SILBURY HILL 



SILESIA 



449 



In the United States the subject was discussed 

 ov the agricultural journals as early as 1873-74 ; 

 the French method was fully described in 1875 in 

 the Report of the Agricultural Department ; ex- 

 perimental silos were being made about the same 

 date ; but the first person who made silos and 

 ensilage on a large scale was Francis Morris in 

 Maryland in 1877. The system rapidly spread, 

 especially in the eastern and middle states. 

 Silbnry Hill. See AVEBURY. 

 Silchester, a village in the extreme north of 

 Hampshire, 7 miles N. of Basingstoke, famous for 

 the remains of the ancient Romano- British town of 

 Caer Segeint, called by the Romans Calleva, and 

 by the West Saxons Silcetistre. The chief visible 

 remains are the amphitheatre, 50 yards by 40, and 

 the walls, 2760 yards in length ; excavations have 

 shown the foundations of a basilica, the forum, a 

 temple, baths, &c. ; and coins, seals, rings, and 

 much broken pottery have been found. New exca- 

 vations were begun 'in June 1890. See The History 

 and Antiquities of Silchester (1821), and the work 

 on Silchester by Plummer ( 1879). 



Silent, a genus of plants of the natural order 

 Caryophyllace;e, having the calyx, corolla, and 

 stamens of Lychnis (q.v. ), three styles and a three- 

 celled capsule opening at the top in six teeth or 

 valves. The species are numerous, mostly natives 

 of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, 

 annual and perennial plante ; nine or ten of them 

 natives of Britain, and others frequent in flower- 

 gardens. One of the most common British species 

 w the Bladder Campion (S. inflata), a perennial, 

 which grows in cornfields and dry pastures, and 

 near the seashore, has a branched stem fully a 

 foot high, ovate-lanceolate bluish-green leaves, 

 panicles of white Mowers, and an inflated calyx, 

 with a beautiful network of veins. The youn 

 shoots are sometimes used like asparagus, and 

 have a peculiar but agreeable flavour, somewhat 

 resembling that of peas. They are best when 

 most blanched. The cultivation of this plant was 

 long ago strongly recommended, but it has not 

 obtained a place among garden plante. The Moss 

 Campion (S. acaulis) is a pretty little plant, with 

 beautiful purple flowers growing in patches so as 

 to form a kind of turf, one of the finest ornaments 

 of the higher mountains of Scotland, and found 

 also in Cumberland and Wales. Many species, 

 some of them British, are popularly called Catch- 

 fly, from their viscidity, as S. anglica, a species 

 found in sandy and gravelly fields in many parts of 

 Britain. For the Red Campion, White Campion, 

 and German Catchfly, see LYCHNIS. 



Siloniis, a primitive woodland deity of Asia 

 Minor, whom men try to catch when in a drunken 

 sleep, in order to compel him to prophesy and sing. 

 Later representations make him a son of Hermes 

 or of Pan, and the chief of the Sileni or older 

 Satyrs, and the inseparable companion and in- 

 structor of Dionysus, with whom he took part in 

 the contest against the Gigantes, slaying Eiice- 

 ladus. He is described as a little pot-bellied old 

 man, l>ald-headed and snub-mjsed, his body very 

 hairy, always drunk and bearing a skin of wine, 

 and usually propped up by the other satyrs or 

 astride of an ass, since his own legs could not be 

 trusted. 



Sih-sia. a province of Prussia, lying in the 

 extreme south-east corner of the kingdom, and 

 having Brandenburg and Posen on the N., the 

 Polish provinces of Russia and Austria on the E., 

 and Austrian Silesia, Bohemia, and the kingdom of 

 Saxony on the S. Area, 15,557 sq. m. ; pop. ( 1875) 

 3,KH3,fi99: (1890) 4,223,807, including more than 

 820,000 Poles, some 55,000 Bohemians (Czechs), 

 and 32,(JOO Wends. By religion more than one- 

 445 



half are Roman Catholics and somewhat less than 

 two millions Evangelical Protestants. The pro- 

 vince is drained almost entirely by the Oder ( navi- 

 gable from Ratibor), which traverses it from south- 

 east to north-west ; this river forms in the middle 

 part of its course a deep valley, and this valley has 

 a westward extension from near Liegnitz. The 

 south-western parts are broken and made uneven 

 by the Sudetic Mountains and their outlying ranges. 

 On the northern and eastern sides of the Oder and 

 in the west of the province there are extensive tracts 

 of a marshy and a sandy character, on which large 

 forests grow (29 per cent, of the total area). But 

 between the Oder and the Sudetic Mountains the 

 soil is exceptionally fertile, producing the usual 

 cereals, besides flax, beet-root, chicory, hops, oil- 

 plants, and orchard fruit. There are several very 

 large estates in the province, the owners of which 

 have done much to encourage the breeding of sheep, 

 horses, and cattle. Silesia embraces in its south- 

 eastern extremity one of the most productive coal- 

 mining regions of Prussia (530 sq. m. in extent; 

 annual output 16 million tons, valued at nearly 

 7 millions sterling). Zinc is also extracted to the 

 annual value of 354,000, and lead of 365,000. In 

 point of industrial activity Silesia ranks high 

 amongst the provinces of Prussia; more than 35 

 per cent, of the population find employment in 

 industrial pursuits. The most important depart- 

 ments are in linen and cotton ; next in order of 

 importance come the metal industries and the 

 manufacture of cloth and woollens, beet-root sugar, 



C 1 g, tobacco, and a great variety of other articles, 

 commerce is greatly hampered by the near 

 proximity of the Russian frontier and its vexatious 

 tariff regulations. Breslau, the capital, is the seat 

 of a university, and gives title to a prince-bishop 

 of the Roman Catholic Church. 



Early in the 10th century Silesia, except the 

 extreme western districts, was under the dominion 

 of Poland, and towards the end of the 12th century 

 was divided into two duchies (Breslau or Lower 

 Silesia and Ratibor or Upper Silesia) ruled by 

 Polish dynasties. In the following century great 

 numbers of German immigrants settled in the 

 country and gradually Germanised its semi-Slavic 

 inhabitants. Duke "Henry II. of Lower Silesia 

 perished in the memorable battle of Liegnitz 

 ( 1241 ), in conflict with the Mongol invaders. By 

 the beginning of the 14th century Silesia was 

 divided up amongst a score of petty rulers, nearly 

 all of whom acknowledged King John of Bohemia 

 as their feudal superior instead of the king of 

 Poland in the years 1327-29. The Silesian dukes 

 put no obstacles, as a rule, in the way of the 

 Reformation ; but the emperors, who as the heirs 

 to the kingdom of Bohemia became the suzerains 

 of Silesia, treated the people with cruel intolerance, 

 and pursued that policy down to the first decade 

 of the 18th century. The great duel between 

 Austria and Prussia for the mastership of the 

 Silesian territories grew out of a contract l>y which 

 in 1537 the Duke of Liegnitz left his lands to the 

 Elector of Brandenburg in the eventuality of his 

 house becoming extinct in the male line. On the 

 conclusion of the first Silesian war (1742) the 

 duchies were divided pretty much in the way they 

 are at the present time, Prussia getting by far the 

 greater number and greater area ; and the result 

 of the second Silesian war and the desperate 

 struggle of the Seven Years' War confirmed 

 Frederick the Great in the possession of the lands 

 he had so greatly coveted. Frederick, however, 

 took the most active and judicious measures to 

 improve his conquest, and reform its administration 

 and put it on a sound basis. Silesia took a very 

 zealous part in the final struggle against Napoleon 

 in the early years of the 19th century. For the 



