 

 junction with the blade, into a membrane or ring 

 of hairs (ligule), which forms a collar round the 

 stem. The parallel veins of the leaves are con- 

 tinued downwards into the stem and anastomose 

 only at the nodes. The stem (culm) at first con- 

 sists of solid nodes and internodes, but the inter- 

 nodes, except in sugar-cane and a few other 

 tropical grasses, become hollowed out, and thus the 



r 



Fig. 1. 



A, spikeletof wheat : a, glume ; b, awn of outer bract ; c, barren 

 terminal flower ; d, stamen. B, vertical section of same spike- 

 let : o, ovary ; s, stigma ; i, inner bract. C shows position 

 of lodicules (I, I) in relation to the ovary. 



stem is rendered comparatively lighter, and at the 

 same time better able to resist the lateral pressure 

 of the wind ; because a cylinder offers more resist- 

 ance to pressure than does a solid rod of the same 



