GREENFINCH. 249 GKEENHOW. bird, also callod "Texas sparrow,' is about r>i„' inclies loiifr, olive green in color, with rufous markinfjs on the head and yellow on the wing. See Grosbeak. GREENFISH. ( 1 ) A Southern name for the bluoli^h (([.v.). (2) The pollack (q.v.), called also 'green i-cur and 'gray cod.' GREEN FROG, or SPRING FROG. One of the most familiar and widespread of North American frogs (liana clainata), occurring in all kinds ol waters througliout the Eastern United States and Canada. The male is about three inches long, the female half an inch longer. In color it is brilliant green on the head and shoulders, above, passing into brownish olive pos- teriorly: below, white, the throat citron-yellow; sides and thighs blotched or barred. The ear- drum of the male is very large, one-fourth greater than the largo eye ; in the female it is smaller. This frog is aquatic, and does not gather in large companies. Its only^ notes are an occasional 'chug,' and a sliarp cry, uttered as it leaps into the water. It can make very long leaps, and is a rapid and skillful swimmer. GREEN'HALGE, Frederick Tiiom.s (1S42- 96). An American politician, born in Clitheroe, England. He was early brought to America by his parents, studied for about three j'ears at Harvard, and in 180.3 went to Newbern, N. C. where he entered the commissary department of the Feder- al Army, but soon afterwards contracted fever, and returned north. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 186.5. After he had occupied a number of minor political offices, he was elected JIayor of Lowell in 1880, and again in 1881. In 1888 he was sent as a Republican to Congress, and from 1894 until his death was Governor of ilassachusetts. Consult: Xesmith, The Life and Works of Thomas Fredet'ick Green- huUie (Boston, 1897) : and a sketch in Lodge, .1 Firjhtinq Friqatc and Other Essays and Ad- dresses (New York, 1902). GREENHAT, Sir HriiPiiREy. The nom-de- plume adopted by Sir Ambrose Crowley in the seventy-third muiiber of the Taller. GREENHEART, or Bebeeru {Nectandra Kodia). A valuable timber-tree of the natural order Laiiracea>. a Jiative of Guiana, which also yields a medicinal bark. The timber is commonly called greenheart : the bark is better known as bebeeru (otherwise beebeery, bibiru, bibiri, etc., and sipiri or sipeira) : and the alkaloid to which it chietlv owes its properties is called beberine. This alkaloid, the formula of which is C,„H<„N,0„. may be obtaijied from the bark in the form of brown scales that arc sparingly soluble in water and in alcohol, and have a strong, bitter taste. But although its chemical formula is accepted. it is probably not a single compound, but a mix- ture. The tree grows chiefly in British Guiana, and in the greatest perfection on the low hills immediately behind the alluvial lands: it rises with an erect, slightly tapering trunk to a height of 40 or 50 feet without a branch, attaining a height of 80 or 90 feet in all and a diameter of ^. or even 4, feet. The leaves are thick, oblong- elliptical, and shining; the flowers, yellowish- whire. in axillary clusters: the fruit, which is about the size of a small apple, contains a single seed, about as large as a walnut. The fruit is intensely bitter, but contains a form of starch used as food by llie natives. The w'ood is ex- tremely strong and hard, and is exported to be used ciiielly l)y turners for the same purixises as lignum vita', like which it sinks in water. It is also remarkable for its durability, for being al- most exempt from the attacks of the white ants on land and of the teredo in water, and for the higli polish it will take. It is used in Guiana for sliip-building, and for all the most important ])urposes for which timber is required. The b;uk is hard, heavy, and brittle, has a grayish- brown epidermis, and is of a bright cinnamon color within. . It has a very bitter, somewhat astringent taste. Its tonic and febrifugal ]irop- crtics resemble those of cinchona bark, although less reli.able as an anti-jwriodic. The bark, as well as its alkaloid, is seldom used in medicine. A second alkaloid, nectandrine, foiuid in the bark, lias somewhat similar properties. South Ameri- ca produces a number of species of >J^ectandra. Xevfandra pnchiirii major and minor yield the seeds called pitchurim beans, which are astrin- gent, are regarded as febrifugal, and are pre- scribed in dysentery, diarrhoea, etc., and the oil of which is used as a substitute for chocolate. GBEENHOtrSE. A generic name given to glass buildings in which e.xotic and other tender plants, or plants out of their season, are grown. It embraces such structures as forcing houses, conservatories, hothouses, stove houses, orchard houses, graperies, bark stove houses, warm houses, etc. In its original sense, a greenhouse was a place in which plants were kept alive or green, but not expected to grow, and in this sense it is similar in meaning to conservatory. According as the temperature is raised above this point the structure becomes a hothouse or forcing house. The roofs, and generally the sides and ends of such plant-houses, are made of glass supported by wooden or metal sash-bars or rafters. The glass, besides making the house light, prevents the escape of mucli of the heat derived from the sun. When heat from this scnirce is not suffi- cient for the purpose of the house, artificial heat is supplied. In the simpler and smallei; struc- tures this is furnished by fermenting horse ma- nure, tanbark, or other organic material. Stove houses, or drj^ stoves, formerly heated by flues which extended from end to end of the house, are used for growing the inore tender plants. In recent times the better houses are heated by hot water or steam, conducted through iron pipes. Jlodern greenhouses are characterized by great simplicity of construction: the framework is usu- ally of wood or iron and wood, and very light considering its strength, and the gla.ss of large dimensions. GREENHOUSE PLANTS. Plants common- ly cultivated under glass for decorative pirposes, either for their attractive foliage or their flowers or both. With few exceptions the species are natives of the tropics and the warmer parts of the temperate zone. There are many thousands of s])ecies raised in American and foreign conserva- tories, among the most popular being those fig- iircd iipon the accompanying plate, and described Tinder their i-espective titles. GREEN'HOW, Robert (ISOO-.lt). .^n Ameri- can physician and historian, born in Richmond, Va. He was educated at William and Mary Col- lege, and afterwards in New York. He lectured upon historical subjects, was an apt linguist, and
