ice, which rises to the surface with considerable force. It is probable that owing to surface tension a thin film of stationary water rests upon the boulders and sand over which a stream flows, and that this, becoming frozen owing to radiation, forms the foundation for the anchor-ice and produces a surface upon which the descending frazil-ice (see below) can lodge. The theory of radiation from the boulders is supported by the fact that as the ice is formed upon them in response to a sudden fall in the air temperature, it is only released under the influence of a strong rise of temperature during the morning. It may not rise for several days, but the advent of bright sunlight is followed by the appearance on the surface of masses of ground-ice. This ice has a spongy texture and frequently carries gravel with it when it rises. It is said that the bottom of Lake Erie is strewn with gravel that has been floated down in this way. This “anchor-ice,” as it was called by Canadian trappers, frequently forms dams across narrow portions of the river where the floating masses are caught. Dr H. Landor pointed out that the Mackenzie and Mississippi rivers, which rise in the same region and flow in opposite directions, carry ground-ice from their head-waters for a considerable distance down stream, and suggested that here and in Siberia many forms of vegetable and animal life may be distributed from a centre by this agency, since the material carried by the floating ice would contain the seeds and eggs or larvae of many forms.
Besides ground-ice and anchor-ice this formation is called also bottom-ice, ground-gru and lappered ice, the two last names being Scottish. In France it is called glace du fond, in Germany Grundeis, and in French Canada moutonne from the appearance of sheep at rest, since the ice formed at the bottom grows in woolly, spongy masses upon boulders or other projections.
“Frazil-ice” is a Canadian term from the French for “forge-cinders.” It is surface ice formed in spicules and carried downwards in water agitated by winds or rapids. The frazil-ice may render swiftly moving water turbid with ice crystals, it may be swirled downwards and accumulated upon the ground ice, or it may be swept under the sheet of surface-ice, coating the under surface of the sheet to a thickness as great as 80 ft. of loose spicular ice.
See W. G. Thompson, in Nature, i. 555 (1870); H. Landor, in Geological Magazine, decade II., vol. iii., p. 459 (1876); H. T. Barnes, Ice Formation with special Reference to Anchor-ice and Frazil (1906).
GROUND NUT (Earth Nut, Pistache de Terre, Monkey Nut,
Pea Nut, Manilla Nut), in botany, the fruit or pod of Arachis
hypogaea (nat. ord. Leguminosae). The plant is an annual of
diffuse habit, with hairy stem, and two-paired, abruptly pinnate
leaflets. The pods or legumes are stalked, oblong, cylindrical,
about 1 in. 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 underground, and thus the seeds become
matured at some distance below the surface. Hence the specific
and vernacular names of the plant. Originally a native of
South America, it is extensively cultivated in all tropical and
subtropical countries. 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. In America they are consumed in
large quantities as the “pea-nut”; but are not much appreciated
in England except by the poorer children, who know them as
“monkey-nuts.” 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 and Hamburg, for the sake of their contained oil. The seeds yield from 42 to 50% 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 0.916 to 0.918; it becomes turbid at 3° C., concretes at +3° to −4° C., and hardens at +7° C. It is a non-drying oil. Ground nut oil consists of (1) oleic acid (C18H34O2); (2) hypogaeic acid (C16H30O2), by some supposed to be identical with a fatty acid found in whale oil; (3) palmitic acid (C16H32O2); and (4) arachic acid (C20H40O2). The oil is used in the adulteration of gingelly oil.
GROUND-PEARL, the glassy secretion forming the pupacase
of coccid insects of the genus Margarodes, belonging to the
homopterous division of the Hemiptera.
GROUND RENT. In Roman law, ground rent (solarium)
was an annual rent payable by the lessee of a superficies or perpetual lease of building land. In English law, it appears that the term was at one time popularly used for the houses and lands
out of which ground rents issue as well as for the rents themselves
(cf. Maundy v. Maundy, 2 Strange, 1020); and Lord Eldon
observed in 1815 that the context in which the term occurred
may materially vary its meaning (Stewart v. Alliston, 1 Mer. 26).
But at the present time the accepted meaning of ground rent is
the rent at which land is let for the purpose of improvement by
building, i.e. a rent charged in respect of the land only and not in
respect of the buildings to be placed thereon. It thus conveys
the idea of something lower than a rack rent (see Rent); and
accordingly if a vendor described property as property for which
he paid a “ground rent,” without any further explanation of the
term, a purchaser would not be obliged to accept the property
if it turned out to be held at a rack rent. But while a rack rent
is generally higher in amount than a ground rent, the latter is
usually better secured, as it carries with it the reversionary
interest in buildings and improvements put on the ground after
the date at which the ground rent was fixed, and accordingly
ground rents have been regarded as a good investment. Trustees
empowered to invest money on the security of freehold or
copyhold hereditaments, may invest upon freehold ground rents
reserved out of house property. In estimating the amount that
may be so invested, account may be taken of the value of the
houses, as, if the ground rents are not paid, the landlord can
re-enter. Again, where a settlement authorizes trustees to
purchase lands or hereditaments in fee-simple or possession, a
purchase of freehold ground rents has been held to be proper.
A devise of “ground rent” carries not only the rent but the
reversion. Where a tenant is compelled, in order to protect
himself in the enjoyment of the land in respect of which his rent
is payable, to pay ground rent to a superior landlord (who is
of course in a position to distrain on him for it), he is considered
as having been authorized by his immediate landlord to apply
his rent, due or accruing due, in this manner, and the payment
of the ground rent will be held to be payment of the rent itself
or part of it. A lodger should make any payment of this character
under the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1908 (s. 3;
and see Rent). Ground rents are apportionable (see Apportionment).
In Scots law, the term “ground rent” is not employed, but its place is taken, for practical purposes, by the “ground-annual,” which bears a double meaning. (i.) At the time of the Reformation in Scotland, the lands of the Church were parcelled out by the crown into various lordships—the grantees being called Lords of Erection. In the 17th century these Lords of Erection resigned their superiorities to the crown, with the exception of the feu-duties, which were to be retained till a price agreed upon for their redemption had been paid. This reserved power of redemption was, however, resigned by the crown on the eve of the Union and the feu-duties became payable in perpetuity to the Lords of Erection as a “ground-annual.” (ii.) Speculators in building ground usually grant sub-feus to builders at a high feu-duty. But where sub-feus are prohibited—as they might be, prior to the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1874—and there is much demand for building ground, the feuars frequently stipulate for an annual rent from the builders rather than for a price payable at once. This annual rent is called a “ground-annual.” Interest is not
