GLOSSARY. 313 



Saline Soils, those which become impregnated with marine or com- 

 mon salt, by being flooded with seuvvater, or from other causes. 

 Salinic Soils, soils containing, or impregnated with, salt. 

 Salts, compounds, produced by the combination of acids with metallic 



oxides, or earthy or alkaline bases. 

 Salts, ammoniacal , salts containing ammonia. 

 Salts, nitrous, compounds produced by the combination of nitrous 



acid with some base. 

 Sandy Soils, those which contain, according to Sir Humphrey Davy, 



at least seven eighths of sand. These are denominated silicious soils. 

 Saturation, the act of impregnating a fluid with another substance, 



till no more of it can be received or imbibed. 

 Scarify, to tear apart, with a harrow or scarifier, the surface of grass 



lands. 

 Scarified, having the surface torn apart with a harrow or scarifier. 

 Scarifier, an instrument for scarifying lands. 

 Schiffel, a measure, more than half as large again as a bushel. 

 Schist, slate. 



Schistose rock, slaty rock. 

 Scottish acre, equal to an English acre and twenty-seven hundredths 



of an acre. 

 Secondary, succeeding to the first. 

 Secondary formation, and Secondary rocks. Those rocks, which 



contain fossil remains of animals or vegetables, or fragments of the 



primary rocks, w^ere of course formed after the creation of organic 



beings and the older rocks, and were therefore called secondary. 

 Secondary soils belong to secondary or more recent formations, and 



abound, more or less, in organic remains. 

 Seed glumes, scales or chaiF which surround or enclose the stamens 



and pistils in the flov/ers of grasses. 

 Seed spikes, the ears, or those parts containing the seed. 

 Serpentine, a greenish rock, containing much magnesia, so called, 



from its spotted colors, resembling a serpent's skin. 

 Shell marl, marl, formed principally of shells, found near the seacoast. 

 Short manure, rotted or compost manure. 

 Sienite, or Syenite, a rock, similar to granite, but having hornblende 



instead of mica. Its name is derived from Syene, in Egypt, where 



there are celebrated ancient quarries of this rock. 

 Silex, or Silica, the earth of which flint or quartz is composed. It 



enters into the composition of many minerals, and communicates to 



them a great degree of hardness. Rock crystal is nearly pure silex. 

 Silicious, containing silica. 

 Silicious earths, natural substances, which are composed chiefly of 



silica ; as quartz, flint, sand, &c. 

 Simple substances, synonymous with elements ; not divisible. 

 Sine, (of an arc,) a right line, drawn from one end of the arc per 



pendicular to the radius drawn from the other end. 

 Slags, the dross of metals, or vitrified cinders. 

 Smelting, the operation effusing ores, to separate the metal from the 



sulphur, arsenic, and other matters with which it is combined. 

 Soil, earth either of one or of several sorts, mixed with decomposed 



organic matter. 



27 F. c. 



