697 



SCHIEFER SPAR. 



SCILLA. 



693 



with 2 ovules. The stigma adnate to the ovary and downy. The 

 capsules compressed and inflated, 1-2 seeded. 



& palttitris is the only known species of this genus. It has a stem 

 from 6 to 8 inches high, the leaves are distichous, few, alternate, semi- 

 cylindrical, obtuse, and with a minute pore ou the upper side at the 

 apex. The raceme is terminal, and consists of about five greenish 

 flowers. The capsules about three, and much inflated. It is found 

 iu England and Scotland in bogs. 



(Babington, Manual of Britiih Botany.) 



SCHIEFER SPAR, Slate Spar, Foliated Carbonate of Lime, a 

 Mineral occurring massive. Its structure is laminar, the laminae being 

 thin and generally curved, wavy or undulating. It yields easily to the 

 knife. Its colour is white, reddish, yellowish, or greenish. Streak 

 white. Lustre pearly on the surface of the laminae, and vitreous on 

 the edges. Translucent. Specific gravity 2740. It is almost entirely 

 soluble in acids with efferescence. It occurs in Cornwall, Scotland, 

 and Ireland. It has the following composition : 



Suersee. H. Phillips. 



Carbonate of Lime . . 95-33 98-118 



Silica 1-66 00.050 



Oxide of Iron . . . I'OO OO'SOO 



Water 2-00 Water and loss 1-032 



99-99 100-00 



SCHILLER SPAR, a Mineral occurring crystallised. Its primary 

 form an oblique rhombic prism. Cleavage parallel to the lateral planes 

 and both the diagonals. Fracture uneven. Hardness, scratches cal- 

 careous spar, ia scratched by quartz. Colour olive, blackish, grayish, 

 yellowish-green. Lustre metallic. Nearly opaque; translucent on 

 the edges. Specific gravity 2'692. 



When exposed to a strong heat it becomes hard, and forms a mass 

 resembling porcelain. 



Found at Baate in the Harz, at Zb'bletz in Saxony, in Piedmont, 

 Cornwall, &c. It occurs generally in Serpentine. 

 An analysis of the mineral from Baste by Vauquelin gives 



Silica 62-00 



Alumina 13-00 



Magnesia lO'OO 



Lime 0-00 



Oxide of Iron 13-00 



98-00 



SCHIST, an Argillaceous Rock of a coarse laminated structure. 

 [SLATE.] 



SCHIZANDRA (from axlfa and tu^ip), a genus of Plants belonging 

 to the natural order Kchizcmdracecc. The flowers are moncccious; 

 sepals 9 ; no petals ; the male flowers having 5 anthers, which are 

 joined at the apex ; female ones with an indefinite number of ovaries ; 

 berries arranged in spikes along an elongated receptacle. 



fi. coccinca, the Scarlet Scblzandra, is one of our most beautiful 

 greenhouse climbers. It has alternate oval-lanceolate leaves, pointed 

 at both ends, rarely toothed, of a beautiful green, smooth abuve, and 

 pale beneath ; scarlet flowers disposed in spikes in the axils of the 

 leaves. It ia a North American plant, and is found in woods in 

 Georgia, Florida, and Carolina. 



SCHIZANDRACE^E, a natural order of Exogenous Plants, con- 

 sisting of trailing shrubs, with alternate exstipulate leaves, allied to 

 Ananacea;, but differing in their habit, their unisexual flowers, their 

 imbricate aestivation, and their homogenous albumen. The stamens 

 are often monadelphous, and the fruit consists of numerous baccate 

 carpels. There are twelve known species, which occur in India, Japan, 

 and the hotter parts of North America. They abound in an insipid 

 mucus, and the fruit of some is edible. (Balfour, Clout-Book of 

 Botany.) 



SCHIZOCARP. [FRorr.] 



SCHIZODESMA (Gray), a genus of Molluica belonging to the family 

 Mactridce. 



SCHIZODON. [HYSTMCiM!.] 



SCHI'ZODUS (Sowerby), a genus of Fossil Conchifera. 

 SCHIZO'PODA. [STOMAPODA.] 

 SCHIZO'PTERIS. [COAL-PLANTS.] 



SCHIZO'STOMA (Brown), a genus of Fossil Oaileropoda, 

 SCHLEICHE'RA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural 

 order Sapindacea, It has a 5-toothed calyx. Petals absent; the 

 disc occupying the bottom of the calyx. The stamens 6-10, inserted 

 between the margin of the disc and the ovary. The ovary is 3-celled, 

 with one erect ovule in each cell. The stigma 3-cleft. The fruit is 

 an indehiscent drupe, with 1, 2, or rarely 3 cells. The seeds are 

 solitary in each cell, and covered with a pulpy arillus ; the embryo much 

 curved. The species are trees ; the leaves abruptly pinnate, the leaflets 

 nearly opposite. The flowers are small, disposed in spike-like racemes. 



8. tri'tiya has abruptly pinnate leaves from 8 to 16 inches long, the 

 leaflets 2-4, opposite, sessile, broad, lanceolate, or oblong-entire, rather 

 smooth on both sides the lower pairs, the smallest from 3 to 8 inches 

 long. The petioles are a little downy, the stipules wanting. The 

 racemes are axillary, or below the leaves round the base of the young 

 (hoots, solitary, in the male simple, in the hermaphrodite often com- 

 pound, from 2 to 4, inches long. In tfee male flowers the calyx u cup- 



like, aud 5-toothed. The corolla wanting, the filaments 6-10, erect, 

 and many times longer than the calyx. The anthers oval and erect ; 

 the pistil a mere rudiment. The hermaphrodite flowers on a separate 

 tree. The calyx, corolla, aud stamens as in the male flower. The 

 disc a fleshy yellow ring, surrounding the insertions of the filaments. 

 The ovary superior, ovate, 3-celled, with one ascending ovule in each 

 cell. The style short, stigma 3-cleft, recurved, slender, and downy. 

 The drupe about the size of a nutmeg, a little pointed, covered with 

 a tender gray dry pericarp. The seeds are oblong, and surrounded 

 with a whitish pulpy aril, which is of a pleasant acid taste, and most 

 grateful during dry weather. It is a native of insular and continental 

 India, where the astringent bark, mixed with oil, is used as a remedy 

 for the itch. 



(Lindley, Flora Medico, ; Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom.) 



SCHMIEDELIA (in honour of Casimer Christopher Schmiedel, 

 once a professor at Erlangen), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Sapindacece. It has a 4-parted xinequal calyx, 4 petals, 

 the 5th or superior one wanting. The disc incomplete, with 4 glands 

 opposite the petals, 8 stamens inserted in the receptacle, and connate 

 around the ovary at the base. The fruit is indehisceut, 1-, 2-, or 

 rarely 3 lobed. The lobes roundish, fleahy, or dry, and 1-seeded. The 

 seeds with or without an arillus. The species are trees or shrubs, 

 usually with trifoliate, rarely with simple exstipulate leaves, and 

 racemose white flowers. The racemes are axillary. 



8. aerrata has ternate leaves, the leaflets ovate, pointed, serrate, 

 generally blistered, smooth on the back, and from 2 to 3 inches long. 

 The racemes axillary, single, and erect. The flowers small, white, 

 and polygamous. In the hermaphrodite flower the calyx is 4-leaved, 

 and the petals 4, unilateral. The filaments very woolly near the 

 base. The fruit is small, red, and succulent, and is eaten by the natives 

 of Coromandel. The root is astringent, and is employed by the native 

 practitioners in diarrhoea. 



S. Cochinchinensii has its leaves on long petioles, with serrated 

 leaflets, terminal racemes, pilose small petals. The flower is small 

 and white. It is a native of Cochin China, on the banks of rivers. 

 The leaves are used as cataplasms in contusions. 



(Don, DiMamydeous Plants ; Lindley, Flora Medica.) 



SCHOBE'RIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Chenopodiacecc. It has a 5-parted perianth, without appendages, 5 

 stamens springing from the receptacle, and from 2 to 3 stigmas. 

 The pericarp ia membranous, the seed horizontal, the testa 

 crustaceous. 



X frtdicosa has an erect shrubby stem, with obtuse semi-cylindrical 

 leaves, 3 styles, and smooth shining seeds. It is found on the south 

 aud east coasts of Great Britain. 



8. maritima is found on the sea-shore in England. It has a pro- 

 cumbent stem, with numerous spreading branches, acute-semicylin- 

 drical leaves, 2 styles, with reticulate, striate shilling Sdds. 



(Babington, Manual of Briliih Botany.) 



SCHtENANTHUS. [SPIKENARD.] 



SCHOENUS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Cyperace<e. The spikelets are 2-ranked, 2-4-flowered. The glume 6-9, 

 the lower one small and empty. Bristles few or wanting. 



SCHCEPFIA, a small genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Loranthacece, named after Schb'pf, a German botanist, who described 

 the plants in the neighbourhood of Ulm. The genus is characterised 

 by having the flowers hermaphrodite, margin of the calyx entire, tube 

 aduate to the ovary, very narrow, caliculate at the base. Corolla 

 tubular, united into one piece ; limb 5 rarely 4-6 cleft. Stamens 

 equal in number to the lobes of the corolla, and inserted before them 

 into the tube of the corolla. Anthers ovate or roundish, dehiscing 

 laterally by a double chink ; style erect ; stigma capitate or 3-lobed ; 

 ovary 3-celled, with an ovule in each. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 

 entire, feather-nerved. Peduncle axillary, usually many-flowered. 

 The genus Schapfla is found in the West Indies and in the Andes of 

 Peru, also in the Pundua Mountains near Lower Assam, and in Nepaul, 

 thus being common to both the Old and New World. 



SCHOPS. [STRIOIDvE.] 



SCHORL. [TOURMALINE.] 



SCHORLOMITE. [YTTRIUM.] 



SCHROTTERITE, a Mineral resembling Allophanc. 



SCI^ENID JE, a family of Acanthopterygious Osseous Fishes, of which 

 the genus Scicena is the type. They are closely allied to the Perches, 

 and resemble them in their general characters, but differ in having no 

 teeth on the vomer and palatines. Tho preopercle is denticulated ; 

 the opercle is armed with spines ; the bones of the face and head are 

 often cavernous, forming a protruding snout 



The Sciamidce are divided into those having two dorsal fins and such 

 as have only one. A single species of .S'ciccna, the Maigre (.S. aquila), 

 occasionally wanders from the seas of southern Europe into our own. 

 Umbina vulgarit is common on the coasts of Italy, France, and Spain, 

 but not on our own. JIaimulon, Pristoma, Diagramma, aud Amphi- 

 prion are some of the many genera belonging to this family. 



SCI^ENU'RUS. [FisH.] 



SCILLA, or SQUILLA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural 

 order lAliacece. It has 3 sepals coloured and spreading ; petals very 

 like them, and scarcely broader; stamens 6, shorter than the perianth, 

 filaments smooth, somewhat dilated at the base, acuminate, entire 



