STR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



STR 



635 



anth. Nectaries: twenty, anthera-shaped, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, in a ring, inserted into the receptacle. Stamina : 

 filamenta twelve, filiform, shorter than the nectaries, inserted 

 into the receptacle; autherse linear, erect. Female. Calix: 

 spathe two-leaved, one-flowered ; leaflets boat-shaped, com- 

 pressed, obtuse, converging, unequal, permanent; perianth 

 as in the male, superior. Corolla: as in the male; nectaries 

 as in the male, a little larger. Pistil: germen inferior, ovate- 

 hexangular, compressed; styles six, two-parted; stigmas 

 simple, recurved. Pericarp: berry ovate, narrowed to both 

 ends, six-sided, six-celled, with a pellucid pulp. Seeds : 

 very many, oblong, cylindrical. Observe. According to 

 Willdenow, the nectaries are commonly twenty-one or 

 twenty-two, the stamina eleven or twelve: according to 

 Roth, the nectaries are thirty-one, and the stamina com- 

 monly thirteen. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Spathe: two- 

 leaved. Perianth: superior, trifid. Petals: three. Berry: 



six-celled. The species are, 



1. Stratoites Aloides; Water Aloe, or Common Water Sol- 

 dier. Leaves ensifonn-triangular, aculeate, serrate. This is 

 a truly stoloniferous and perennial plant, though each root 

 flowers but once. The parent plant, rooted in mud at the 

 bottom of the ditch, after flowering sends out buds of leaves 

 at the ends of long runners, which rise to the surface, form 

 roots, flower, and then sink to the bottom, where they take 

 hold of the mud, sometimes ripen their seeds, and always 

 become in their turn the parents of another race of young 

 offsets. Peduncles several, shorter than the leaves, each 

 bearing one upright white flower, arising from a two-leaved 

 sheath ; berry ovate ; seeds from ten to twelve in each cell. 

 The pulp in its natural state is clear like the vitreous humour 

 of the eye ; in spirits of wine it becomes opaque and white, 

 like the white of an egg when boiled, but when plunged into 

 water it becomes clear again. Native of the north parts of 

 Europe, and of Siberia. In England it abounds in the fen 

 ditches of the Isle of Ely, and is very common in Lincoln- 

 shire, Norfolk, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, flowering in July. In 

 spring the offsets rise and float on the surface, sometimes eight 

 or ten in a circle, and so thick as entirely to fill up the sur- 

 face of (he ditches, and prevent all other plants from growing. 

 A great variety of insects are nourished by this plant, some of 

 whom pursue it down to the bottom of the water, and devour 

 the leaves. To propagate it, procure, the young plants in 

 spring, when they first rise on the surface of the water, and 

 place them in canals, ponds, large tubs, or cisterns, where 

 they will strike down their roots, and thrive without care. 



.Stratoites Acoroides ; Indian Water Soldier. Leaves 

 ensiform, flat, very smooth ; spathe bearded at the point. 

 Root creeping, little branched ; flowers superior. Native of 

 Ceylon. 



3. Stratoites Alismokles; Broad-leaved Water Soldier. 

 Leaves broad-ovate, entire; sheath slightly divided, with 

 several dilated ribs. Root tuberous, perennial; stern none; 

 leaves on long radical footstalks; flower-stalks simple, each 

 bearing a solitary white flower, of very short duration. Native 

 of ponds in the East Indies and Egypt. 



Strawberry. See Fragaria. 



Strawberry Elite. See Blitum. 



Strawberry Tree. See Arbutus. 



Strelitzia; (so called in honour of her late majesty Char- 

 lotte Sophia, Queen of-Great Britain, of the family of Meck- 

 lenburgh Strelitz, and an illustrious patroness of the science 

 of Botany;) a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: spathe universal 

 terminating, one-leafed, channelled, acuminate, from spread- 

 ing declining, many-flowered, involving the base of the flow- 



VOL. II. 119. 



ers ; partial spathes lanceolate, shorter than the flowers; 

 periantli none. Corolla: irregular; petals three, lanceolate, 

 acute, the lowest boat-shaped, the two upper bluntly keeled; 

 nectary three-leaved ; the two lower leaflets a little shorter 

 than the petals, from a broad base, awl-shaped, waved at 

 the edge, folded together, including the genitals, towards 

 the tip behind augmented with a thick appendix, in form 

 of half an arrow-head; the lowest leaflet shorter, ovate, 

 compressed, keeled. Stamina: filamenta five, filiform, placed 

 on the receptacle, three in one leaflet of the nectary, two 

 with the style enclosed in the other leaflet ; antherse linear, 

 erect, commonly longer than the filamenta, included. Pistil: 

 germen inferior, oblong, obtusely three-cornered; style fili- 

 form, length of the stamina; stigmas three, awl-shaped, higher 

 than the nectary, erect, at the beginning of flowering-time 

 glued together. Pericarp: capsule subcoriaceous, oblong, 

 obtuse, indistinctly three-cornered, three-celled, three-valved. 

 Seeds: numerous, adhering in a double row to the central 

 conceptacle. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Spathes : univer- 

 sal and partial. Perianth: none. Corolla: three-petalled. 

 Nectary : three-leaved, involving the genitals. Capsule : 

 three-celled ; cells many-seeded. The species are, 



1. Strelitzia Reginse ; Canna-leaved Strelitzia. Leaves 

 parallel-ribbed; scape the length and thickness of the peti- 

 oles, erect, round, covered with alternate, remote, acuminate 

 sheaths, green, with a purple margin ; petals yellow, four 

 inches long. The spathe contains six or eight flowers, 

 which becoming vertical as they spring forth, form a kind 

 of crest, which the glowing orange of the corolla, and the 

 fine azure of the nectary, render truly superb. Native of 

 the Cape. It may be propagated by seeds, or by the 

 roots ; but seeds do not ripen readily in England, and it 

 increases very slowly here by the roots. It has been usually 

 plunged in the tan-pit in a stove ; but when the roots are 

 thus confined, the plant rarely or never flowers. When the 

 roots have by accident extended into the rotten tan, it has 

 readily thrown up flowering-stems; the best practice there- 

 fore is to let the roots have plenty of earth to strike into. 

 Being a Cape plant, it may probably be found to succeed 

 best in the dry-stove or conservatory. 



2. Strelitzia Augusta; Great White Strelitzia. Leaves rib- 

 bed, netted-veined. Root perennial, with long thick fibres; 

 leaves radical, about six feet long ; flowers white. Native 

 of the Cape. 



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

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, oblong, bellied, five-angled, five-grooved, five-tooth- 

 ed, covered with stiff white hairs, permanent, closing, and 

 enlarging with the fruit, which it entirely covers. Corolla: 

 one-petalled ; tube cylindric, rather longer than the calix, 

 twisted near the apex, a little curved; border five-parted; 

 divisions obovate, equal. Stamina : filamenta four, in the 

 upper bent part of the tube, two longer and two shorter; 

 antherse round, twe-lobed, approaching by pairs. Pistil: 

 germen superior, four-lobed; style length of the stamina; 

 stigma large, two-lipped, the upper very short, the under 

 long, broad, recurved. Pericarp: drupe dry, two-lobed, hid 

 in the withered inflated closed calix, nut-like, laterally 

 echinate, each lobe bipartite. Seeds: one in each division 

 of the nut, oblong, tapering towards the end, a little bent. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five-toothed. Stigma : 



two-lipped. Drupe : two-lobed, each lobe bipartite. 



The only known species is, 



1. Streptium Asperum. A plant with a rather shrubby 

 stem: leaves opposite, petioled, cordate, serrate, covered 

 with stiff hooked hairs, from one to three inches long, and 

 7 Y 



