AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



521 



Strychnos continued. 



Ignatia, Lasiostoma, Narda, Rouhamon, Unguacha. OBD. 

 Loganiacece. A genus comprising nearly sixty species of 

 stove, evergreen trees and shrubs, often tall climbers, 

 broadly dispersed over the tropics. Flowers small or 

 rather long, usually white, cymose, four or five-parted ; 

 corolla lobes valvate. Fruit baccate, mostly globose, 

 indehiscent. Leaves opposite, three to five-nerved at or 

 above the base, membranous or coriaceous. " The species 

 of Stnjchnos contain in the bark of their root and in 

 their seeds two alkaloids (strychnine and brucine), com- 

 bined with a peculiar acid (igasuric acid) properties 

 which are extremely energetic ; their action on the 

 nervous system is most powerful, whether as invaluable 



medicines or as mortal poisons The seeds of 



<S. Nux vomica act as a powerful excitant of the spinal 

 cord and nerves, and stimulate the functions of the 

 organs of voluntary motion, in cases of paralysis which 

 do not proceed from injury to the brain, for which the 

 seed itself, or an extract, or its alkaloid, strychnine, 

 are employed . . . . 8. Ignatia yields the Ignatius 

 Bean of India, used as a remedy for cholera. 8. pota- 

 torum yields the celebrated Clearing Nut of India, which 

 clarifies foul water when this is put in a vessel of which 

 the inside has been rubbed with it " (Le Maout and 

 Decaisne). 8. colubrina, a native of Malabar, furnishes 

 one kind of lignum colubrinum, or Snakewood. The pulp 

 of the fruit of several members of this genus is edible. 

 The species, of which about half-a-dozen have been in- 

 troduced to cultivation, are of no particular value from 

 a garden standpoint. 



STUABTIA (named in honour of John Stuart, Lord 

 Bute, 1713-1792, a zealous patron of botany). Spelt 

 Stewarfia by a few authors. Including Malachodendron. 

 OBD. Ternstromiacece. A genus comprising only three 

 species of beautiful, hardy shrubs; two of which are 

 North American and the third Japanese. Flowers large 

 or mediocre, solitary in the axils, shortly pedunculate; 

 sepals and petals five, rarely six, the latter imbricated 

 and cohering towards the base ; stamens numerous. 

 Leaves membranous, deciduous. The species given below 

 merit a place in every collection of ornamental shrubs. 

 Although sufficiently hardy to bear our winters in the 

 open air, yet the young shoots often become injured by 

 very severe weather, the summer not being long enough 

 to thoroughly ripen the wood or bring the flowers to 

 perfection ; it is therefore advisable to keep the plants 

 in the conservatory or cool greenhouse, except in 

 favoured spots in the South of England, &o. Peat soil, 

 mixed with a little loam, is the most suitable compost. 

 Propagation may be readily effected by layering ; or by 

 means of ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a hand 

 glass. 

 S. grandiflora (large-flowered). A synonym of S. pseudo-camellia. 



S. pentagyna (five-styled).* fl. cream-coloured, and, as well as 

 the leaves, rather larger than in S. virginica ; sepals and petals 

 five or six, the latter obovate, with jagged edges; stamens 

 longer than in S. virginica. May to July. I. oval, acute. A. 10ft. 

 North America, 1785. (B. M. 3918.) SYN. Malachodendron ovatum 

 (B. R. 1104). 



S. pseudo-camellia (false Camellia). /. creamy-white ; sepals 

 dull reddish - brown above, finely serrulate. Summer. I. oval- 

 elliptic, shortly toothed, acuminate, narrowed at the base into 

 the reddish petiole. Branches erect, flexuose. h. 12ft. Japan. 

 SYN. S. ffrandiflora (B. H. 1879, 430). 



S. virginica (Virginian).* fl. white ; sepals ovate ; petals five, 

 round-obovate, lin. long. April and May. 1. oblong-ovate, ser- 

 rulated, softly downy beneath. A. 8ft. North America, 1743. 

 (G. C. ser. ii., viii. 433 ; A. B. B. 73, under name of S. mary- 

 landica.) 



STTJBWORT. An old name for Oxalis Acetosella. 



STUPOSE. Tow-like ; furnished with mats or tufts 

 of long hairs. 



STUBMIA. A synonym of Liparis (which see). 



STYIiAGO. A synonym of Strumaria (which see). 



STYLANDRA. A synonym of Podostigma (which 

 see). 



STYLE (from stylos, a column ; in allusion to its 

 form). The narrow portion of most carpels between the 

 ovary and the stigma. Its use is to support the stigma 

 in such a position as to favour pollination. The cells 

 in its centre are very loosely arranged, and form what 

 is called the "conducting tissue," for the passage of 

 pollen tubes from the pollen grains on the stigma to the 

 ovules in the interior of the ovary. 



STYLIDIEJE. A small natural order of herbs or 

 rarely under-shrubs, chiefly Australian, a few species 

 being found in tropical Asia, or in New Zealand and 

 Antarctic America. Flowers hermaphrodite or very rarely 

 unisexual, in terminal racemes or thyrsoid or corymbose 

 panicles, rarely reduced to spikes or to single flowers, 

 the primary inflorescence usually centripetal, the secondary 

 often, or sometimes the whole, centrifugal; calyx tube 

 adnate to the ovary, the limb of five divisions, all free 

 or more or less united in two lips, the upper of three ; 

 corolla usually irregular, deeply divided into five lobes, 

 of which one (the lowest), called the labellum, is much 

 smaller than, or different from, the others, or rarely the 

 corolla, as well as the calyx, regularly five or six-lobed ; 

 stamens two, the filaments connate with the style in a 

 column free from the corolla. Capsule two - valved. 

 Leaves radical or scattered, or collected in whorl-like 

 tufts, entire, often narrow or small. The order embraces 

 nearly 100 species ; of these Stylidium absorbs eighty- 

 four, and the remainder are classed under Forstera, Leven- 

 hookia, and Phyllachne. 



STYLIDIUM (from stylos, a column ; the stamens 

 and styles are joined). SYNS. Gandollea (of Labillardiere), 

 Ventenatia (of Smith). OBD. Stylidieae. A genus of eighty- 

 four species of beautiful but rare, greenhouse, herbaceous 

 perennials, of which one is a native of the East Indies, 

 and the rest are Australian (one being also dispersed over 

 tropical Asia). Flowers in racemes, panicles, or corymbose 

 cymes, on terminal peduncles or radical scapes ; calyx 

 lobes five, more or less united in two lips ; corolla irre- 

 gular, one of the lobes (labellum) much smaller and 

 turned down, or rarely nearly as long and curved upwards, 

 the other four ascending in pairs; column elongated 

 and bent down or folded, elastic. Fruit a two-celled 

 capsule, globose, linear, or lanceolate. The species best- 

 known to cultivation are described below. They thrive 

 in a compost of sandy loam and peat. Propagation may 

 be effected by seeds, or, in a few cases, by division of 

 the roots ; the few shrubby kinds may be increased by 

 cuttings. 



S. adnatum (adhering), fl. pink, in nearly sessile clusters along 

 the rachis ; spike-like panicles or compound racemes dense, 

 usually rather short and nearly sessile, but sometimes 6in. to lOin. 

 long. July. I. scattered along the stem ; upper ones crowded in 

 a terminal, whorl-like tuft, linear, but sometimes all very narrow, 

 in other specimens rather broad, and from 4in. to liin. long. 

 Stems 2in. to nearly 12in. long. 1824. (B. M. 3816 and B. B. 1459, 

 under name of S. joiciculatum.) 



S. a. abbrevlatum (shortened), fl., inflorescence rarely above 

 2in. long and very dense. 1. narrow or broad. (B. M. 2598, and 

 B. B. 914, under name of & adnatum.) 



S. armeria (Armeria-like). A synonym of S. graminifolium. 



S. Brunoniannm (Brown's), jl. pink ; calyx lobes free ; corolla 

 with appendages to the throat ; raceme loose, 2in. to 4in. long, 

 many-flowered ; scapes 1ft. to lift, long, with two to five whorls 

 of narrow leaves. June. I., radical ones linear to oblanceolate, 

 acute or rarely almost obtuse, lin. to 2in. or more long, rather 

 flaccid. 1841. (B. B. 1841, 15.) 



S. bulbifernm macrocarpum (bulb-bearing, large-fruited).* 

 /. greenish-purple ; calyx lobes free, very obtuse ; corolla with- 

 out appendages; scapes or pedicels in. to 2in. long, with a 

 loose, almost corymbose raceme of three to seven flowers. May. 

 fr. almost sessile, eight to nine lines long. I. very narrow-linear, 

 scarcely acute, iin. to over Jin. long, densely tufted at the ends 



3x 



