GREEN DRAGON GRITS. 



678 



GREEN DRAGON is the Arum dracontium of 

 Linnaeus, a curious North American herbaceous 

 ])lant, long introduced into our gardens, and easily 

 increased by offsets from the roots. 



GREVILLEA (R. Brown). A fine genus of ever- 

 green shrubs, natives of New South Wales, Linnoean 

 class and order Tetrandria MmogyraOt and natural 

 order Proteaccce. Generic, character : calyx irregu- 

 larly four sepalled, inserted obliquely ; small solitary 

 glands below the germen ; stigma obliquely de- 

 pressed ; folliculus one-celled, which is central and 

 two-seeded. As greenhouse plants this genus thrives 

 well in an equal mixture of loam, sand, and moor 

 earth, and is readily propagated by cuttings struck in 

 sand. Above thirty species are named in books. 



GREW I A (Jussieu). A genus of evergreen shrubs, 

 mostly indigenous to India. They bear polyandrious 

 flowers, and the genus is arranged in the natural 

 order TilincecE. 



GRIELUM (Linnaeus). A small genus of perennial 

 herbs, from the Cape of Good Hope, belonging to 

 the natural order Rosaccce. They are impatient of 

 moisture, requiring to be grown in sandy gravel and 

 the pots well drained, and propagated by cuttings 

 and seeds. 



GR1FFINIA (Ker). A genus of bulbous plants 

 from South America, belonging to Amaryllideee. There 

 are three species described, and, like other tropical 

 bulbs, require a light, turfy soil, kept dry while dor- 

 mant, bur. allowed plenty of water when growing. 



CROMWELL is the Lithoxpcnmnn officina/e of 

 Linrucue, a common medicinal or dyer's plant, belong- 

 ing to Boraginece. The lithosperma are remarkable 

 for the stony hardness of their pericarps, which have 

 all the brittleness and lustre of porcelain. This mem- 

 brane, when analysed, is found to contain a larger 

 quantity of earthy matter than any other organised 

 substance. 



GROSSULARIE^E. A natural order, containing 

 only a single, though a well known, genus, namely, 

 the Itibcs, or Gooseberry. They are unarmed or 

 thorny shrub?, with round or irregularly angled lig- 

 neous stems and branches : simple lobed, alternate 

 leaves, but destitute of tendrils and stipules. The 

 utility and excellence of the gooseberry and currant 

 are well known. None of the other forty-seven 

 species equal these, although the fruit of some others 

 aft of some importance. The berry of most of these 

 is sweet, watery, and acid, but that of liibcs nigriim, 

 x and a few more, is tonic and stimulant, which appears 

 to have some connexion with the presence of glands 

 upon the leaves of those species. See GOOSEBERRY. 



GROUNDSEL is the Scnccio vulgaris of Linnaeus, 

 a verv common European weed. 



GROVE DOCK is the Rumex ncmolapatlium of 

 Ehrharr, 



GRUB. A name generally given to any fleshy 

 dingy-coloured larva, whether proceeding from eggs 

 deposited by a beetle, moth, or other insect. It has 

 been attempted to distinguish grubs from maggots, 

 by considering the former as the offspring only of 

 coleopterous insects (beetles and weevils), and the 

 latter as having no feet ; but as the larvde of all 

 weevils, and many other beetles, are destitute 

 of feet, and as the word, as generally employed, 

 is quite incapable of strict systematic employment, 

 we would prefer leaving it in its ordinary inde- 

 tiniteness rather than limit it incorrectly, as has been 

 done. 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



GRUS Crane, or rather, prhap?, GRVIDJE, the 

 Crane Family, as we shall include in this article a bird 

 or two, which are not, strictly speaking, cranes, though 

 nearly allied to them in various respects. We have 

 already described, in the article AGAMI, a species 

 which is closely allied to the cranes, though perhaps 

 even less aquatic in its habits. 



The cranes are the first and most typical genus in 

 Cuvier's Cultrirorostral, or kniieshape-billed division of 

 JBckasiiei'ti or stilt birds. 



The generic characters are : the bill straight, and 

 not very wide at the gape, and the nasal groove, 

 which is deep, and lined with membrane, occupies 

 nearly one half of its length ; the legs are very long 

 and strong, naked for a considerable way above the 

 tarsal joints, and fortified with shield-like scales, 

 which are not, however, reticulated, as in those birds 

 which are in the habit of having their legs habitually 

 in the water ; the toes are of moderate length, the 

 outer and middle one united by a short membrane at 

 the base, and the hind toe is articulated so far upward 

 on the tarsus as barely to touch the ground with its 

 point when the animal walks ; all the species have 

 the head and part of the upper neck more or less fur- 

 nished with projecting feathers ; the tongue is fleshy, 

 broad, and pointed ; the wings consist of twenty-four 

 quills ; their stomach is a true gizzard ; and the inferior 

 larynx has only one muscle on each side. 



By Linna3us and his followers the cranes were 

 confounded with the herons, the storks, and various 

 other genera, but their manners differ from these, 

 and there is a corresponding difference of structure. 

 Storks, according to their different species, feed more 

 upon garbage, and those remains of animal life which 

 are left on the subsiding of the waters in the flooded 

 countries. They are also exceedingly voracious birds, 

 and their gape arid throat are very capacious. Herons 

 are more exclusively fisher?, and never seek their food 

 but on the margins of the waters, into which they 

 wade to some distance. The cranes, on the other 

 hand, though somewhat miscellaneous in their feed- 

 ing, subsist in great part upon vegetables, as the 

 gizzard would indicate, although we had no other 

 evidence. Cranes are also much more handsome 

 birds than either storks or herons. They are very 

 tall in stature, their bodies are light and elegant, 

 their gait is majestic, and their crests are much more 

 handsome than those of the other crested birds of 

 the division. Generally speaking, they inhabit the 

 warmer temperate countries, and are migrant with 

 the seasons ; but some are found far to the north in 

 summer, at least as far as the shores of Hudson's 

 Bay and the banks of the Siberian rivers. There are 

 several species, each of which is worthy of a short 

 notice ; and we shall begin with the only one which 

 breeds in Europe, and once bred in considerable 

 numbers in England, though it now rarely appears 

 even as an occasional visitant. 



This shows that England has undergone a consi- 

 derable change, not only in respect of more abundant 

 population, but in respect of the character of the 

 country, especially in those places which these birds 

 frequented. Cranes are riot marsh birds, but they 

 are frequenters of the margins of marshes, though, 

 in places where they are abundant, they spread them- 

 selves over the corn-fields, and often do considerable 

 damage by feeding on the tender blade of the young 



crop 



THE COMMON CEANE (G. cinerea] has the body 

 U U 



