STAPFA 



STARCH. 



appearance. From uncertain puiuU of their succulent stems large 

 flowrr* expand themselves, exhibiting a variety of colours, and 

 marked in the most grotesque manner. In most instance* the flowers 

 give off vry unpleasant odours, which bare been compared to 

 carrion, rotten cheese, putrid water, and other unpleasant-smelling 

 ulatance*. These odours however have not prevented their being 

 very generally cultivated on account of their singular and beautiful 

 flowers. The genus is at present imperfectly understood, and many 

 species that were originally referred to Stapelia are now placed under 

 a variety of other genera, as Podatttha, Tnilmtea, Orbea, I'iaranthiu, 

 J/uernia, Ac. The great diversity in the form, colour, size, and 

 structure of the flowers of these plants, have afforded the means of 

 distinguishing a large number of species, but the whole have a family 

 likeness which is possessed by few genera. We shall therefore only 

 give two or three examples. 



5. hirtuta. Hairy Stapelia, or Carriou-Flower. Corolla with the 

 segments villously ciliated with white hairs, and the base villous 

 from red hairs, the segments ovate, acute, and transversely corru- 

 gated ; segments of outer whorl of nectary acute, lanceolate, of the 

 inner spreading. The stem is angular and erect, the flowers appear- 

 ing at in base. The corolla is very large, of a dark chocolate-crimson 

 colour, streaked with yellow ; the marginal fringe resembles a gray 

 fur ; the nectaries are red. The whole flower is the size of a French 

 rose. The smell of this plant is so like that of carrion, that flesh- 

 flies deposit their ova in the flower, and when the maggot* are pro- 

 duced they are starved for the want of food. Sir John Hill wrote 

 an essay to prove that the fly which attacked these plants was a 

 peculiar species, whose larvae lived on the flower, which seems to 

 have been an error of observation, but for which Fabricius, the ento- 

 mologist, spoke of him as "damnaudse memorise Johannes Hill." 

 This plant i a native of the Cape, and is one of the earliest species 

 brought to Europe by the Dutch. 



S. puitinata, Cushion-Flowered Stapelia, has a procumbent stem, 

 with quadrangular erect branches, at the base of which the flowers 

 appear; the segments of the corolla are roundish, wrinkled trans- 

 versely, ciliated ; bottom of corolla elevated, covered with hairs. This 

 is the most elegant of the species, and, notwithstanding its unpleasant 

 odour, the Dutch natives of the Cape call it the Arabian Rose. The 

 corolla is very large, and its segment* are of a deep violet-colour, 

 variegated with whitish transverse wrinkles, and red at the bottom. 



& Gordoni, Gordon's Stapelia. Stem with squnre branches and 

 tubercles ending in a spine; corolla orbicular, slightly 5-cleft, seg- 

 ment)! broad, roundish, acuminated. It has erect long follicles which 

 are solitary, and thus form an exception to the rest of the genus. 

 The flowers are very large, almost three inches in diameter, of a 

 brownish yellow-colour with a whitish centre ; the segments of the 

 nectary are black in the middle, and white on the edges. 



8TAPKS. [EAR.] 



STAI'H YLbA (from ar<vf>v\ri, a bunch of grapes), the name of a 

 genus of Plants, the type of the natural order Staphyleaceir. It has a 

 coloured 5-parted calyx, with an urceolate disc at the base ; fiva 

 upright petals ; five stamens standing round the disc ; an ovary with 

 from two to three styles, with a small stigma; a membranaceous 

 welled capsule with two or three cells, and one or two seeds in each. 

 This genus has six species, of which one is a native of Europe, one of 

 North America, one of Japan, two of Jamaica, one of Peru, and one of 

 the Himalayas. 



.S /'innate, Common Bladder-Nut, is known by its pinnated leaves, 

 petiole* without glands, two styles, and bladdered capsules. It is a 

 native of woods and thickets in the middle and south of Europe. It 

 is admitted into the ' British Flora,' on the ground of its occurring 

 occasionally in hedges and thickets in Yorkshire. It is frequently 

 planted in shrubberies as an ornamental shrub, for which it is weU 

 adapted. It has a firm white wood, which adapts it well for various 

 kinds of turning. The seeds are eatable, and act as a mild aperient : 

 this arises probably from the oil they contain. The flower-buds, when 

 gathered young, are pickled, and eaten as capers. 



.1. in/olia, Three- LVsved Bladder-Nut, is characterised by its tcrnate 

 leavra, and its petals longer than the calyx. It is the species of North 

 America, where it is found on dry bills in rocky situations from New 

 York to North Carolina. It is alio frequently cultivated as an orna- 

 mental shrub, and its wood and seeds may be used for the same 

 purpose as the last. 



& Emodi is an Indian specie* : it was found by Dr. Royle in the Hima- 

 laya., t an elevation of 7000 feet. (Koyle, ' 111. Him. Bot,' p. 166.) 



STAI'H YLEA'CK.E, OtatUtr-ffuU, a small natural order of 1'lanU 

 belonging to the Syncarpous group of Polvpetalous Exogen*. They 

 are shrubs with oppnaite pinnate leaven, having both common and 

 partial petioles, and the flowers arranged in terminal stalked racemes. 

 The calyx has 6ve *epals, which are imbricated in (estivation ; petals 

 five ; sUmen* five, alternate with the petals, perigynous ; ovary 2- or 

 .t-celled, wated on a disc; fruit membranous or fleshy, frequently 

 deformed by the abortion of some of its parta; exalbuminoiis roundish 

 amending seeds, with a bony testa, large hilum, and thick cotyledons. 

 There are only three genera and ten specie* belonging to this order, 

 which are inhabitants of the warmer and temperate parts of the earth. 

 Only one species, the Staphylra jnnnnia, is found in Europe. This 

 order was separated by Uuclley from the order t'elattracca, with 



which it is most nearly allied, but from which it is distinguished 

 by its opposite pinnated stipulate leaves. One of the genera, 7W- 

 ;IIHIO, has unisexual flowers. The species do not possess active pro- 

 pertie.o. The seeds of all contain a mild oil, which may be expressed. 



[STArBYLEA.] 



e a c 



Tarpinia panimlata. 



a, branch showing the opposite leaves (also the unisexual mono-clous flowers 

 of this genus) ; b, tricoccous fruit ; r, female flower ; rf, transverse section of 

 fruit ; f, section of seed. 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM. [ORNITOOOALDM.] 



STAK-APPLE. [CHRYsornYU.UM.] 



STAR-FISHES. [ASTERIAD.S; ASTERIAS; ECUINODERMATA.] 



STAR-NOSE. [COXDTLUKA.] 



STARCH is a substance which is found very generally present in 

 the vegetable kingdom. It occurs in the forms of irregularly-shaped 

 granules inclosed in the cells of plants. It is easily detected in the 

 cells' of plants under the microscope, by the addition of a small 

 quantity of solution of iodine, which immediately gives to the starch- 

 granules a blue colour. [SECRETIONS OF PLANTS.] 



Starch can be readily separated from the tissues of plants, on a 

 large scale, by bruising them, and stirring them in water ; when left 

 at rest the cellulose of the tissue falls to the bottom of the vessel, 

 and the starch floats in the water. If the water containing the starch 

 is now poured off, and allowed to stand a few hours, the starch will 

 fall to the bottom of the vessel, and is easily collected. In this way 

 it is obtained for commercial and dietetical purposes. Starch is thus 

 found to be diffusible through water, but not soluble in it. It differs 

 then from cellulose, on the one hand, by its diffuaibility through 

 water ; and on the other, from dextrine, sugar, and gum, by its insolu- 

 bility. In composition it resembles these substances, and during the 

 growth of the plant it is evidently converted into one or the other 

 [DEXTRIHK] according to the necessities of the plant It contains 

 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (C l|( H,, O,,), and belongs to that 

 series of substances to which the term Dextrine has been applied. In 

 certain groups of plants, intermediate substances between those men- 

 tioned have been obtained. Thus, in the Lichens, a substance exist* 

 which resembles starch in many of its properties, but does not assume 

 its definite granular form. This is called Lichenin. [LiriiKNiN.l 

 Another substance also closely approaching etarch in its general 

 characters is Inuliii. This substance is not coloured blue by iodine, 

 and ha* other distinctive properties. [!NUI.A.] It is found in the 

 various species of fnula, and has also been detected in other plants. 



From these facts we may gather that Starch is the result of the 

 chemical activity of the plant-cell at particular stages of its growth. 

 It is one of those secretions to which the name assimilable in applied, 

 and is evidently capable of undergoing great changes during the life 

 of the plant. It is almost constantly present during the earlier stage* 

 of cell-growth, so much so as to lead to the supposition that its 

 presence is universal during certain stage* of the life of the plant-cell. 

 In some plants and parts of plants however it rapidly disappears, 

 being cither converted into sugar or cellulose, or some of the numerous 

 unassimilable secretions of plants. That the latter takes place very 

 frequently is rendered probable by the discovery that caoutchouc nd 

 gutta percha can bo artificially manufactured from starch, whilst it 

 has long been well known that starch may be converted into sugar 

 and gum. 



