GROTON, a post town of New London county, Connecticut, U.S., is situated on the rivers Mystic and Pequonnock, opposite New London, and on the east side of the river Thames at its junction with Long Island Sound. There are granite quarries in the neighbourhood, and the town possesses manufactures of cotton goods, britannia ware, carriages, and sashes and blinds, and brass and iron foundries. There is also a considerable coasting trade, and shipping and fishing are carried on to a small extent. On the heights behind the town stands Fort Griswold, which surrendered to the British troops, September 6, 1781. The majority of its defenders, including the commander Colonel Ledyard, were put to death after they had surrendered; and a granite monument was erected in the town to their memory in 1830. The population in 1870 was 5124.
GROTTAGLIE, a small city of Italy, in the province of Lecce and circondario of Taranto, about 14 miles N.E. of Taranto. It probably occupies the site of Rudise, the birth place of the Latin poet Ennius, afterwards known as Castel Rodelle. The name Grottaglie is due to the number of caves in the vicinity. In modern times the place is worthy of note mainly because it has given birth to several men of considerable national eminence, as is set forth in detail in Pignatelli's history of the town. An excellent red clay for the manufacture of earthenware is found at Grottaglie. The inhabitants numbered 8747 in 1871.
GROUND NUT (synonyms, Earth Nut, Pistache de Terre, Monkey Nut, Pea Nut, Manilla Nut), a nut or pod the produce of the Arachis hypogæa, L. (Nat. Ord. Leguminosæ). The plant is an annual of diffuse habit,
with hairy stem, with two-paired, abruptly pinnate leaflets.
The flowers above ground are sterile, and the pods or
legumes are stalked, oblong, cylindrical, about 1 inch in
length, the thin reticulated shell containing one or two
irregularly ovoid seeds. After the flower withers, the stalk
of the ovary has the peculiarity of elongating and bending
down, forcing the young pod under ground, and thus the
seeds become matured at some distance below the surface.
Hence the specific and vernacular names of the plant. Two
varieties are recognized in Malacca and Java, a white and
a brown, and the seeds are known as minyak katjang (oil
bean). Of the history of this plant much has been written.
Monardes in 1596 writes of having seen it largely used
about the river Maranon in Brazil, and Marcgraf in 1648
gave a description and figure of it. To M. Jaubert, how
ever, a colonist at Gore"e near Cape Verd, seems to belong
the honour of first recommending it as of commercial value.
As to its native country the opinions of botanists are divided
between Africa and America. It is extensively cultivated
in all tropical and subtropical countries, especially in
America, Africa, India, the Malayan Archipelago, and
China. The plant affects a light sandy soil, and is very
prolific, yielding in some instances 30 to 38 bushels of nuts
per acre. The pods when ripe are dug up and dried. The
seeds when fresh are largely eaten in tropical countries, and
in taste are almost equal to almonds; when roasted they are
used as a substitute for chocolate. Even in England large
quantities of these "monkey nuts" are consumed by the
poorer children. By expression the seeds yield a large
quantity of oil, which is used by natives for lamps, as a
fish or curry oil, and for medicinal purposes. The leaves
form an excellent food for cattle, being very like clover.
Large quantities of seeds are imported to Europe, chiefly to Marseilles, London, Hamburg, and Berlin, for the sake of their contained oil. The seeds yield from 42 to 50 per cent, of oil by cold expression, but a larger quantity is obtained by heat, although of an inferior quality. The seeds being soft facilitate mechanical expression, and where bisulphide of carbon or other solvent is used, a very pure oil is obtained.
The expressed oil is limpid, of a light yellowish or straw colour, having a faint smell and bland taste; it forms an excellent substitute for olive oil, although in a slight degree more prone to rancidity than the latter. Its specific gravity is 916 to 918; it becomes turbid at 3 C., concretes at + 3 to 4 C., and hardens at 4- 7 C. It is a non-drying oil. Ground nut oil consists of (1) oleic acid (C I8 H 31 O 2 ); (2) hypogseic acid (C 16 H 30 2 ), by some supposed to be identical with a fatty acid found in whale oil; (3) palmitic acid (C 1C H 32 O 2 ); and (4) arachic acid (C 20 H 40 O 2 ). The oil is officinal in the Indian pharmacopoeia, replacing olive oil, and it is also used in the adulteration of gingelly oil. In 1874 about 145 million ft> of ground nuts, valued at 1,040,000, were exported from the west coast of Africa, chiefly to Marseilles, London, Hamburg, and Berlin.
GROUNDSEL (German, Kreuzkraut; French, Seneçon), Senecio vulgaris, Linn., is an annual, glabrous or more or
less woolly plant of the natural order Compositæ, series
Tubulifloreæ and tribe Senecionideæ, having a branched
succulent stem 6 to 15 inches in height; pinnatifid and
irregularly and coarsely-toothed leaves; flowers in separate
corymbs, with involucres of about 20 equal and several
external and smaller bracts, and florets yellow and tubular,
rarely ligulate in the marginal row; and ribbed and silky
fruit. The plant is indigenous to Europe, whence it has
been introduced into all temperate climates. It is a troublesome weed, flowering throughout the year, and propagating
itself rapidly by means of its light feathery fruits; it has
its use, however, as a food for cage-birds. Senecio sylvaticus
and S. viscosus are known respectively as mountain
groundsel and stinking groundsel. Many species of the
genus are handsome florists' plants. The groundsel tree,
Baccharis halimifolia, Linn., a native of the North American
sea-coast from Massachusetts southward, is a Composite
shrub, attaining 6 to 12 feet in height, and having angular
branches, obovate or oblong-cuneate, somewhat scurfy leaves,
and flowers larger than but similar to those of common
groundsel. The long white pappus of the female plant
renders it a conspicuous object in autumn. The groundsel
tree has been cultivated in British gardens since 1683.
See Loudon, Arboretum, vol. ii., 1838; Syme, Sowerby's English Botany, vol. v., 3d ed., 1866.
GROUSE, a word of uncertain origin,[1] now used generally by ornithologists to include all the "rough-footed" Gallinaceous birds, but in common speech applied almost
- ↑ It seems first to occur (fide O. Salusbury Brereton, Archæologia, iii. p. 157) as "grows" in an ordinance for the regulation of the royal household dated "apud Eltham, mens. Jan. 22 Hen. VIII.," i.e., 1531, and considering the locality must refer to Black game. It is found in an Act of Parliament 1 Jac. I. cap. 27, § 2, i.e., 1603, and, as reprinted in the Statutes at Large, stands as now commonly spelt, but by many writers or printers the final e is now omitted. In 1611 Cotgrave had "Poule griesche. A Moore-henne; the henne of the Grice [in ed. 1673 "Griece"] or Mooregame" (Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, sub voce Poule}. The most likely derivation seems to be from the old French word Griesche, Greoche, or Griais (meaning speckled, and cognate with griseus, grisly or grey), which was applied to some kind of Partridge, or according to Brunetto Latini (Trés., p. 211) to a Quail, "porce que ele fu premiers trovée en Grece."
