gbia] 



ULty gTrotfurg of 3Sotang, 



552 



American continent. The flowers have 

 five sepals, which are coloured (not green > 

 on the inside and often hairy outside ; and 

 five petals, each with a gland or hollow at 

 the hase inside, and inserted at thebottom 

 of the stalk-like receptacle of the three to 

 four-celled ovary, while the numerous sta- 

 mens arc inserted round its summit. The 

 fruit consists of from one to four stones, 

 each containing one or two seeds. Up- 

 wards of eighty species of this genus are 

 described. 



G. asiatica and sapida have both small 

 red fruits, which, on account of their plea- 

 sant acid taste, are commonly used in 

 Indiafor flavouring sherbets. The wood of 

 the Dhamnoo, G. elastica, a species common 

 in the Himalayas, is very strong and elas- 

 tic, and is consequently much prized by the 

 natives for making their bows, besides 

 which it is used for carriage-shafts and 

 other purposes where elasticity is requi- 

 site. At the Cape of Good Hope, the elas- 

 tic wood of G. occidentalis, called Kruys- 

 besje, is used for similar purposes. Most 

 of the species have a fibrous inner bark, 

 which is commonly employed by the na- 

 tives for making flshing-nets, ropes, twine, 

 &c. [A. S.] 



GRIAS. A prenus of Barringtoniaeece pe- 

 culiar to the West Indies and the adjoining 

 mainland. The Anchovy Pear of Jamaica, 

 G. cauliflora, has long been cultivated in 

 plant stoves for the sake of its magnificent 

 foliage. It is a slender tall unbranched 

 tree, furnished at top with a large crown 

 of drooping glossy-green alternate lance- 

 shaped or spathulate entire leaves, which 

 are sometimes upwards of three feet long. 

 The flowers (.not well known) are said to be 

 large, white, arranged in clusters which 

 arise from the old wood, and consisting of 

 a superior four-toothed calyx, four rounded 

 petals, numerous stamens in five rows 

 with their stalks united at the base, and 

 an ovary tipped with a cruciform sessile 

 stigma. The fruits are said to be russet- 

 brown drupes, and to be pickled and eaten 

 like the mango, having a similar taste. G. 

 Fendleri, found in Panama, with equally 

 handsome leaves, has its flowers in short 

 racemes arising from the trunk, yellow, 

 and one to two inches across. [A. A. B.] 



GRIFFINIA. A small genus of South 

 American Amaryllidacco?, consisting of 

 dwarfish bulbous plants, with broad oblong 

 petiolated nervose leaves, and a many- 

 flowered umbel of handsome purplish 

 flowers. The perianth has a short cylin- 

 drical declinate tube, and unequal reflexed 

 limb of six segments, the lower of which 

 are divaricate, and the lowest stretched for- 

 ward ; there are six stamens with thread- 

 shaped filaments, one of them ascending, 

 the rest declinate ; and a three-celled ovary, 

 containing two collateral ovules in each 

 cell, and tipped by a three-furrowed style, 

 and an undivided or obsoletely three-lobed 

 stigma. G. hyacinthina, the best known 

 species, grows in woods on the hills behind 

 Rio Janeiro, and is a very ornamental 

 species. [T. M.] 



GRIFFITHIA. An Indian shrub of the 

 Cinchona family, with glandular leaves 

 and spiny stems ; flowers white, in termi- 

 nal clusters, with a funnel-shaped corolla, 

 whose throat is hairy, and whose limb is 

 divided into five oblong acute segments; 

 ovary two-celled, surmounted by a fleshy 

 disk ; stigma undivided striated. The fruit 

 is succulent and reddish. [M. T. M.] 



GRIGG. Calluna vulgaris. 



GRIGNON. (Fr.) The wood of Bucida 

 Buceras. 



GRIGRI. A name in Trinidad for the 

 wood of Astrocaryum aculeatum. 



GRIMMIA. A genus of acrocarpous 

 mosses, distinguished, as now reduced, by 

 the columella not adhering to the lid, the 

 short even tip of the veil which is entire 

 and not lacerated at the base, and the 

 generally exserted capsule. The peri- 

 stome, when present, consists of sixteen 

 large lanceolate convex teeth, which are 

 split once or twice. G. pulvinata, remark- 

 able for its curved peduncle, from whence 

 it obtained formerly the name of the 

 Swan's-neck Bryum, forms cushion-like 

 tufts, hoary with the long white hair- 

 points of the leaves, and thickly studded 

 with fruit. The other British species are 

 either Alpine or subalpine. [M. J. B.] 



GRIMMIBI. A natural order of mosses, 

 with an equal often sessile capsule, a sin- 

 gle peristome, a initrasform calyptra, and 

 leaves of a dark green, always terminated 

 by a white hair, and formed of punctiform 

 cells. Schistidivm, in which the columella 

 is adnate with the lid, and the capsules 

 are immersed ; Griw.rn.ia, with its free 

 lid ; and Racomitrium, with its straggling 

 habit, confirmed by the awl-shaped granu- 

 lated beak of the veil, are the British 

 genera. Driptodon differs from Racomi- 

 trium merely in its forked stems and fasti- 

 giate innovations, and is generally united 

 with that genus. They are found in various 

 climates, Schistidium arpocarpum, which 

 is one of our more common mosses, ap- 

 pearing also both in Asia and South Ame- 

 rica. [M. J. BJ 



GRINDELIA. A genus of Composites 

 numbering upwards of a dozen species. 

 The prairies of the Saskatchawan are 

 their northern limit, Patagonia the south- 

 ern, and they are found in greatest plenty 

 in Texas and Mexico. Their chief distin- 

 guishing feature is the pappus, which 

 consists of from two to eight rigid narrow 

 awns, which fall early. They are biennial 

 or perennial suffruticose plants, with 

 branching stems, spathulate radical leaves, 

 and sessile or clasping cauline ones, and j 

 yellow flower-heads, solitary at the ends 

 of the twigs, and from one to two inches 

 across. Most of the species have all their 

 parts more or less covered with a glutinous 

 varnish when young. [A. A. B.] 



GRIOT, GRIOTTB, or GRIOTTIER. (Fr.) 

 Names applied to varieties of Cerasus 

 vulgaris. 



