GRASSHOPPER (Fr. sauterelle, Ital. grillo, Ger. Grashüpfer, Heuschrecke, Swed. Gräshoppa), names applied to orthopterous insects belonging to the families Locustidae and Acridiidae. They are especially remarkable for their saltatory powers, due to the great development of the hind legs, which are much longer than the others and have stout and powerful thighs, and also for their stridulation, which is not always an attribute of the male only. The distinctions between the two families may be briefly stated as follows:—The Locustidae have very long thread-like antennae, four-jointed tarsi, a long ovipositor, the auditory organs on the tibiae of the first leg and the stridulatory organ in the wings; the Acridiidae have short stout antennae, three-jointed tarsi, a short ovipositor, the auditory organs on the first abdominal segment, and the stridulatory organ between the posterior leg and the wing. The term “grasshopper” is almost synonymous with Locust (q.v.). Under both “grasshopper” and “locust” are included members of both families above noticed, but the majority belong to the Acridiidae in both cases. In Britain the term is chiefly applicable to the large green grasshopper (Locusta or Phasgonura viridissima) common in most parts of the south of England, and to smaller and much better-known species of the genera Stenobothrus, Gomphocerus and Tettix, the latter remarkable for the great extension of the pronotum, which often reaches beyond the extremity of the body. All are vegetable feeders, and, as in all orthopterous insects, have an incomplete metamorphosis, so that their destructive powers are continuous from the moment of emergence from the egg till death. The migratory locust (Pachytylus cinerascens) may be considered only an exaggerated grasshopper, and the Rocky Mountain locust (Caloptenus spretus) is still more entitled to the name. In Britain the species are not of sufficient size, nor of sufficient numerical importance, to do any great damage. The colours of many of them assimilate greatly to those of their habitats; the green of the Locusta viridissima is wonderfully similar to that of the herbage amongst which it lives, and those species that frequent more arid spots are protected in the same manner. Yet many species have brilliantly coloured under-wings (though scarcely so in English forms), and during flight are almost as conspicuous as butterflies. Those that belong to the Acridiidae mostly lay their eggs in more or less cylindrical masses, surrounded by a glutinous secretion, in the ground. Some of the Locustidae also lay their eggs in the ground, but others deposit them in fissures in trees and low plants, in which the female is aided by a long flattened ovipositor, or process at the extremity of the abdomen, whereas in the Acridiidae there is only an apparatus of valves. The stridulation or “song” in the latter is produced by friction of the hind legs against portions of the wings or wing-covers. To a practised ear it is perhaps possible to distinguish the “song” of even closely allied species, and some are said to produce a sound differing by day and night.
GRASS OF PARNASSUS, in botany, a small herbaceous plant known as Parnassia palustris (natural order Saxifragaceae), found on wet moors and bogs in Britain but less common in the south. The white regular flower is rendered very attractive by a circlet of scales, opposite the petals, each of which bears a fringe of delicate filaments ending in a yellow knob. These glisten in the sunshine and look like a drop of honey. Honey is secreted by the base of each of the scales.
| Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris). 1, one of the gland-bearing scales enlarged. |
GRATE (from Lat. crates, a hurdle), the iron or steel receptacle for a domestic fire. When coal replaced logs and irons were found to be unsuitable for burning the comparatively small lumps, and for this reason and on account of the more concentrated heat of coal it became necessary to confine the area of the fire. Thus a basket or cage came into use, which, as knowledge of the scientific principles of heating increased, was succeeded by the small grate of iron and fire-brick set close into the wall which has since been in ordinary use in England. In the early part of the 19th century polished steel grates were extensively used, but the labour and difficulty of keeping them bright were considerable, and they were gradually replaced by grates with a polished black surface which could be quickly renewed by an application of black-lead. The most frequent form of the 18th-century grate was rather high from the hearth, with a small hob on each side. The brothers Adam designed many exceedingly elegant grates in the shape of movable baskets ornamented with the paterae and acanthus leaves, the swags and festoons characteristic of their manner. The modern dog-grate is a somewhat similar basket supported upon dogs or andirons, fixed or movable. In the closing years of the 19th century a “well-grate” was invented, in which the fire burns upon the hearth, combustion being aided by an air-chamber below.
GRATIAN (Flavius Gratianus Augustus), Roman emperor 375-383, son of Valentinian I. by Severa, was born at Sirmium in Pannonia, on the 18th of April (or 23rd of May) 359. On the 24th of August 367 he received from his father the title of Augustus. On the death of Valentinian (17th of November 375) the troops in Pannonia proclaimed his infant son (by a second wife Justina) emperor under the title of Valentinian II. (q.v.). Gratian acquiesced in their choice; reserving for himself the administration of the Gallic provinces, he handed over Italy, Illyria and Africa to Valentinian and his mother, who fixed their residence at Milan. The division, however, was merely nominal, and the real authority remained in the hands of Gratian. The eastern portion of the empire was under the rule of his uncle Valens. In May 378 Gratian completely defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, at Argentaria, near the site of the modern Colmar. When Valens met his death fighting against the Goths near Adrianople on the 9th of August in the same year, the government of the eastern empire devolved upon Gratian, but feeling himself unable to resist unaided the incursions of the barbarians, he ceded it to Theodosius (January 379). With Theodosius he cleared the Balkans of barbarians. For some years Gratian governed the empire with energy and success, but gradually he sank into indolence, occupied himself chiefly with the pleasures of the chase, and became a tool in the hands of the Frankish general Merobaudes and bishop Ambrose. By taking into his personal service a body of Alani, and appearing in public in the dress of a Scythian warrior, he aroused the contempt and resentment of his Roman troops. A Roman named Maximus took advantage of this feeling to raise the standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army, upon which Gratian, who was then in Paris, being deserted by his troops, fled to Lyons, where, through the treachery of the governor, he was delivered over to one of the rebel generals and assassinated on the 25th of August 383.
The reign of Gratian forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period orthodox Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. In dealing with pagans and heretics Gratian, who during his later years was greatly influenced by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, exhibited severity and injustice at variance with his usual character. He prohibited heathen worship at Rome; refused to wear the insignia of the pontifex maximus as unbefitting a Christian; removed the altar of Victory from the senate-house at Rome, in spite of the remonstrance of the pagan members of the senate, and confiscated its revenues; forbade legacies of real property to the Vestals; and abolished other privileges belonging to them and to the pontiffs. For his treatment of heretics see the church histories of the period.