STYRAX. 



SUBMARINE FORESTS. 



951 



species are trees or shrubs, with alternate leaves without stipules, 

 usually turning yellow in drying. The flowers are axillary, and are 

 either solitary or clustered with membranaceous bracts. The calyx is 

 persistent, and has five divisions ; corolla with divisions, frequently 

 differing from the calyx, and with imbricated activation; stamens 

 varying in number, arising from the tube of the corolla, with 2-celled 

 anthers ; ovary 3-5-celled, with few ovules, a simple style, and capitate 

 stigma ; fruit n drupe ; seeds solitary, with the embryo lying in the 

 midst of albumen. This order is nearly allied to Ericaceae, from which 

 it differs in habit, its definite seeds, and its frequently inferior ovary. 

 It differs from Ebtnactce in its stamens being perigynous, in the 

 insertion of the ovules, and its simple style. It is however au order 

 on which there are many different opinions, some referring all its 

 genera to Ebenacea, whilst others separate from it the genera Symptoms 

 and Halesia, as types of distinct orders. 



The species are found in the temperate and tropical parts of North 

 and South America, and also in Nep-iul and China. This order is 

 chiefly remarkable, in an economical point of view, for furnishing the 

 Storax and Benzoin of commerce, which contain a peculiar acid called 

 the Bsnzoic Acid. Some of the species are used for dyeing yellow, and 

 a specie* of Alstonia is employed as a substitute for tea. The various 

 species of HaUtia, are the Snow-Drop Trees of the Carolinas. [HiLESiA.] 



6 ad e 



Styrax officinalii. 



a, branch showing leaves and cluttered flowers ; b, corolla opened with 

 perigynoas stamens and pistil ; e, fruit covered with tomentum ; d, transverse 

 section of ovary, showing three cells ; e t section of seed, showing embryo in the 

 midst of albumen. 



STYRAX (from trrvpa^), a genus of Plants forming the type of the 

 natural order Styracea. It has a persistent campanulate 5-toothed 

 calyx; monopetalous deeply 3-7-cleft corolla; 1 stamens monadelphous 

 at the base, with linear 2-celled anthers; superior ovary with inde- 

 finite ovules, with simple style and 3-lob 'd stigma; fruit a dry drupe ; 

 seed with a double testa, inverted embryo, and fleshy albumen. The 

 species are elegant trees and shrubs, mostly covered with hairs having 

 a stellate form, with entire leaves, and white or cream-coloured race- 

 mose flowers. They are principally natives of America and Asia; 

 one U found in Europe and one iu Africa. 



.S. officinalii, Officinal Storax. Leaves ovate, downy beneath, shining 

 above; racemes 6-6-flowered, simple, shorter than the leaves. It is 

 a native of Syria, Italy, and most parts of the Levant. It is common 

 all over Greece and the Peloponnesus, where Dr. Sibthorp found it 

 retaining almost the same designation as that given it by Theophrastus 

 and Dioncorides, the modern name being Zrovpeuti. It was first culti- 

 vated in England by Gerard", but is still a rare plant in this country. 

 One of the finest specimens is in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, and 

 is annually covered in May and June with a profusion of rich blossoms. 

 This U the species which yields the Storax which is admitted into the 

 Materia Medica of the London Pharmacopoeia. [STYIIAX.] There is 

 however another Storax known in commerce, with which this mut 

 not be confounded, and which is the produce of the Li'juitlambar 

 $fyracijlua, a plant belonging to the natural order Jfaltamace'r. 



8. lienzoin, Benjamin Storax, or Gum-Benjamin Tree. Leaves ovate- 

 oblong, pointed, glabrous above, downy beneath ; racemes compound, 

 almost the length of the leaves. It is a native of Sumatra and Java. 

 It is the plant which produces the Benzoin, or Gum Benjamin, of 

 commerce ; and which, as well as Storax, is used iu medicine. 



[BENZOIN.] The great consumption however of these resins is not 

 as medicines, but in their use as incense in the worship of the Roman 

 Catholics and Mohammedans. Though older botanists, as Gareias, 

 Grim, aud others, were acquainted with the tree that yielded Benzoin, 

 Ray confounded it with the genus Lauras, and Linnaeus with the 

 genera Croton and Tcmiinalia. Dryauder gave a correct account of 

 the plant iu 1787, and referred it to its present position. 



S. grand if olius, Large-Leaved Styrax. Loaves broad, obovate, 

 pointed, slightly serrated, greeu above, downy beneath ; lower pedun- 

 cles 1-flowered, solitary, axillary. It is a native of North America, in 

 woods and on the banks of rivers from Virginia to Georgia. It is a 

 handsome shrub, bearing white flowers, opening them iu June aud 

 August. 



S. hevigattis and <S. pulverulentus are North American species, and 

 are natives of the woods of the Carolinas aud Virginia. 



Several other species are described from South America, mostly from 

 Brazil. 



SUBAPLYSIA'CEA, M. De Blainville's name far the first family of 

 his Monopleurobranchiata. 



SUBER. [QOERCUS.] 



SUBMARINE FORESTS. Under this term geologists class very 

 numerous accumulations of vegetable matter, involving roots, stems, 

 branches, leaves, and fruits of trees, rarely in the attitude of growth, 

 sometimes iu the condition of having fallen, and locally with the 

 appearance of having been drifted from some distance, but all 

 occurring on the margin of the sea, below the level of high-water, 

 and exteudiug not unfrequeutly much beyond the low-water line. 



Subterranean Forests is another term for similar phenomena, not 

 limited however to any particular level, nor to a close proximity with 

 the sea. The circumstances as to level, and physical condition of the 

 neighbouring regions, when these buried forests either grew on or 

 were drifted to their present repositories, and the changes in these 

 respects which may Lave since occurred, are extremely worthy of 

 consideration. 



If we take, as a mode of classifying these phenomena, the relative 

 levels of the buried forests aud the surface of the sea, we find a 

 series of instance*, beginning on high ground, and ending below the 

 sea. On parts of the very high ground at the head of Glencoe, we 

 see yet rooted in peaty soil the bases of enormous trunks of trees, 

 while far around, aud even in much lower levels, and warmer and 

 more sheltered situations, large trees are altogether wanting. Ou the 

 moderate elevations between Kirby Lousdale and Kendal are small 

 dried basins of aucient lakes, iu which portions of fir-trees abound ; 

 on the course of many rivers, in flat parts of valleys, and especially 

 when they approach the sea, as at Ferrybridge on the Aire, aud at 

 Stockton on the Tees, vegetable accumulations, peaty plants, and 

 lacustrine shells, hazel-wood, nuts, aud large trees abound. In situa- 

 tions where the tides cease to have power, along the sides of rivers, 

 the accumulations of this nature are locally enormous, as over the 

 large area of Hatficld Chase and Thoru Waste iu Yorkshire, Sedge- 

 moor in Somersetshire, aud the fens of Huntingdon and Cambridge. 

 Finally, on reaching the actual sea-shore, whether along the course of 

 a great river, as the H umber or the Mersey, or on the bare coast, as 

 in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, aud many parts of the coast of 

 Great Britain, we find narrow or extensive deposits of like nature, 

 both above high-water and below low-water mark. Generally iu all 

 these situations, the trees, even though not now growing in the neigh- 

 bourhood, are of sorts that belong to the same latitude and the same 

 region. What might be the circumstances which encouraged their 

 growth in ancieut times is not easy to be determined. Instead of 

 supposing any elevation of land since the growth of trees iu the high 

 valleys about Glencoe, which, by raising the surface to a temperature 

 too low, prevented their continued existence, it appears better to 

 suppose that the duration of forests under some constant conditions 

 is limited. It is only by mutual protection iu some cases that trees 

 rise to perfection. Arriving from this cause nearly at ouce to maturity, 

 aud passing by equal stages to decay, it may easily happen, in a 

 limited area, that a whole forest of trees should perish and be followed 

 by no successors. Such an occurrence might be accidently caused by 

 the alteration of the supply of water, the growth of peat, addition of 

 sediments, and other causes of injury. Violent tempests might 

 prostrate a forest, and affect the drainage of the country, and thus 

 convert the area where the forest grew into a marsh, a peat-bog, a 

 buried forest. 



Suppositions of this nature have commonly been suggested by the 

 phenomena observed in various parts of Europe. De Luc adopts 

 such views regarding the buried pine-forest of Bornholm, which is 

 covered by peat aud surrounded by sand-hills. The trees lie prostrated 

 from the circumference toward the centre, not by the force of iuun- 

 dations, but by the violence of winds. (' Hist, de la Terre,' v. 222.) 

 A similar opinion has been entertained concerning some part of the 

 extensive levels of Hatfield Chase in Yorkshire, where in places the 

 trees appear as if prostrated in a particular direction. Moreover, in 

 examining the deposits of this nature on the shores of the Frith of 

 Tay, Dr. Fleming found the clay below the peat penetrated by numer- 

 ous roots, which are either carbonised or pyritised. 



But there are other cases iu which the accumulations of buried 

 timber and peat may better be supposed to have been drifted. This 



