ST I 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



S T O 



629 



Styles two, hirsute, united at the base; stigmas pubescent. 

 Pericarp: none; glume adnate. Seed: one, oblong, covered. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: two-valved, one-flowered. 

 Corolla: outer valve with a terminating awn, jointed at the 

 base.- The species are, 



1. Stipa Pennata ; Soft Feather Grass. Awns feathery. 

 Root perennial, fibrous, tufted; culms simple, a foot high. 

 The feathered awns form a beautiful and remarkable feature, 

 at once distinguishing this from all other Grasses. Johnson, 

 the editor of Gerarde's Herbal, says it was nourished for its 

 beauty in sundry of our English gardens ; and that it was 

 worn by sundry ladies and gentlewomen instead of a feather, 

 which it exquisitely resembles. It was first noticed by 

 Clusius near Baden, and in several parts of Austria and 

 Hungary ; and has since been observed in several parts of 

 Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Barbary, and Silesia. In 

 England it has been found upon the limestone rocks hang- 

 ing over a little valley called Long Sleadale, about six miles 

 north of Kendal in Westmoreland ; but it has not been seen 

 of late years. 



2. Stipa Juncea ; Rush-leaved Feather Grass. Awns 

 naked, straight; calices longer than the seed ; leaves smooth 

 within. Root perennial, or biennial ; culm erect, slender, 

 jointed at bottom. Native of France, Switzerland, Silesia, 

 Carniola, and Barbary, flowering in July. 



3. Stipa Capillata; Capillary Feather Grass. Awns 

 naked, curved; calices longer than the seed; leaves pubes- 

 cent within. Culms numerous, two feet high, hard, and 

 solid; leaves rushy at the base; flowers in a compressed 

 panicle, brown. Native of France, Germany, Switzerland, 

 and Italy. 



4. Stipa Aristella ; Short-awned Feather Grass. Awns 

 naked, straight, scarcely twice as long as the calix; germina 

 woolly. Root perennial; culms two feet high; calix length of 

 the seed; leaves narrow. Native country about Montpellier. 



5. Stipa Paleacea; Chaffy Feather Grass. Awns half 

 naked; panicle simple; leaves convoluted, awl-shaped, pu- 

 bescent within; root-leaves abundant, awl-shaped, rigid, two 

 inches long. Found in Africa and Egypt. 



6. Stipa Tenacissima; Tough Feather Grass. Awns hairy 

 at the base; panicle spiked; leaves filiform; flowers panicled, 

 approximating, numerous. Native of the sand-hills of Spain 

 and Barbary, where the inhabitants convert it into ropes, 

 mats, and baskets. 



7. Stipa Capensis ; Cape Feather Grass. Awns hairy at the 

 base; panicle spiked; leaves ensiform. Native of the Cape. 



8. Stipa Spicata; Spiked Feather Grass. Awns hairy at the 

 base; raceme spiked, directed to one side. Root perennial, 

 creeping, producing many culms; flowers sessile, scarcely 

 pubescent, villose at the base. Native of the Cape. 



9. Stipa Bicolor; Two-coloured Feather Grass. Awns 

 naked; seeds obovate, bearded at the base. Culm a foot and 

 half high, erect, striated, sheathed, smooth ; ligule or stipule 

 membranaceous. Native of Brazil, and Monte Video. 



10. Stipa Avenacea : Oat Feather Grass. Awns naked; 

 calices equalling the seed; culms slender; upper leaf ven- 

 tricose. Native of Virginia. 



11. Stipa Membranacea; Membranaceous Feather Grass. 

 Pedicels dilated, membranaceous. This grass is scarcely a 

 foot high, with the appearance of an Avena ; culm even, the 

 thickness of a small thread. The upper flower but one ses- 

 sile. Native of Spain. 



12. Stipa Barbata; Bearded Feather Grass. Leaves rigid, 

 striated on one side; panicle lax, elongated; awns very long, 

 bearded from the base to the tip. This resembles the first 

 species, but differs in having rigid, glaucous, flattish leaves, 



striated on one side, wider, serrate, with a very long awn, 

 hirsute on every side from the base to the tip. Native of 

 Barbary, about Mascar and Tlemsen. 



13. Stipa Parviflora; Small-flowered Feather Grass. Leaves 

 radical, stiffish, filiform; panicle diffused; awns naked, capil- 

 laceous. Roots perennial, fibrous, flexuose, long. Native of 

 dry hills near Mascar, and in the kingdom of Tunis. 



14. Stipa fortilis; Twisted-awned Feather Grass. Panicle 

 spiked, rolled in at the base; inner calix villose; awns 

 twisted, villose at bottom. Culm erect, many from the same 

 root. The flowers are deciduous, and very numerous : they 

 adhere to the clothes of passengers, and incommode them by 

 tickling and pricking them. It is an annual grass. Native 

 of Barbory, where it is found in the fields. 



15. Stipa Canadensis. Leaves setaceous ; panicle small ; 

 calices glabrous, obtusely ovate; awns thick, short. Growi 

 in the rocky parts of Canada, Hudson's Bay, &c. 



16. Stipa Expansa. Leaves striate, glabrous; spikes alter- 

 nate, paniculate, expanded ; flowers sessile, remote ; calices 

 longer than the corolla; awn very short, naked. Grows in 

 Carolina. 



17. Stipa Stricta. Leaves arundinaceous ; panicles elon- 

 gate, awned ; peduncles jointed, very upright; awns naked, 

 subflexuose. Grows in Carolina. 



Eight other species of Stipa have been found in New Hol- 

 land, and two in South America. 



Stitchwort. See Stellaria. 



Stock Gillyflower. See Cheiranthus. 



Stoebe ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia 

 Segregate. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common 

 roundish, imbricate; scales awl-shaped, covering the univer- 

 sal receptacle on every side ; perianth partial, one-flowered, 

 five-leaved, solitary within each scale of the common calix, 

 consisting of linear, acute, equal, erect leaflets. Corolla: 

 proper one-petalled, funnel-form ; border five-cleft, patulous. 

 Stamina : filamenta five, capillary, short ; antherse cylindri- 

 cal, five-toothed. Pistil: germen oblong; style filiform, 

 length of the stamina; stigma acute, bifid. Pericarp: none; 

 calix unchanged. Seeds: solitary, oblong ; down feathered, 

 long. Receptacle: proper, naked. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix : one-flowered. Corolla : tubular, hermaphrodite. 

 Receptacle: naked. Down: feathered. The species are, 



1. Stoebe jEthiopica. Leaves recurve-hooked, naked; 

 stem two or three feet high, sending out. slender branches 

 from the sides. The flowers are produced in single heads at 

 the ends of the branches, and are of a pale yellow colour. 

 Native of the Cape. See the fourth species. 



2. Stoebe Ericoides. Leaves recurved, hoary; corollas 

 two-flowered, diffbrm, and hemispherical. This is a distorted 

 little shrub, like Heath. Native of the Cape. 



3. Stoebe Prostrata. Leaves resupine, tomentose on one 

 side ; stem prostrate ; heads simple, terminating, sessile, the 

 size of Peas. Native of the Cape. 



4. Stoebe Gnaphaloides. Leaves imbricate, pressed close; 

 stems shrubby, proliferous, rod-like, a foot and half high ; 

 with filiform branches, covered with pressed -close leaves; 

 flowers sessile, in bundles. Native of the Cape. This, and 

 all the plants of this genus, may be propagated by cuttings 

 or slips, planted in July upon a bed of soft loam, and 

 covered close down with a bell or hand glass, shading them 

 from the sun until they have taken root, then gradually inure 

 them to the open air, and afterwards take them up, and 

 plant them in pots, placing them in the shade till they have 

 taken new root; then place them in a sheltered situation, 

 with other exotic tender plants, and in autumn remove them 

 into the dry-stove. 



