(530 



STO 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



STO 



6. Stoebe Gomphrenoides. Leaves lanceolate, imbricate, 

 pressed close ; head terminating, sessile. Native of the 

 Cape. 



6. Stoebe Scabra. Leaves twisted, pressed close, linear, 

 rugged with tubercles on the outside, tomentose within ; 

 flowers in racemes. This has the habit of a Heath in the 

 herb. Native of the Cape. 



7. Stoebe Reflexa. Procumbent: leaves linear; spikes 

 ovate ; branches ascending. Native of the Cape. 



8. Stoebe Rhinocerotis. Leaves three-sided, pressed close ; 

 h ranch lets tomentose, drooping; racemes proliferous. This 

 forms the principal food of the rhinoceros, whence its trivial 

 name. Native of the Cape. 



9. Stoebe Disticha. Leaves in bundles, recurved ; spikes 

 bifarious. Native of the Cape. 



Stokesifi; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia- 

 'vEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common ovate, 

 leaiy, subimbricate. Corolla: floscular, two-formed; corol- 

 las hermaphrodite, regular in the disk; in the outer circum- 

 ftreivce irregular, constituting a ray. Stamina: filamenta 

 five, capillary ; antherue cylindric. Pistil: germen in the 

 regular florets four-cornered, in the irregular three-cornered; 

 style filiform ; stigma two-parted, awl-shaped. Pericarp : 

 none. Seed: down filamentose, deciduous, equal to the 

 corollet; four in the regular, three in the irregular florets. 

 Receptacle: naked. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corollets-.'m 

 the ray funnel-form, longer, irregular. Down: four-bristled. 

 Receptacle: naked. The single species known is, 



1. Stokesia Cyanea; Blue-flowered Stokesia. Stem erect, 

 simple, leafy, about two feet high ; lower leaves lanceolate, 

 clasping the stem, toothed at the base ; upper sessile, cor- 

 date, serrated, all smooth, bright green ; flowers large and 

 handsome, of a fine blue colour. The corolla resembles 

 that of Centaurea Cyanus, or Common Bluebottle, with 

 almost the calix of Carthamus, to which genus it is allied. 

 Perennial ; flowering in August. Native of South Carolina. 

 It requires shelter in winter. 



Stoiiecrop. See Sedum. 



Stone Fern. See Osmunda Cnspa. 



Stonewort. See Chara. 



Stor ax-Tree. See Stijrax. 



Stoves or Hothouses, are principally intended for preserv- 

 ing such tender exotic plants, where they will not live without 

 artificial warmth in winter. Though there is a great variety 

 of these Stoves, yet they are reducible to two, the Dry Stove 

 and the 'Bark Stove; both are of comparatively modern inven- 

 tion : the first has only been about an hundred and twenty 

 years in use, and the latter a still shorter period. Before 

 these were invented, German Stoves were introduced into 

 rooms, to warm them. The use of bell-glasses, for covering 

 Melons, began in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and one 

 improvement succeeded another, till the adoption of Conser- 

 vatories, or Dry Stoves. The Dry Stove may be either built 

 with upright and sloping glasses at the top, or else the front 

 glasses, which should run from the floor to the ceiling, may 

 be laid sloping, at an angle of forty-five, the better to admit 

 the rays of the sun in spring and autumn, when the sun 

 declines. Mr. Miller always built his Dry Stoves after the 

 model of the Bark Stove, with upright glasses in front, and 

 sloping glasses over them, because this will more readily 

 admit the sun at all different seasons: for in summer, when 

 the sun is high, the top glasses will admit the rays to shine 

 almost all o_ver the house ; and the front glasses will answer 

 the same purpose in winter, when the sun is low. Whereas, 

 when the glasses are laid to any declivity in one direction, 

 the rays of the sun will not fall directly on them above a 



fortnight in autumn, and about the same time in spring, and 

 during the other parts of the yrar they will fall obliquely; 

 and in summer, when the sun is high, the rays will not reach 

 above five or six feet from the glasses. Besides, the plants 

 placed towards the back part of the house, will not thrive in 

 summer for want of air; whereas, when there are sloping- 

 glasses at the top, which run within four feet of the back of 

 the house, these, by being drawn down in hot weather, will 

 let in air perpendicularly to all the plants: and of how iTiuch 

 service this is, every one who has had an opportunity of 

 observing the growth of plants in a stove, will easily judge; 

 for when plants are placed under cover of a ceilinsr, they 

 always turn themselves toward the air and light, and thereby 

 grow crooked; and, if in order to preserve them straight, 

 they should be turned every week, they will still be poor and 

 sickly. If the situation be dry, the floor of the stove need 

 not be raised more than two feet above the level of the 

 ground ; but if it be wet, it wilt be proper to raise it three 

 feet, especially if the flues are to be carried under the floor; 

 for if these be placed upon the surface, they will not draw 

 so well as when they are more raised. The furnace must be 

 placed at one end of the house, and the size of it may be 

 directed by the kind of fuel intended to be burnt; if for 

 coals or wood, it may be made according to the common 

 method for coppers, only much larger, because as the fire is 

 to be continued chiefly during the night, if there be not room 

 to contain a considerable quantity of fuel, it will want fre- 

 quent attendance, and consequently there will be great 

 hazard of its being neglected. But if the fuel intended be 

 twf, then the furnace may be the same as will be directed 

 for the Bark Stove. The flues are either carried under the 

 pavement of the floor, or along the back of the house, over 

 each other, and are returned six or eight times the whole 

 length of the stove, according to its height. If they are 

 under the pavement, they may be carried straight, or in a 

 waving line ; which latter, some think, will draw better, and 

 they may be so much turned, a* to reach almost from the 

 back to the front of the house. The depth should not be 

 less than eighteen inches, and the width nearly equal, which 

 will prevent their being choked up with soot, as is often the 

 case when the flues are made too small. The spaces between 

 the flues should be filled up, either with dry brick rubbish, 

 lime, or sand, from which little moisture wiU arise. The 

 flues should be closely plastered with loa-m both within and 

 without, and the upper part covered with a coarse cloth under 

 the floor, to prevent the smoke from -getting into the house. 

 When the flue is carried from the furnace to the end of the 

 house, it may be returned in the back above the floor twice, 

 in straight lines, which may be contrived to appear liike a 

 step or two, by which means the smoke will be continued i* 

 the house until all its heat is spent, whicb will warm the air 

 of the house better; and the chimneys, through which the 

 smoke is to pass off, may be either at both ends, or in the 

 middle, carried up in the thickness of the brick-work of the 

 flues, so as not to appear in sight in the house. The flues 

 should be first covered with broad tiles, sixteen inches long, 

 and then a bed of sand laid over them, about two inches 

 thick, upon which the other tiles should be laid, to correspond 

 with the rest of the floor. This thickness of cover will be 

 full enough to prevent the too sudden rise of the heat I'rom 

 the flues. But if the furnace be placed under the floor, the 

 thickness of sand between the brick -arch Which covers it, 

 and the floor, should not be less than four or six inches, so 

 that the bottom of the furnace should be sunk the lower; and 

 if, from the fire-place to the end of the house, the -flues be 

 laid a little rising, it will cause them to draw the better; but 



