GRAIN COAST 



3637 



GRAMONT 



Grain Coast. Name formerly 

 applied to a portion of the W. 

 African littoral between the island 

 of Sherbro and the Ivory Coast. 

 The greater part is now under the 

 control of the republic of Liberia. 

 It was noted for melegueta pepper, 

 or grains of Paradise (q.v. ), hence 

 its name. See Liberia. 



Graincourt. Village of France, 

 in the dept. of Nord. It is 6 m. 

 W.S.W. of Cambrai, and lies 

 slightly off the Bapaume-Cambrai 

 road. It was captured on Nov. 20, 



1917, by the British 62nd (W. 

 Riding) division. Retaken by the 

 Germans in March, 1918, it was re- 

 captured by the British, Sept. 27, 



1918. See Cambrai, Battles of. 

 Graining. Art of imitating 



woods such as oak, mahogany, 

 walnut, etc., by means of paint. 

 Upon a ground colour is painted a 

 coat of graining colour, and while 

 this is still wet it is manipulated 

 in such a manner as to remove part 

 of it and expose the ground be- 

 neath. Oak graining is the most 

 popular, probably because of the 

 remarkable resemblance to nature 

 which a skilled craftsman can pro- 

 duce. In old houses will often be 

 found examples of graining in 

 excellent condition after more than 

 a quarter of a century. Ability to 

 grain well was at one time the hall- 

 mark of the expert painter and de- 

 corator, but the teaching of Ruskin, 

 who called graining a " sham," gave 

 the art a great setback from which 

 it is now slowly recovering. 



Grain of Paradise (Amomum). 

 Seed of two species of this genus, 

 which is included in the natural 

 order Scitamineae. Both are peren- 

 nial herbs, and natives of W. 

 Africa. A. granum-paradisi has 

 lance-shaped leaves and whitish 

 flowers ; A. melegueta more slender 

 leaves and pale pink flowers. The 

 seeds are warm to the taste and 

 have a suggestion of camphor. 

 They are illegally used by brewers 

 and distillers to make the strength 

 of their productions appear greater. 

 See Cardamom. 



Grallatores (Lat., stilt-walker). 

 Name formerly applied to the long- 

 legged wading birds, but now ob- 

 solete. The old method of classify- 

 ing birds according to their habits, 

 as waders, perchers, swimmers, 

 etc., was unscientific and mislead- 

 ing, since birds of very different 

 anatomical structure may have 

 similar habits. The old order Gral- 

 latores is now broken up into Her- 

 odii andGrallae. 



Gram, GREEN (Phaseohts tntm- 

 go). Herb of the natural order 

 Leguminosae, a native of India. 

 Commonly cultivated in India and 

 the Nile Valley, it has a consider- 

 able number of varieties, some 



dwarf and erect, others climbing. 

 It is a hairy plant, with the leaves 

 divided into three oval leaflets. 

 The small whitish flowers are suc- 

 ceeded by hairy, nearly cylindrical 

 pods containing the small seeds 

 which are used as food. 



Gramineae. Large natural or- 

 der of herbs of the grass family. It 

 includes over 3,000 species, natives 

 of all climates. They are mostly 

 tufted, with cylindrical, jointed 

 stems and narrow, alternate 

 leaves. The flowers usually consist 

 of two minute scales enclosed in a 

 boat-shaped glume, together with 

 three stamens and a single-celled 

 ovary. The fruit is a membranous 

 envelope, enclosing the single albu- 

 minous seed. Most of them pro- 

 duce nutritious herbage and seeds, 

 which form the principal foods of 

 man and his herds and flocks. The 

 numerous meadow-grasses mainly 

 consist of species with flat leaves 

 that do not roll up in dry weather. 

 The order contains all the valuable 

 cereals wheat, oats, rye, rice, etc., 

 sugar-cane and bamboo. 



Grammar (Gr. grammaliLe, the 

 science of letters, grammata). The 

 term, originally meaning simply 

 the art of reading, was extended to 

 include the study of literature and 

 all branches of learning generally. 

 In its more restricted sense, it is 

 the study of the forms and syntax 

 of a language, the art of speaking 

 and writing 

 correctly. But 

 the rules of 

 grammar are 

 not unalter- 

 ably fixed and 

 final ; they 

 merely repre- 

 sent the prac- 

 tice followed 

 i n speaking 

 and writing 

 by educated 

 persons at a 

 certain time. 

 Much of what 

 is now called 

 bad grammar 

 (e.g. I don't 

 know nothing) was once considered 

 perfectly correct. The best authors 

 of the most flourishing period of a 

 literature did not write according 

 to rules ; rather, their. writings fur- 

 nished the material on which the 

 rules of the grammarians were based. 

 Grammar early engaged the at- 

 tention of the learned in both east 

 and west. The founders of the 

 science in the west were the Greeks. 

 The sophists and Plato first 

 directed attention to the formation 

 and derivation of words, Aristotle 

 discussed the parts of speech, and 

 the Stoics invented names for 

 cases. The great Alexandrian 



Grain ot Paradise. 



Left, plant with 



flower ; right, seed 



pod and section 



grammarians and critics drew up 

 the rules of Greek grammar from 

 the Homeric poems and other mas- 

 terpieces of Greek literature, and 

 most of their rules still find a place 

 in modern school books. 



In the first century B.C. Dionysius 

 Thrax brought out the first com- 

 plete Greek grammar, and Apol 

 lonius Dyscolus (2nd century A.D.) 

 first definitely separated forms 

 from syntax. The Romans made 

 no original contributions to the 

 science, their chief merit being that 

 they translated the Greek ter- 

 minology and introduced it into 

 Europe. The two most famous 

 Roman grammarians were Aelius 

 Donatus (4th century A.D.) and 

 Priscian (6th century). In the 

 Middle Ages, and even in the 

 Renaissance period, little progress 

 was made, and it was not until the 

 discovery of Sanskrit in the 18th 

 century that an exact science of 

 grammar became possible. See 

 Language ; Phonetics. 



Gramme. Unit of weight in the 

 metric system. It is the thousandth 

 part of the weight of a litre of dis- 

 tilled water. It equals 15 '43248 

 grains. See Metric System. 



Grammichele. Town of Sicily, 

 in the prov. of Catania. It stands 

 on an eminence, 1,560ft. above sea 

 level, 55 m. by rly. (33 m. direct) 

 S.W. of Catania. Clay, stone, and 

 marble quarries are worked, and a 

 trade is carried on in grain, cotton, 

 oil, wine, fruit, and cattle. It 

 was founded in 1693 to replace 

 Occhiala, which had been utterly 

 wrecked by an earthquake. In the 

 vicinity is a cave altar to Demeter. 

 Pop. 17,463. 



Grammont (Flem. Geerards- 

 bergen). Town of Belgium, in the 

 prov. of E. Flanders. Situated on 

 the Dendre, 23 m. S.S.E. of Ghent, 

 it has a Gothic 15th century town 

 hall with four corner turrets and, 

 under the balcony, a fountain 

 resembling that of the Mannikin at 

 Brussels. In the church of S. Bar- 

 thelemy are two paintings by De 

 Crayer. The rly. line from Alost to 

 Mons passes through Grammont. 

 Pop. about 1 2,000. 



Gramont, PHILIRERTDE (1621- 

 1707). French courtier, subject of 

 the Memoires written by Anthony 

 Hamilton (q.v. ). Of noble descent, 

 Gramont was educated for the 

 Church, but, turning to the a,rmy, 

 served with distinction under Conde 

 and Turenne in Flanders and 

 Spain. Banished from the French 

 covirt on account of an intrigue 

 with one of the mistresses of Louis 

 XIV, he came to London, 1662, 

 and mixed freely in the court of 

 Charles II. There he married Eliza- 

 beth Hamilton, sister of Anthony. 

 His exile ended in 1664, but he 



