AN ENCYCLOPADIA OF HORTICULTURE. 
459 
SONNERATIA (named in honour of Pierre Son- 
nerat, 1749-1814, who travelled into New Guinea, the 
East Indies, and China, and communicated many new 
plants to the botanists of Europe). Syn. Aubletia. ORD. 
Lythrariee. A genus comprising five or six species of 
highly glabrous, stove shrubs and small trees, inhabiting 
the tropical sea-shores of the Eastern hemisphere. Flowers 
ample, ebracteolate, in threes at the tips of the branchlets, 
or axillary and solitary; calyx thickly coriaceous, with a 
campanulate tube and a four to eight-lobed limb; petals 
four to eight, small, or wanting; stamens numerous. 
Berry sub-globose, ten to fifteen-celled, many-seeded. 
Leaves opposite, petiolate, coriaceous, oblong, acute or 
obtuse, entire. The three species known to cultivation 
require similar treatment to that advised for Lager- 
stromia. 
S. acida (acid). /l. six-cleft ; petals red. June. fr. having acrid 
pulp. /. oval-oblong. Branchlets tetragonal. 
A small tree. The fruits of this species are eaten as a condiment 
by the Malays. 
S. alba (white-flowered). jl. white, six to eight-cleft, apetalous. 
May. fr. obconical at base, depressed above. J. roundish-oval, 
2in. to 44in. long, rounded or retuse at the apex. Branchlets 
terete. Hast Indies, 1824. A small tree. 
S. apetala (apetalous). Kambala-tree. jl. white, four-cleft, 
apetalous. June. l. ovate-lanceolate. Branchlets terete, pendu- 
lous. East Indies, 1826. Tree attaining 40ft., growing in Màn- 
grove swamps flooded by the tide. 
SOOT. This substance is employed in gardening, 
either as a fertiliser, or to prevent or cure insect 
ravages, or with all these objects combined. It is, in 
by far the greater proportion of cases, obtained from 
chimneys, from the smoke of coal fires. Taken from 
this source, it usually consists of about 12 per cent. 
water, 35 to 50 per cent. ash, and the rest volatile sub- 
stances, which are destroyed by complete combustion. 
The last-named substanees are largely composed of 
Ammonia; this gives a pungent smell, which is rendered 
‘much stronger when quicklime and water are mixed 
with the Soot. There are also various oily substances, 
possessed of peculiar smells, and certain acids, formed 
and driven off by heat during the combustion of coal, 
that become mixed with the Soot. The ash of Soot 
contains Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, and 
Sodium, combined variously with Phosphoric and Sul- 
huric Acids; there is also present a small quantity of 
ilica and Silicates. 
The fertilising effect of a top-dressing of Soot is very 
decided; and seems to be due, in a great degree, to 
the presence of Sulphate and Chloride of Ammonium ; 
but the other substances may also produce some effect. 
Soot has been found to greatly benefit Potatoes, when 
put into the drills. As a remedy against those larve that 
lie underground during the day, and crawl up to feed on 
the plants at night, Soot is especially useful, if laid rather 
thickly around the stems; it will also stimulate the 
plants to healthy growth. It is also frequently scattered 
as a top-dressing, or along the drills, about the time 
when any crop is liable to visits of the parent insects 
intent on egg-laying; in such a case, it acts as a pre- 
ventive of attacks. Soot is also used, instead of hellebore 
_ powder, for. scattering over plants attacked by larve 
(e.g., Sawfly larve on Currant-bushes), or by perfect 
insects (e.9., Turnip Flea on Turnips), and gives valuable 
results when rightly employed; but care must be taken 
to avoid applying it when the flavour of the crop would 
injured. : 
To cleanse walls from Red Spider, water with which 
- Soot has been mixed till all that can be dissolved from 
it has been so, is made up with clay till the mixture 
is of the consistence of thick paint; and then about 11b. 
of flowers of sulphur and 2oz. of soft soap are added 
to each gallon of the compound. To protect the fruit- 
- trees on the walls from the attacks of the mites, this 
mixture should be applied all over the wall once a year, 
taking care to close all crevices. 
East Indies, 1822. ` 
SOPHORA (altered from Sophero, the Arabic name 
for a papilionaceous-flowered tree). Including Edwardsia 
and Styphnolobium. Orp. Leguminose. A genus com- 
prising about twenty-two species of stove, greenhouse, 
or hardy, evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, or rarely 
perennial herbs, inhabiting the warmer regions of the 
globe. Flowers white, yellow, or rarely bluish-violet, - 
disposed in simple, terminal racemes, or in a terminal, 
leafy panicle; calyx teeth short; standard broadly ob- 
ovate or orbicular, erect or spreading; stamens free or 
rarely nearly connate in a ring at the base; bracts small; 
bracteoles none. Pods moniliform, compressed. Leaves 
imparipinnate ; leaflets indefinite, small, exstipellate. The 
hardy and half-hardy species thrive in well-drained sandy | 
loam, and are most readily raised from imported seeds. 
The variegated and weeping forms of S. japonica must 
be grafted on the green-leaved type. S. tetraptera and 
S. t. microphylla flower freely in many places when planted 
against a sunny wall, in sheltered spots in the open air; 
and in the South-west, they do well as standard trees, 
without the shelter of a wall. The best-known species 
are described below. 
AOA IA 
LD MFR Aer 
ff A Pg ay 
ALP NA 
SS ae “ieee 
Fig. 500. WINTER STATE OF SOPHORA JAPONICA PENDULA. 
8. bifolia (two-leaved). A synonym of Ammodendron Sieversii. 
phylla (golden-leaved). jl. yellow, axillary, in short 
racemose $ tower ; of the keel Te m age with the dorsal 
margin straight. ay and June. /., 1 EET 4 oae, 
ounger ones clothed with yellow- 
ndwich Islands, Greenhouse, 
wardsia chrysophylla (B. R. 738). i ü 
glauca (glaucous), fl. urple, in long, racemose spikes; 
g s pant wer A aae had May and June. L., leaflets 
wenty-three, alternate, elliptic, mucronate, velvety on both 
surfaces, as well as the peduncles and branches. A. 4ft. to 6ft. 
Nepaul, 1820. A very showy, half-hardy, deciduous shrub. SYN. 
S. velutina (B. R. 1185). : 
S. heptaphylla (seven-leaved). f. 
about as long as the leaves. October. ti 
nearly opposite, usually three or four on each side, oblong or 
obovate-oblong, slightly acuminate, rounded or slightly acute at 
base, hairy-pubescent beneath, lin. to 3in. long. h. 6ft. Neil- 
gherries, &c., 1830. Hardy, deciduous shrub or small tree. 
i Japanese).* Chinese or Japanese -tree. f. 
s. japon or cae coloured. small; — loosely- hed, ter- 
minal, large. August and September, J, graceful, deep bluish- 
bescence. . 6ft. 1 
leciduous shrub. Syn. Ed- 
ellow ; racemes opposite, 
k L, leaflets alternate or 
