504 



R Y A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERDAL; 



RYE 



gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth (JB*-leaved, 

 permanent; leaflets roundish, concave, blunt, corfverging, 

 imbricate, augmented at the base by a three-leaved involucre; 

 one leaflet bent down, difform. Corolla : petals five, ovate, 

 flattish, blunt, reflexed, three times as long as the calix. 

 Stamina : filamenta five, awl-shaped, flat, patulous, shorter 

 than the petals; antherae oblong, incumbent. Pistil: ger- 

 men ovate, roundish ; style none ; stigma quadrangular, cru- 

 ciform, flat. Pericarp: berry four-celled? Seeds: many. 

 Observe. Aublet remarks, that the stigma is five-rayed, and 

 the pericarp five-celled ; according to Swartz, the pericarp is 

 two-celled, many-seeded. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 five-leaved. Corolla: five-petalled, reflexed. Style: none. 

 Berry : many-seeded.- The species are, 



1. Ruyschia Clusiefolia. Leaves obovate, obtuse, veinless. 

 This is a parasitical undershrub ; racemes terminal, quite sim- 

 ple, erect, many-flowered ; petals purple, deciduous. Native 

 of Martinico, in the vast moist woods ; flowering in April. 



2. Ruyschia Souroubea. Leaves obovate, obtuse, mucro- 

 nate, veined. Stem sarmentose, round, with long, divaricate, 

 flexile, declining, fragile branches ; racemes terminating, 

 simple, long, many-flowered ; corolla golden yellow. Native 

 of the woods in Guiana, by the river Gallion. 



Ryania ; a genus of the class Polyandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. -GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth inferior, per- 

 manent, five-leaved ; leaflets lanceolate, attenuated, spread- 

 ing, very finely nerved, coloured. Corolla: none; nectary 

 between the germen and stamina, pitcher-shaped, very vil- 



lose, the height of the germen. Stamina: filamenta nume- 

 rous, (sixty,) in a double row, a little shorter than the calix, 

 awl-shaped, having a few hairs scattered at the base, in other 

 parts smooth ; antherae erect, awl-shaped, three times shorter 

 than the filamenta, torulose, mucronate, smooth, after the 

 pollen is discharged waved above the edge. Pistil: germen 

 ovate, very villose; style smooth, the length of the stamina; 

 stigmas four, convex. Pericarp : berry subetous, elliptic, 

 spheroid, brown, scrobicular; receptacles five, formed out 

 of the sides of the berry, suberous, obl.ong, attenuated both 

 ways, having minute tubercles scattered over them in trans- 

 verse rows. Seeds: abundant, ovate, subglobular, hav'rng a 

 few minute hairs scattered over them, brown, arilled ; aril 

 incomplete, covering the base and belly of the seed, mem- 

 branaceous, three-winged, and the wings doubled. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five-leaved, permanent, coloured. 

 Corolla: none. Stigmas: four. Berry: suberous, one- 

 celled, many-seeded. The only known species is, 



1. Ryania Speciosa. A tree, with ash-coloured round 

 branches, finely downy towards the ends. Leaves alternate, 

 a span long, elliptic, oblong, acuminate, smooth on both 

 sides, obliquely nerved, entire; the midrib underneath mealy; 

 the nerves raised, and between these very fine, simple, 

 transverse veins ; flowers axillary, mostly solitary ; berry 

 larger than a walnut ; seeds as large as Coriander-seeds. 

 Found in the island of Trinidad. 



Rye. See Secale. 



Rye-Grass. See Hordeum, and Lolium. 



SAC 



SACCHARUM; a genus of the class Triandria, order 

 Digynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: glume two-valved, 

 one-flowered ; valves oblong-laficeolate, acuminate, erect, 

 concave, equal, awnless, surrounded with a long lanugo at 

 the base. Corolla : two-valved, shorter than the calix, sharp- 

 ish, very slender ; nectary two-leaved, very small. Stamina: 

 filamenta three, capillary, the length of the corolla; antherce 

 somewhat oblong, pendulous. Pistil : germen oblong ; styles 

 two, capillary; stigmas cylindrical, plumose. Pericarp: 

 none, the corolla investing the seeds. Seed: single, oblong. 

 Observe. In this genus the wool is without the calix ; in 

 Arundo, it is with it. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 two-valved, involucred, with a long lanugo. Corolla: two- 

 valved. The species are, 



1. Saccharum Teneriffee; Teneriffe Sugar Cane. Leaves 

 awl-shaped, flat; flowers panicled, awnless, hairy; involucre 

 none ; calix very villose. This G^ass is a foot high and 

 more ; culm jointed, with the joints approximating, leafed. 

 Native of the Island of Teneriflfe. 



2. Saccharum Spontaneum ; Wild Sugar Cane. Leaves 

 convolute; panicle effused ; spikes capillary, simple; flowers 

 in distant pairs, one of them peduncled. Cultn twelve feet 

 high, but not at all arborescent, the thickness of a goose- 

 quill, even, covered by the sheath of the leaves, hollow ; 

 panicle large, and of a delicate silky aspect, white, except 

 the purple anthers. Native of Malabar, in watery places ; 

 and found in the Society Isles, common in the marshes and 

 wet places : it creeps at the root, and thus diffuses itself far 

 and wide, especially near rocks. 



3. Saccharum Japonicum; Japan Sugar Cane. Leaves 

 serrated ; racemes in bundles ; petals ciliate, the outer ones 

 awned; culm six feet high, shrubby, simple, round, smooth; 

 leaves linear-sword-shaped, smooth, with a thick rib. There 

 is a variety of this, which is only three feet high. Both are 

 natives of Japan. 



SAC 



4. Saccharum Officinarum ; Common Sugar Cane. Flow- 

 ers panicled ; leaves flat. Root jointed, sending forth four or 

 more shoots proportionable to the age or strength of the root, 

 and the goodness of the ground, The height is generally 

 eight or ten feet, and in moist rich soil lias been observed 

 nearly twenty feet, but the latter canes were not so good as 

 those of middling growth. The Sugar Cane is jointed, and 

 the joints are more or less distant, in proportion to the qua- 

 lity of the soil. A leaf is placed at each joint, and the base 

 of it embraces the stalk to the next joint above its insertion, 

 before it expands ; from thence to the point it is three or 

 four feet in length, according to the vigour of the plant. 

 There is a deep whitish furrow, or hollowed midrib, which 

 is broad and prominent on the under side : the edges are 

 thin, and armed with small sharp teeth, which are scarcely 

 to be discerned by the naked eye, but will cut the skin of a 

 tender hand if it be drawn along it. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in panicles at the top of the stalks ; they are from two 

 to three feet long, and are composed of many spikes nine or 

 ten inches in length, which are again subdivided into smaller 

 spikes, which have long down enclosing the flowers, so as to 

 hide them from sight. The seed is oblong and pointed, and 

 ripens in the valves of the flower. According to Loureiro, 

 tltere are three remarkable varieties of this species, differing 

 in the culm, not in the flower; the White Sugar Cane, with 

 the culm long, white, of a middling size, very sweet, the 

 knots distant ; the Red Sugar Cane, with the culm short, 

 thicker, red, very juicy, the knots approximate ; and the 

 Elephantine Sugar Cane, with the culm very thick, red, long, 

 less sweet, the knots approximate. It has been asserted, 

 that the Sugar Cane is not indigenous of America, but that 

 it migrated through the Europeans from Sicily and Spain to 

 Madeira and the Canary Isles ; afterwards to the West Indian 

 Islands : and from thence to Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. On 

 the discovery of the western hemisphere, however, the Sugar 





