S E R 



S E R 



W'ith yellow hairs. This is a very rare plant, even in dried 

 coUeftions. 



Seft. 2. Heads compound ; partial ones croiuded. 



S. decumbeits. Trailing Serruria. Brown, n. 27. (Protea 

 decumbens ; Tliunb. Dill. n. I. t. i. Prodr. 25'. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. I. 506. P. procumbens ; Linn. Suppl. 116.) — 

 Stem proltrate, fmooth, as well as the three-cleft leaves, 

 ■whofe (egments are undivided. Each partial head ol about 

 four flowers.— Native of the ftony fides of mountains, at the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; not as yet known as a garden plant. 

 It is fmooth, dividing from the root into feveral proflrate, 

 leafy, wavy branches. Leaves afcending, about two inches 

 long, in two or three fimple, thickifh, linear fegments. 

 Floiuer-Jlalks axillary and terminal, flender, fcaly, each 

 bearing a fmall roundifh head, enveloped in ovate, pointed, 

 rather filky bradeas, and compofed of from four to fix 

 fmaller heads. Corolla filky, very fiightly curved. Mr. 

 Brown remarks that fome of the heads are, apparently from 

 ftarvation or abortion, fimple. 



S. glomerata. Many-headed Serruria. Brown, n. 31. 

 Ait. n. 6. (Protea glomerata ; Linn. Mant. 187. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. I. 509. Leucadendron glomeratum ; Linn. Sp. 

 • Pi. 137. Serraria foliis tcnuifiime divifis, capitibus tomen- 

 tofis ; Burm. Afr. 265. t. 99. f. 2 ) — Stem erect, (mooth 

 like the doubly pinnaliiid leaves. Partial heads of many 

 flowers. Inner bratleas fomewhat filky. Common flower- 

 ftalks fcaly. Stigma club-fliaped. — Found in ilony hilly 

 places at the Cape. Mr. Maflbn is faid to have fent it, 

 about the year 1789, to Kcw, where it flowers in July and 

 Auguft. A ratlier humble _/7jra3, with reddifli branches. 

 Leaves from one to two inches long, flender, quite fmooth. 

 Floiuer-Jlalks downy ; the common ones often aggregate and 

 racemole, clothed with broad, fmooth, loofely imbricated, 

 fcaly braBeas ; partial ones ftiorter than their refpeftive 

 heads. Corolla externally filky. 



Seft. 3. Floiuer-Jlalks divided. Heads Jimple, corymbofe 

 or raccmoje. 



S. Burmanni. Burmann's Serruria. Brown, n. 36. Ait. 

 n. 7. (Protea Serraria; Linn. Mant. 188. Willd Sp. 

 PI. V. I. 508. Leucadendron Serraria k ; Linn. Sp. PI. 

 137. Serraria foliis tenuiflime divifis, floribus rubris apetahs; 

 Burm. Afr. 264. t. 99. f. i. Abrotanoides arboreum, 

 &c. ; Pluk. Mant. i. Phyt t. 329. f, 1.) — Heads corym- 

 bofe, each of about ten flowers. Corollas level-topped, 

 more or lefs filky, fliorter than the partial ftalks. Leaves 

 doubly pinnatifid, briftle-fliaped, longer than the flower- 

 ilalks. — Native of low barren fpots, about the fides of hills 

 at tlie Cape, very frequent. Mr. Mafl'on fent it in 1786 

 to Kew garden, where it bloflbms from May to July. A 

 humble corymbofe Jhrub, with very flender acute leaves, 

 •which are flightly hairy. The heads are fmall, reddifli, 

 crowned with the long prominent llyles. Mr. Bi own men- 

 tions a variety, or polfibly dilhnft fpecies, whofe leaves are 

 rather filky, heads more obtufe at their bafe, and bradeas, 

 as well !i9, Jloiuers, altogrilier filky. 



S Iriterncita. Silvery. (lowered Serruria. Brown, n. 37. 

 Ait. n 8. (Protea triternata ; Thunb. Dill. n. 7. Prodr. 

 25. Willd. Sp. PI. v. I. 509. P. argentiflora ; Andr. 

 Repof. t. 447.) — Corymbs compound. Heads globofe, 

 many-flowred. Brafteas and partial flower-ltalks filky. 

 Leaves ilirice trrnate, fmooth as well as the flem. — Ga- 

 thn d by Mr. Niven, near the river at Roode Zant, Cape 

 of Good H'.jpc. Mefl'is. Lee and Kennedy are faid to have 

 firll railed this elegant fpecies, ;ibout the year 1802. It 

 blofloms liom June to xAuguft. Tiic leaves are four or five 

 inches long, ard as thick as a crow's quiil, being larger, as 

 well as more compound, than in molt «ther Iptcics, Heads 



of flowers of a filvery white, filky, numerous, each rather 

 above half an inch diameter. 6V/jma obovate, yellow. 



SERSALISIA, fo named after a Neapolitan ecclefi. 

 afl:ic, much commended by Fabius Columna, (thijugii m 

 what part of his writings we are not informed,) is a ^.'enus 

 feparated by Mr. Brown, in his Prodr. Nov. Holl. v. i. 529, 

 from the Linnaean Slderoxyloti ; but the charaAer does not 

 feem to us very clear. One fpecies of this new genus is 

 Sideroxylon Jer'iceum, Ait. Hort. Kew. cd. i, v. i. 262. 

 ed. 2 v. 2. 13 ; another is called by Mr. Brown Serfnlifia 

 obovata. Both are natives of the tropical parts of New 

 Holland. See SapoT/T. and SiDEKO.WLON. 



SERSEY, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 Oude ; 25 miles E. of Baraitch. 



SERTA, Garlands, among the y^nc»>n/j. See Gah- 



LAND. 



SERTAM, in Geography, a town of Portugal, on the 

 river Pera, in Eltremadura ; 24 miles N.E. of Thomar. 



SERTINO, a river of Sicily, which runs into the fea, 

 on the call coalt. 



SERTORIUS, QuiNTUs, in Biography, a dillinguiftied 

 Roman commander, was a native of Nurfia, in the Picentine 

 regions of Italy. His father died in his infancy, but by 

 tiie care of his mother he received a moll: excellent educa- 

 tion ; and even in his youth he gained a confiderable re- 

 putation as a pleader at Rome. He had, however, a 

 decided turn for the duties and glory attached to a military 

 life, and made his firlt campaign under Servilius Ccepio, 

 againll the Cimbrians and Teutones in Gaul. In an early 

 engagement he was feverely wounded, and would have lolt 

 his life, if he had not poflefled fuflicient vigour to fwim 

 acrols the Rhone, when encumbered with his armour. He 

 next ferved under Marius, and exhibited proofs of valour 

 and talents, which much ingratiated him with that general. 

 Spain was the next great theatre of his exertions, where he 

 ferved under Didius, and acquired much reputation in the 

 campaign. On his return to Rome, he was made queltor 

 in Cilalpine Gaul ; and when the locial war broke out, he 

 brought a well-timed reinforcement to the Roman army. 

 In a battle that enfued, he loft an eye, a mark of bravery 

 in which he always gloried, and which pointed him out to 

 the plaudits of the people, whenever he appeared in the 

 theatre, and other public places. He was candidate for 

 the tribunelhip, but was difappointed in his hopes by the 

 overbearing intereft of Sylla: he accordingly joined the 

 party of Marius in the fncceeding civil war. He com- 

 manded one of the three armies which inverted Rome, and 

 honourably dillipguiflied himfclf by abrtaining from all 

 thofe afts of cruelly which dilgraced the arms ot Cinna and 

 Marius. When Sylla gained the alcendancy in It.ily, Ser- 

 torius withdrew t(^ Spain, of which country he had been 

 appointed pretor. Here he hoped to be able to revive his 

 caufe, and with this view he detached a body of troops to 

 feize the pafles of the Pyrenees ; but the murder of their 

 commander induced them to abandon their poll, and confe- 

 quently laid Spain open to Sylla's officers. After fome 

 various adventures, chiefly of the difaftrous kind, Scrtoriu8 

 went into Africa, and aflilted the Mauntanians to throw 

 off the yoke of a tyrannical king ; defeating one of Sylla's 

 generals, by whom he w;is fupported. His reputation now 

 caufed him to be invited to Lufitania ; and failing thither 

 wiiii a fmall body of Romans and Africans, he obtained 

 fuch an afcei.dancy over the natives, that he loon had the 

 command of the whole Lufilanian nation. He exercifed 

 them in the arts of warfare, and introduced a rigid difciplinc 

 among them ; but Roman taftic! being unfuitablc to them, 

 he adopted a fervice belter fuited to the nature and circum- 



tiancci 



