270 



SKA-CAT 



SEAL 



' F.minent F.nglish Churchmen' series, vol. iii. 

 1SH4). The Senhury Centenary was celebrated in 

 Aberdeen (October 7) and at St Paul's Cathedral 

 (November 14) in 1884. 



Kea-ral. s- WOLF- FISH, CHIMERA. 



Sea-cow. See MANATEE, RHVTIXA. 



Sea rurunilwr. See HOLOTHURIANS. 



Sea-devil. See DEVIL-FISH. 



Sea-eagle. See EAGLE, OSI-REY. 



Sra-Hcpliant. See ELEPHANT-SEAL. 



Son-ran. See GOROONIA. 



Seaford, a small and ancient watering-place 

 on the Sussex coast, 3 mill's E. of Xewhaven by 

 rail. It was a de|tendency of the Cinque Port of 

 Hastings in the 15th rentmy : und when it was 

 disfranchised in 1832, IIIK! Ion;; Iteon notorious for 

 electoral corruption. Of hue it IMS Brown in size 

 and prosperity. Pop. ( 1851 ) 997 ; ( 1891 ) 2425. 



Scaforth, LOCH, an nrm of the sea, 14 miles 

 I'MU. on the east side of the island of Lewis- with- 

 Hitrris (M.V. i in tlie Hebrides, which long gave the 

 title of Earl (attainted in 1716) to the family of 

 Mackenzie. 



Sea-fox. See Fox SHARK. 



Sea-Crape (Epliedra), a genus of shrubby 

 plants of the natural order Gnetaeea-, closely nllii'<l. 

 to the Conifers, and sometimes called Joint-firs. 

 The most notahle is /:'. dutac/iya, a small shrub 

 very abundant in southern Russia, which produces 

 sweetish mucilaginous berries, in some pharma- 

 copoeias called f'rif maritinue, which are eaten 

 by the Russian j>ea.sant8. In medicine they are 

 regarded as astringent, and are used in putrid 

 fevers and agues. The young tops of the shoots 

 are also astringent. The name of sea-gra|>e8 is 

 also given to the grape-like clusters of eggs laid 

 by Sepia and some other cuttle -lish. 



Sen-Jfra.sx, a name for Grasswrack (q.v.). 



Seagull. See GI-LL. 



Sf aliaui Harbour, a seaport in the county 

 of Durham, 6 mile- S. of Sunderland. Founded 

 in 1828 by the Marquis of Londonderry, it com- 

 municates by railway with neighbouring collieries, 

 and has every facility in the way of docks and 

 quays for the shipment of coal. There are also 

 lot tie- works, blast-furnaces, an iron-foundry, and 

 chemical works, a seamen s infirmary (1S4!)), and 

 tin- Ixindoiiderry literary institute (1853). Pop. 

 ( 1851 ) 3538 ; ( 1891 ) 8850. 



Sen-liare, a name given to the genus Aplysia 

 of ninlibrancli Gasteropoda. See (' \si i I:U|'I>I>A. 



Sea-hedgehog. See GLOBE-FISH. 

 Si-a-hou. See PORPOISE. 

 Sra-hully. Sc KitVNOo. 

 Hea-horsc. See n HTOCAMPUS, WALRUS. 



Sen-kali" (Criiuiltr HKiriliinn : see CllAMRK), a 

 perennial plant with large roundish sinuated sea- 

 green leaves, found on the seashores in various 

 PHIS of Euro|ie, ami in Britain. The blanched 

 iiroiits have become a very favourite esculent in 

 Britain. It is commonly forced in the winter 

 months in daik sheds or pit* heated with ferment- 

 ing munnn- or leave-, or with hot water circulating 

 in pipe-. Tin- plants when to be treated thus are 

 reared annually from cuttings of tlie roots or from 

 seed ; the latter is sown in March in rows is indies 



asunder, tit"- wed being drop|H>d, three or f to 



gcllier, at 15 inches apart, the seedlings to he 

 thinned to one at each (mint. Tho cuttings are 

 dibbled into tin- Kioiind at tin- same distances apart, 

 and by lilx-ral cultivation they are quite strong 

 enough to ! furred the lollowing winter. Of 

 course the io.,i- are lifted when to IM- forced in this 

 way, and are thrown away afterwards. When they 



Se-kle 

 ( Crambe marilina). 



are to be blanched in the intuition in which thej 

 -row the rows are planted at 3 feet by 2 feet apart, 

 t lie plants are covered 

 with |Hits or boxes, which 

 are also covered with 

 leaves, tan, spent hops, 

 or mildly fermenting 

 manure. Plantations 

 treated in this wav last 

 for several years. Dark- 

 ness is essential to the 

 proper blanching of the 

 sprouts. 



Seal (Lat. sigillum, 

 Fr. srciiu), an impression 

 on wax or other soft sub- 

 stance made from a die 

 or matrix of metal, a 

 gem, or some other 

 material. The stamp 

 which yields the impres- 

 sion is sometimes itself 

 called the seal. In Egypt 

 seals were in use at an 

 early period, the matrix 

 generally forming part of 

 a ring (see GEM, RING). 

 Devices of a variety of 

 sorts were in use at Rome, both by the earlier 

 emperors and private individuals. The emperors, 

 after the time of Constantine, introduced Ititllte 

 or leaden seals, and their use was continued after 

 the fall of the western empire by the |>opes, who 

 attached them to documents by cords or bands. 

 On the earlier papal seals are monograms of the 

 pope ; afterwards tlie great seal contained the name 

 of the pope in full and a cross lietween the heads of 

 St Peter and St Paul, while the papal privy-seal, 

 impressed not on lead but on wax, known as the 

 Seal of the Fisherman, represents St Peter fishing. 

 In the 9th and 10th centuries we limi Charlemagne, 

 the Hyzantine eni|terors, and the Venetian doges 

 occasionally sealing with gold, and we have an 

 instance as late as the 16th century of a gold seal 

 ap|M>nded to the treaty of the Field of the Cloth of 

 Gold, between Henry VIII. and Francis I. 



The most complete series of royal seals is that 

 of the kings of France, beginning with the Mero- 

 vingian dynasty. Seals were not much used in 

 England in Anglo-Saxon times, but they came into 

 general use after the Km man Compicst. The 

 earliest regular great seal is that of Edward the 

 Confessor, modelled on the contemporary French 

 pattern. On the royal e.reat seals was the king 

 in armour on a caparisoned horse galloping, his 

 arms lieing shown on his shield after the period 

 when arms came into use ; and the reverse 

 lepresented the king seated on a throne. Tho 

 great seals of Scotland be^in with Duncan II. in 

 the end of the 1 1th century, and have also for 

 subject the king on horseback ; the counierseal, 

 with the seated figure, lieing used first by Alex- 

 ander 1., and the earliest appearance of the arms 

 of Scotland lieing on the seal of Alexander II. In 



liotl nnlries there were also the privy-seals with 



the i oval arms only. 



I->rleM;istical seals first appear in the 9th cen- 

 tury, and attained great lieauty in the 13th and 

 14th. They are of the pointed oval form known as 

 I . -,i;i /HSI-IS, and have for subjects a figure of the 

 bishop, sometimes of the Trinity, the Virgin, or a 

 patron saint, sealed under an elaborate architec- 

 tural canopy. The arms of the bishop are oftcu 



added. 



Under the Norman monarclm of England sealing 

 Itecame a legal formality necessary to the authen- 

 tication of a deed ; and from the 13th century on- 

 wards the seals of all persons of noble or gentle 



