type, so that one cannot predict what a seedling will produce. See PLANT-BREEDING and PROPAGATION. Se~ Thomas: The American Fruit Culturlst and Goff' Principles of Plant Culture.
Grail or Qraal, The Holy, the subject of romance in the middle ages. It is the name given to the cup used by Christ in the Last Supper, in which, according to tradition, he changed the wine into his blood. This cup, kept by Joseph of Ari-mathea. was used to receive the blood which flowed from the wounded side of Christ as he hung on the cross. This account is found in the gospel of Nicodemus, which is not accepted as one of the books of, the New Testament. Traces of the tradition are found in the struggles between Moors and Christians in Spain and in the founding of the order of Templars in Palestine. It is best known as one of the legends that cluster around the story of King Arthur and his knights. As the story relates, Joseph of Arimathea had been kept in prison by the Jews for fifty years after the death of Christ, but had been miraculously preserved from old age and death by the possession of the Holy Grail. He was released by Christ, who, teaching him the words used in the ceremony of the mass, commanded him to observe daily the sacrament of the Last Supper. Joseph came to Britain, and his son became the first bishop of the island. The last possessor of the Holy Grail sinned, and the cup was lost. The Quest of the Holy Grail was the search for this lost treasure undertaken by Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. As it had been lost through the impurity of its possessor, so it could be found only by one who was perfectly pure. Launcelot, who had reached the room where it was kept, was warned to depart, but, disobediently looking in, was thrown to the ground by a blast of fire, where he lay "twenty-four days and as many nights as a dead man " Sir Galahad (according to some Sir Perceval) alone of the knights was pure enough to see the Holy Grail, which was soon after taken up to heaven. Several churches in France and Italy claimed the possession of this cup, and the Crusaders found one which was thought for a time to be the true Holy Grail and is still kept in the Cathedral of Genoa. In literature the story has had a prominent part, and is the subject of one of Tennyson's beautiful Idylls of the King and of Wagner's opera of Parseval. See Idylls of the King by Tennyson; Morte d' Arthur by Malory; and History of the Holy Grail by Furnival.
Grain-Eleva'tor, a building erected primarily for the purpose of storing grain, preparatory to its shipment in large quantities. A grain elevator is often situated at some port. It visually consists of large
bins in which grain may be held, and a structure at the top called a cupola containing machinery for loading and unloading the grain. Machinery for cleaning the grain often occupies the lowest of three stories.
The unloading is commonly done by means of large shovels operated by machinery connecting with some sort of carrier to hoist the grain to a huge hopper high up in the building, whence it can be emptied by means of spouts into any desired place below, such as storage bin, weighing hopper, cleaning hopper or exit spout for reloading.
Throughout some parts of the country, as for instance in the wheat-growing district of the northwest, there are quite large elevators erected at railway stations for the purpose of providing farmers with good facilities for shipping their grain. In older and more thickly settled agricultural communities, with better railway facilities, smaller elevators usually suffice.
Grain elevators used to be constructed largely of wood, but the great loss resulting from the destruction by fire of elevators filled with grain has leaf to the practice of putting up fireproof structures wherever practicable. The most modern elevators usually have steel bins or concrete ones with steel framework, outside walls of brick or stone and a cupola of steel framing covered with iron.
Some of the largest grain elevators in America are at Chicago and at different ports on Lake Superior and others of the Great Lakes.
Gram'mar. Grammar, or the science of language, has always had an important place in the schools. Three hundred years ago and for a long time after, grammar, especially Latin grammar, held the fiist place in the schools. But with the growth of the common-school system grammar dropped into the background. Even in the grades of the common-school grammar holds a less important place than formerly. More thoughtful teachers omit grammar almost entirely in the first six grades, leaving it to the last year or two of the grammar-school.
The chief reasons why the study of English grammar has lost its former importance may be stated as follows: i. English grammar is admittedly unsystematic and irregular, with few inflections and an abundance of peculiar idioms and exceptions to rules. It does not serve, therefore, the supposed purpose of discipline, such as was formerly believed to be the special merit of Latin and Greek grammar. 2. It has been discovered that the study of grammar does not produce such important effects in leading to correct usage in common speech as was formerly supposed. It has been ©bserved that children go on
