SAND. 



SANSEVIERA. 





the stipule*, marked with round nod linear pellucid dote. The apeU- 

 loui flowen MM! fruit of thin order approximate it to Hixactn: aud its 

 parigynous lUinctu and alternate stipulate leaves Ally it to Romctrr. 

 It is an entirely tropical order, composed of small trees or shrubs. 

 The bark and leave* are slightly astringent. One of the species 

 (OaittH i'q ulmifoiia) is used in Brazil as a remedy against the bite of 

 snakes, for which purpose the leaves are applied to the wound, and an 

 infusion of them U taken internally. Several other species of Caxaria 

 arc used iu native medicine. 



d e 6 



Samyda lemilata. 



a, branch with stipulate learn and flowen ; b, flower opened, showing the 

 mooadclphoni utameiu and the pUtil ; e, anther with its double cell ; rf, trans- 

 verse section o( ovary, rhowing seeds attached to fire parietal placenta? . 



SAND. A mass of any comminuted minerals is in popular 

 language called Sand ; but the most abundant ingredient in the 

 extensive sands of the deserts, sea-shores, river-banks, and soil, is 

 granular quarts or flint. 



Little attention him been paid by geologists to this abundant 

 covering of the earth's surface. Most of the sands which we observe 

 are the ruins of disintegrated rocks red, white, gray, black, according 

 to the rocks from which they were derived. On examining these 

 rooks themselves, we find them composed of grains of such gaud, not 

 crystallised grains, but worn and rounded on their surfaces like small 

 pebbles. The parts of these solid rocks then have once existed as 

 mere loose sand, and we seem to return in a circle to the point of 

 departure. The origin of sand is however seen in volcanic dust and 

 ashes in the disintegration of granitic, porphyritic, aud other pyro- 

 genous rocks ; the aggregation of them is easily understood by 

 examining Millstone-Orit, New Red-Sandstone, or the Ores de Fontain- 

 bleau ; and the disintegration of sandstones is too common a pheno- 

 menon in Pnglinh gothic buildings. 



Soil often contains sand, though the subjacent strata be wholly 

 calcareous or finely argillaceous. This is a phenomenon of the same 

 order as the accumulation of detritus (boulders, gravel, clay, 4c.) in 

 situations far from the native place of such materials. It proves that 

 the surface has been traversed by currents of water ; and there can be 

 little doubt in the mind of an observing agriculturist, that these 

 washings of the earth's surface, by mixing materials of different 

 qualities, have been in many cases the cause of the fertility of soils. 



Some sands impregnated with oxide of iron (and thus often 

 blackened or rendered ochraoeous), and others which are nearly 

 white, are very sterile ; others of a gray or green brown, or redder 

 hue, are often fertile. The latter almost always contain argillaceous 

 ingredient* (often a proportion of felspar), and probably it is in a 

 great degree to the presence of potash in the felspar or the clay that 

 their superiority is owing. [HajtuRE, in ABTS AHD Sc. Div.l 



SAND-BOX-TKEK. [Hutu.] 



8AND-KKL. 



SAN U GROUSE. [TrnuoxiD*.] 

 SAND-LANCE. [AtUfODTTKs.] 

 SAND-MARTIN. [Hnummna] 



HAND-PIPER. fCllARADRIAD*.} 



SAND-riUDK. [PrrnoJiTzin.*..] 

 SAND-SMELT. [McoiUD*.! 

 KAXDSTAR. [Ormolu.] 

 SAND-TUBES. [Fuuroniru.] 

 SAXDAL-WOOD. [SAXTALUJI.] 

 SANDAL-WOOD, BED. [PTBBOCABPUS.] 



SANDAKAC. [Tni'jA.1 

 SANDERLINO. [CALIDRIS.] 



SANDO'HICUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Meliacat, which is named from a change in one of its eastern names, 

 Suntoor or Sundoor. The genus contains only a single species, fuuud 

 in the hot parts of Asia, and is characterised by having the calyx 

 o-toothed ; petals 5; stamens 10, joined into a tube, which is 10-toothed, 

 and bears the anthers inside; stigmas 5-bifid. The drupe contains 5 

 ovate compressed nuts, which are 2-valvcd at the base, and 1 -needed. 

 A. Indicum, the only species, U an elegant tree of considerable size 

 which is found in the Molucca and Philippine Islands, as well as in 

 the southern parts of India. The leaves are alternate and trifoliate ; 

 leaflets entire; panicles axillary, with the flowers crowded on the short 

 partial peduncles. The fruit is acid, and sufficiently agreeable to be 

 mixed with syrups to make cooling drinks. Its root is bitter, and 

 used in medicine in bowel complaints. It is sometimes called False 

 Maugosteen, from some resemblance to its fruit, and also ludiau 

 Sandal-Wood. 



SANDSTONE, OLD RED. [OLD RED-SASDSTOHK.] 

 SANDSTONE, RED. [HED-SAKDSTOSE.] 

 SANQUINOLARIA. [PYLOHIDIA.] 



SANGUISORBA, the name of a genus of Plants, the typo of the 

 sub-order fianyuitorbctr, in the natural order Rotacuc. Of this genus 

 (called Burnet) there are 9 known species. Most of them possess 

 astringent properties. The Common Buruet (S. ojKcinalii) is a native 

 of Great Britain, and was at ono time cultivated in chalky districts to 

 a very considerable extent, but it has lately been superseded by 

 sainfoin and other artificial grasses. It has a stem one or two feet 

 high, branching upward ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets ovate, somewhat 

 cordate at the base. Heads of flowers much crowded, dark purple ; 

 limb of the perianth in 4 ovate segments, its tube enveloping the 

 germen, and having at its base 4 ciliated scales or bracteas; ocheuo 1, 

 rarely 2. 



SANGUISORBACE.E, Xanffuitorlt, a natural order of Plants iu 

 Liudley's 'Vegetable Kingdom.' ty constitutes an apetalous sub- 

 order in the order Rotacca of most other botanists. riiosACK.] 

 SANGUISUGA. [ANNKUDA,] 



SANICULA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Umbdliferas and the tribe Fanicultm. The calyx has 5 leaf-like teeth; 

 the petals erect, obovate, with a long indexed connivent point. Fruit 

 sub-globose, covered with hooked spines; no ridges; vitto numerous. 



Europaa, the Wood-Sanich, is a native of Great Britain, in woods 

 and thickets. The lower leaves ore palmate, 3-6-lubed ; lobes bifid, 

 unequally serrate, Tho fertile flowers are sessile; barren flowers 

 slightly stalked. 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany.) 



SANSEVIE'RA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Liliacetr, found on the coasts of Western Africa, of Ceylon and other 

 eastern islands, as well as of India, remarkable for the strength and 

 fineness of the fibres of their leaves. Tho genus is characterised by 

 having a corol-like funnel-shaped perianth, which has a long rather 

 straight tube, a sexifid limb, of which the divisions are either spreading 

 or revolutc. Stamens 6, inserted into the throat ; filaments filiform ; 

 ovary 3-celled ; ovules solitary; style filiform; stigmas obtuse, 

 obscurely 3-lobed. Berry 3-celled, 3-seeded, or, from becoming 

 abortive, 1 -celled and single-seeded. The plants have a thick creeping 

 root-stock, with radical equitaut leaves, which are fleshy and often 

 spotted ; the stem-leaves are scale-like, and the flowers in racemes or 

 thyrsi. They are cosily cultivated and propagated in sandy loam in 

 bark stoves. 



S. Zeylanica, a species found in Ceylon, has smooth oblong-acute, 

 flat, aud linear-lanceolate, channelled, glaucous leaves, which arc 

 shorter thau the scape ; the style aa long as the stamens, the bracts 

 equalling the peduncle in length. This, like some of the other 

 species, is remarkable for tho tenacity and fineness of the fibres of 

 its leaves. 



N. Itosburghiana U a species, according to Mr. Haworth, which was 

 confounded with the former by Dr. Roxburgh, and which the latter 

 has figured in his ' Coromandel Plants.' It has linear ciuifurm 1 

 which are channelled, keeled, subulate t the apex, green, and longer 

 than the scape; style as long as the stamens; the bracta minute. Dr. 

 Roxburgh describes this plant, and says it U called Moorva in San -eri t, 

 and iu Bengalee Moorba, that in English it may be called Bow-String 

 Hemp, and that it grows very commonly under bushes in the jungles 

 in almost every soil iu the southern parts of India. It flowers from 

 January to May. In a good soil, and where the plants aro regularly 

 watered, the leaves become three or four feet long, and contain a 

 number of fine remarkably strong white fibres, which run their whole 

 length. The natives make their best bow-strings of these fibres, 

 which are separated by tho leaves being placed upon a flat strong 

 table, when one end is pressed down with the foot, and the rest 

 scraped with a piece of hard wood held in both hands. Forty pounds 

 of leaven thus scraprd yi< M about one pound of clean dry fibres. 



The fibres may be applied to a great variety of uses. Dr. Roxburgh 

 was inclined to think that the fine line called China grass is made of 

 these fibres. As the plant grows readily from the slips which issue in 

 great abundance from the roots, aud as they require little or no care, 

 Dr. Roxburgh recommended their cultivation in sandy soils. It has 



