781 



SILVER-GRAIN. 



SIMIAD^E. 



782 



The ores from which the silver of commerce is mostly obtained are 

 the Vitreous Silver, Brittle, or Black Silver-Ore, Red Silver-Ore, and 

 Horn Silver, in addition to Native Silver. Besides these, silver is 

 obtained in large quantities from galena (lead-ore), and from different 

 ores of copper ; aud some galenas are so rich in silver that the lead 

 is neglected for the more precious metal. This metal occurs in rocks 

 of various ages, in gneiss, and allied rocks, in porphyry, trap, sand- 

 stone, limestone, and shales ; and the sandstone and shales may be as 

 recent as the middle secondary, as is the case in Prussia. The silver- 

 ores are associated often with ores of lead, zinc, copper, cobalt, and 

 antimony, and the usual gans;ue is calc spar or quartz, with frequently 

 fluor spar, pearl spar, or heavy spar. 



The Silver of South America is derived principally from the Horn 

 Silver and Brittle Silver-Ores, including Arseniuretted Silver-Ore, 

 Vitreous Silver-Ore, and Native Silver. Those of Mexico are of nearly 

 the same character. Besides, there are earthy ores called Colorados, 

 and in Peru Pacos, which are mostly earthy oxide of iron, with a 

 little disseminated silver ; they are found near the surface, where the 

 rock has undergone partial decomposition. The sulphurets of lead, 

 iron, and copper, of the mining regions, generally contain silver, and 

 are also worked. (Dana.) 



The principal mines of silver in Europe are those of Spam, of 

 Kongsberg in Norway, of Saxony, the Hartz, Austria, and Russia. 



In England, argentiferous galena is worked for its silver. Forty 

 thousand tons of this ore were reduced in 1837, which contained 

 upon an average about six ounces of silver in a ton of lead. 



The annual product of the several countries of Europe is thus 

 estimated by Dana in his ' Manual of Mineralogy : ' 



Pounds Troy. 



British Isles . . . 7500 



France ....',. - 4150 



Austria ... 63,000 



Sweden and Norway 13,000 



Spain 130,000 



Saxony, the Hartz, and other parts of Germany . 78,500 



Belgium 



Piedmont, Switzerland, and Saxony . . . 1,560 



making in all 298,150 troy pounds, or about 4,500, 000 dollars annually. 

 With the sum from Russia, about 730,000 dollars, it becomes 5,230,000 

 dollars a year. This is small compared with the amount from 

 America, which at the beginning of the present century equalled 

 2,100,000 pounds, or 314 millions of dollars, nearly six times the 

 above sum ; and it is probable that these mines will again yield this 

 amount when properly worked. The whole sum from Russia, Europe 

 and America, makes nearly 2,000,000 pounds avoirdupois. 

 SILVKR-GRAIN. [WOOD.] 



SILVER-WEED. [POTENTILLA.] 



SI'LYBUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Com 

 positce, the tribe Cynarece, and the section Silybece. It has an imbri 

 cated involucre with leafy scales at the base, narrowed into a long 

 spreading spinous point. The receptacle is scaly. The fruit compressed 

 its terminal areola surrounded by a papillose ring. 



S. marianum is the only species. It has a stem from 3 to 4 feet high 

 ribbed and furrowed. The leaves are very large, oblong-lanceolate 

 wavy, and clasping the radical leaves, pinnatified, and usually varie 

 gated green and white. The involucral scales closely adpressed below 

 The florets are purple, with a very long tube. This plant is found in 

 waste places in Great Britain. 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany.) 



SIMARUBA. [QUASSIA.] 



SIMARUBA'CE^E, Quamiads, a natural order of Plants belonging 

 to the Gynobasic group of Polypetalous Exogens. The plants o 

 this order are trees or shrubs, with alternate exstipulate usually com 

 pound leaves, and mostly without dots. The flowers are whitish-green 

 or purple, on axillary or terminal peduncles, hermaphrodite, or occa 

 sionally unisexual ; the calyx is 4-5-parted ; petals 4-5, twisted in 

 (estivation ; stamens twice as many as the petals, arising from the bac 

 of an hypogynoua scale ; ovary 4-5-lobed ; style simple ; stigma 4-5 

 lobed. Fruit a drupe. Seeds pendulous, exalbuminous, with a supe 

 rior short radicle drawn back within thick cotyledons. With on 

 exception, they are all natives of Africa, India, and tropical America 

 This order was formerly included under RiUacete, but their difference 

 from that order appear to many of sufficient importance to constitut 

 a separate family. A. De Jussieu says, " They are known from a 

 Rutaceous Plants by the coexistence of these characters, namely 

 ovaries with but one ovule, indehisceut drupes, exalbuminous seeds 

 a membranous integument of the embryo, and by the radicle bein 

 retracted within thick cotyledons." 



The plants of this order are all intensely bitter. The Quassia o 

 this account is used in medicine. [QUASSIA, in ARTS AND So. Div 

 '/ ruba veraicolor is so bitter that no insects will attack it ; and whe 

 all other specimens of plants in dried collections have been attacke 

 by Ptini, &c., specimens of this plant have been left untouched. Th 

 Brazilians use an infusion of this plant in brandy as a remedy agains 

 the bites of serpents. 



There are 10 genera and 35 species of this order. 



d e Quassia amara. 



a, branch, showing flowers and compound leaves j 6, flower ; c, stamens 

 separated, attached to hypogynous scale ; d, stamens surrounding ovary ; e, 

 ovary seated on a stalk, to which the stamens are attached. 



SIMETHIS, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Liliacece, and the tribe Anthericea. The parts of the perianth are 

 six, spreading, deciduous ; the stamens are attached to the base of 

 ;he perianth ; the filaments bearded ; the anthers incumbent ; the 

 capsules are 3-celled, and each cell contains two seeds. 



<S. bicolor is a recent addition to the British Flora. It is a native of 

 the South of Europe, and is found on sandy heaths near the sea-shore. 

 In England it was first found at Bournemouth, in Dorsetshire. It has 

 also been found at Derrynane, Kerry, in Ireland. This plant has 

 linear leaves, flat, or a little keeled upwards. The flowers are panicled, 

 bhe petals are purple without, and white within. In Hooker and 

 Arnott's 'British Flora" it is suggested that this plant may have 

 been introduced with trees from France. 



SI'MIAD^E, the name of a Quadrumanous family of Mammalian 

 Animals. It embraces the most highly-developed forms of the 

 Monkeys, and the relations of this family are more or less given under 

 the following articles : APE ; ATELES ; BABOON ; CHEIROPODA 

 CHIMPANZEE ; HYLOBATES ; LAQOTHRIX ; MAOACUS ; MTCETES 

 NASALIS; ORANG-OUTAN ; QUADHUMANA; SAKIS; SAPAJOUS; and 

 SEMNOPITHECDS. 



These animals were known at a very early period. The Kophim o 

 the Scriptures (1 Kings, x. 22 ; 2 Chron., ix. 21), the Ceph of the 

 Ethiopians, the Keibi and Kubbi of the Persians, the K^Soi of the 

 Greeks, and Cephi of the Romans, were clearly Apes. They are 

 to be traced in some of the earliest paintings of the Egyptians. 

 (Rosellini, &c.) 



The Cephi exhibited by Pompey (Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.,' viii. 19), as 

 well as those shown by Caesar, appear to have been Ethiopian apes ; 

 and in the Greek name inscribed near the Quadrumanous animals, in 

 the Prsenestino pavement, the oriental origin of the word is apparent 

 It is remarkable that the name Cebus [SAPAJOUS] is applied by modern 

 zoologists to a genus of monkeys which could not have been known to 

 the ancients ; for the Cebi of our present catalogues are exclusively 

 American. 



The following is a definition of the family Simiadte, which embraces 

 the animals to which the term Ape is most properly applied. They 

 are all of them inhabitants of the Old World : The nostrils are 

 divided by a narrow septum ; they possess opposable thumbs on their 

 fore and hind feet ; the callosities on the rump are generally naked. 

 Some of the species only are furnished with cheek-pouches. They 

 usually possess a tail. n ''""'- ^ifi f/,niilo i= .. fMl 



Their dental formula is as follows : 



Incisors, - ; Canines, 

 4 



11 



Premolars, <i - ; Molars,?^? = 32. 



The following definition of the second family of the Quadrumana, 

 the Cebida, will afford the means of contrasting the two families : 

 The Cebidie are natives of America. The nostrils are separated by a 

 broad septum ; the thumbs are sometimes absent on the fore feet ; 

 callosities and cheek-pouches absent ; the tail is always present, and 

 sometimes prehensile. 



In the list of the specimens of Mammalia published by Dr. J. E. Gray, 

 we find almost a complete representation of this family. They are as 

 follows : 



