408 



GREEN RIVER 



GREENSTONE 



green colours used in painting or printing pottery, 

 see POTTERY. 



Green River ( 1 ) rises in Western Wyoming, 

 flows SE. into Colorado, and then SW. and S. 

 through Utah, joining the Grand River, a branch 

 of the Colorado, after a course of 750 miles. (2) 

 Green River, Kentucky, rises near the centre of the 

 state, flows west and north-west, passing near the 

 Mammoth Cave, and crosses the northern bound- 

 ary, entering the Ohio 9 miles above Evansville, 

 Indiana. It is about 350 miles in length, and is 

 navigable for small steamers for 150 miles ; its 

 lower course is through the coalfields of Western 

 Kentucky. 



Greenroom, a room near the stage in a 

 theatre, so called because originally painted green, 

 where, during a performance, the actors wait while 

 off the stage. 



Greens, the common name of all those varieties 

 of kale or cabbage (Brassica oleracea) which do not 

 boll, and of which the leaves are used for the table 

 as boiled vegetables ; some of which are also called 

 colewort, &c., whilst others, particularly those with 

 curled leaves, as German greens, have no other 

 name than greens or kale. Young unboiled cab- 

 bages, and shoots from the stocks of cabbages, are 

 often also called greens, as well as turnip-tops, and 

 other leaves of plants used in the same manner. 

 The leaves of German greens are very much waved 

 or curled. This herb is one of the best kinds of 

 open greens. It is either sown in spring and 

 planted out soon after, or it is sown in autumn and 

 planted out in spring. 



Greenland, the name given to two divisions of 

 the Cretaceous System (q.v. ). They are so called 

 from the occurrence in some of the strata of numer- 

 ous small green specks of glauconite (a hydrous 

 silicate of iron, alumina, and potash ; see GREEN 

 EARTH ), sometimes so abundant as to give a green 

 colour to them. The term is, however, far from 

 being descriptive of the various included strata ; it 

 must be considered simply as a name. In some 

 districts, especially on the Continent, the green 

 particles are entirely absent from the strata. The 

 petrographical character of the Upper Greensand 

 is so like that of the Lower, that it is scarcely 

 possible to separate them when the intermediate 

 Gault is absent, except by their organic remains, 

 which are very distinct ; so much so, indeed, as to 

 have caused the placing of the one series in the 

 Lower Cretaceous group, and the other in the 

 Upper. 



The Upper Greensand consists of beds of sand 

 and sandstone, generally of a green colour, with 

 beds and concretionary masses of calcareous grit, 

 called firestone, and chert. In the Weal den district 

 the average thickness of the formation is about 60 

 feet. It is only doubtfully present north of Folke- 

 stone ; in Sussex it reaches 20 feet, and in the Isle 

 of Wight 100 feet in thickness. This formation is 

 supposed to have been a littoral or shore deposit 

 of the cretaceous sea. While the chalk was being 

 deposited out at sea these sands were being 

 laid down along^ the shore contemporaneously 

 with the chalk, although they appear inferior to it. 

 Their position would necessarily result from the 

 cretaceous sea widening its area ; as the shore was 

 submerged the greerisand became covered with the 

 chalk, and thus appears as an older and under- 

 lying deposit. The beds of this series are rich 

 in fossils, abounding especially in the remains of 

 sponges, mollusca, and echinodermata. 



The Lower Greensand consists chiefly of yellow, 

 gray, white, and green sands, but includes also beds 

 and bands of clay, limestone, and ironstone. It 

 attains a thickness of 500 or so feet. The sands 

 preponderate in the upper, and the clays in the 



lower portion of the formation. In Surrey, Kent, 

 Sussex, &c. it is subdivided as follows : 



4. Folkestone beds. 

 3. Sandgate beds. 

 2. Hythe beds. 

 1. Atherfield clay. 



Some beds of clay of considerable thickness, occa- 

 sionally as much as 60 feet, are used as fuller's earth. 

 The calcareous stone is a highly fossiliferous band 

 of limestone, locally called Kentish rag, much used 

 for building in Kent and Sussex. The formation 

 was formerly known as the iron-sand, because of the 

 sands being cemented together by an abundance 

 of oxide of iron ; this gives them a reddish colour. 

 The Lower Greensand contains numerous fossil mol- 

 lusca and other remains. It is a marine-deposit, 

 and rests on the fresh-water Wealden strata, show- 

 ing that while it was being accumulated the sea 

 made considerable encroachments on the land. In 

 the Isle of Wight the strata are well developed, 

 reaching a thickness of some 800 feet. In the 

 Midland counties the same beds are recognised and 

 have assumed various names, such as ' Faringdon 

 beds,' 'Shotover sands,' ' Woburn sands and Wicken 

 beds.' The Tealby series is the name given to the 

 Lower Greensand beds of Lincolnshire. Near Flam- 

 borough Head the Lower Greensand and Wealden 

 beds are represented by the Speeton clay. 



Greensliank (Totanus canescens), a bird of 

 the snipe family ( Scolopacidre ), in the same genus 

 as the redshank and some of the sandpipers. It is 

 about the size of a woodcock ( 14 inches in length), 



Greenshank (Totanus canescens). 



but has much longer legs ; the general colours of 

 the plumage are brown and gray, the latter pre- 

 vailing in winter, when the under surface is pure 

 white ; the bill is about 2 inches long ; the tail is 

 short. The greenshank nests on the ground, which 

 the eggs ( four ) more or less resemble in colour ; 

 when disturbed the bird behaves and cries very 

 much like a lapwing. The food consists of small 

 animals of all sorts. In spring and autumn small 

 flocks occur on the British coasts or by inland 

 lakes ; in Ireland it often winters, and in the north 

 of Scotland may even breed. Its general range is 

 virtually co-extensive with the eastern hemisphere. 

 See Howard Saunders, Manual of British Birds. 



Green Sickness. See CHLOROSIS. 



Greenstone, a rock term (now disused) for 

 any dark green basic crystalline 'trap-rock.' The 

 greenish tint, which such igneous rocks so frequently 

 show is now recognised as being in most cases due 

 to the presence of serpentine, chlorite, or other pro- 

 ducts of decomposition. Most greenstones are thus 



