566 



SER 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



SES 



succeed well if exposed to the mid-day sun. If sown early 

 in the spring they will often grow in the first summer, but 

 will sometimes remain a year in the ground before the plants 

 appear; so that if they should not come up in the first season 

 the ground should not be disturbed, and must be kept free 

 from weeds till the following spring, when, if the seeds were 

 good, the plants will come up, and must be weeded and thinned 

 where too close. Some of them should be drawn out care- 

 fully while they are young, and planted into another border 

 of light loamy earth, four inches asunder ; in this place they 

 may remain till autumn, when these, and also those in the 

 seed-beds, should be carefully removed to places where they 

 are designed to remain: the following summer these plants 

 will flower, and the roots will abide several years, if they are 

 planted in a light loamy soil, not over wet. The other per- 

 ennial sorts may be propagated by parting the roots ; the 

 best time for doing this is in autumn, when their stalks begin 

 to decay ; for when they are removed in the spring, if the 

 season should prove dry, their roots will not be sufficiently 

 established to flower well the same year. They should not 

 be removed jior parted oftener than every third year, if they 

 are expected to grow strong; nor should they be parted into 

 small heads, which can make no figure in the first year. As 

 they grow tall, plant them in the middle of large borders, or 

 with other tall plants : they may be planted in large spaces 

 between shrubs, or on the borders of woods, where they 

 will have a good effect during their continuance in flower ; 

 and as they require no other culture than to dig the ground 

 between them every spring, and to keep them clean from 

 weeds, so they are proper for such places. These plants are 

 also propagated by seeds, when they can be obtained good ; 

 these may be sown in the same way as the bulbous-rooted 

 kinds, and, when the plants come up, they must be treated 

 in the same manner, only that they should be allowed more 

 room, for the fibres of their roots spread out on every side 

 to a great distance; for which reason these plants should not 

 be planted in small gardens, where they will overbear the 

 neighbouring plants. 



11. Serratula Scariosa ; Ragged-cupped Sawwort. Leaves 

 lanceolate, quite entire; calices squarrose, peduncled, obtuse. 

 Root large, tuberous, from which comes out one strong chan- 

 nelled stalk three or four feet high ; flowers Durple, in a long 

 loose spike. Native of Virginia. 



12. Serratula Pilosa ; Hairy-leaved Sawwort. Leaves 

 linear, hairy ; flowers axillary, on long peduncles. It flowers 

 in September and October. Native of North America. ' 



13. Serratula Speciosa; Hairy-cupped Sawwort. Leaves 

 linear, sickled ; flowers sessile, spiked ; calicine leaflets rough- 

 liaired, acute, the inner ones elongated, coloured at the point. 

 It flowers in October. Native of Carolina, &c. 



14. Serratula Spicata ; Spiked Sawwort. Leaves linear, 

 ciliate at the base; flowers in spikes, sessile, lateral; stem 

 simple. Native of North America. 



15. Serratula Amara; Bitter Savrvjort. Leaves lanceo- 

 late; calicine scale scariose, at the point blunt patulous, 

 coloured ; flowers terminating ; stems angular. Root peren- 

 nial, bitter, with a saline flavour. Native of Siberia. 



16. Serratula Centauroides ; Centaury-like Sawwort, 

 Leaves pinnatifid, oblique, acute, smooth, unarmed ; calicine 

 scales mucronate, the inner ones scariose ; corolla purple, 

 without any marginal florets. Native of Siberia. 



17. Serratula Mucronata ; Pointed-cupped Sawwort. 

 Smooth : leaves entire, lanceolate ; stem few-flowered ; cali- 

 cine scales scariose at the point, acuminate, reflex ; plant 

 very smooth. Native of Barbary, near Mascar, flowering 

 early in spring. 



18. Serratula Humilis; Dwarf Sawwort. Leaves pinna- 

 tifid, tomentose beneath; head simple, one-flowered ; calix - 

 leaves subulate, loose. Native of Sicily and Barbary. It is 

 a very handsome little perennial, flowering in the summer. 



19. Serratula Scordium. Leaves lanceolate, serrate, half- 

 embracing; flowers fastigiate; root creeping; stem herba- 

 ceous, perennial. Native of China and Cochin-china. 



20. Serratula Arvensis ; Corn Sawwort, Way Thistle, or 

 Cursed Thistle. Leaves sessile, pinnatifid, spiny; "stem pani- 

 cled ; calices ovate, spinulose. This species is too well 

 known by its perennial creeping roots, which, striking down 

 to a great depth, constitutes ft one of the worst pests of 

 arable lands ; and it is very difficult to get the roots out 

 where they have once got possession, as the smallest piece 

 will grow. Frequent and deep ploughing in dry weather will 

 destroy this Thistle in arable land, but common ploughing is 

 not deep enough to answer the purpose. In pastures it should 

 be pulled or rather forked out, when the ground is well 

 soaked with wet. Frequent mowing or spudding, if they do 

 not destroy, are sometimes found to enfeeble it : they seem 

 however to make it run more at the root; but even to prevent 

 it from flowering is something, and there is no method so 

 good as that first above stated. A variety sometimes occurs 

 with few or no spines on the leaves, which also are not so 

 deeply indented, and are either green on both sides, or 

 whitish underneath. The goat and ass will eat it; horses 

 will sometimes crop the heads when young and tender: cattle 

 do not seem to touch it. It is said to yield a very pure vege- 

 table alkali when burnt. This Thistle is known every where 

 by road-sides, and too frequently in corn-fields, especially in 

 strong lands and in pastures, but not so common there: flow- 

 ering from June to August. This plant is more properly a 

 Cnicus than a Serratula. 



Sesamum; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, five-parted, erect, equal, very short, permanent; 

 segments lanceolate, the upper ones shorter. Corolla : one- 

 petalled, bell-shaped; tube roundish, almost the length of 

 the calix ; throat inflated, spreading, bell-shaped, very large, 

 declined ; border five-cleft ; segments four patulous, almost 

 equal, and a fifth, which is the lowest, longer, ovate, straight. 

 Stamina : filamenta four, springing from the tube, shorter 

 than the corolla, ascending, setaceous, the two inner shorter, 

 with the rudiment of a fifth filamentuin; antherse oblong, 

 acute, erect. Pistil: germen ovate, hirsute; style filiform, 

 ascending, a little longer than the stamina ; stigma lanceo- 

 late, two-parted; lamellee parallel. Pericarp: capsule ob- 

 long, obscurely four-cornered, compressed, acuminate, four- 

 celled. Seeds: very many, subovate. Observe. It has the 

 flower of Digitalis, but the fruit is very different. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER, Calix: five-parted. Corolla: bell-shape, five- 

 cleft, the lower lobe larger ; rudiment of a fifth filamentuin. 



Stigma: lanceolate, divided. Capsule: four-celled. The 



species are, 



1 . Sesamum Orientale ; Oriental Sesamum, or Oily Grain. 

 Leaves ovate-oblong, entire ; flowers in loose terminating 

 spikes, small, of a dirty white colour, shaped somewhat like 

 those of the Foxglove. A tender annual ; the stem erect, two 

 feet high, round, branched, leafy; leaves opposite, stalked ; 

 capsule erect, beaked, an inch long. This species is frequently 

 cultivated in the Levant, and also in Africa, as a pulse: an oil 

 is extracted from the seeds, which oil will keep many years 

 without acquiring any rancid taste or smell, but in two years 

 becomes quite mild; so that when the warm taste of the seed, 

 which is in the oil when first drawn, is worn off, it is used 

 as a salad oil, and for all the purposes of sweet oil. The 



