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button-like ; fruits succulent, combined 

 into a one-celled berry, surmounted by the 

 limb of the calyx. S. esculentus has pink 

 flowers and' an edible fruit, of the size of 

 a peach, whence it has been called the 

 Sierra Leone Peach. The generic name is 

 derived from the Greek, and is significant 

 of the fleshy heads of flowers. [M. T. M.] 



SARCOCHILTJS. As originally consti- 

 tuted this genus consists of a small num- 

 ber of subtropical Australian Feejean and 

 Malayan orchids, but a German orchidolo- 

 gist has recently combined with them nu- 

 i merous Eastern species referred by other 

 botanists to the genera Aerides, Dendro- 

 colla, &c. It is here restricted to the few 

 original species, which are small epiphytal 

 plants, with short stems, narrow distichous 

 coriaceous leaves, and bracteated spikes or 

 racemes of fleshy open sometimes showy 

 flowers. These have nearly equal blunt 

 sepals, the lateral ones adnate to the base 

 of the lip, and similar but smaller petals, 

 a concave fleshy spurless lip continuous 

 with the short erect column, and a ter- 

 minal anther containing four pollen-masses 

 cohering in globose pairs, and attached to 

 a broad strap-shaped caudicle. [A. SJ 



SARCOCLINIUM. A genus of Euphor- 

 biacere of that group in which the cells of 

 the fruit contain but one seed. The three 

 known species, found in Ceylon and the 

 Malayan peninsula, are trees of medium 

 growth, the ends of their branches fur- 

 nished with a tuft of large glossy simple 

 leaves, accompanied by stipules, and bear- 

 ing in their axils long racemes of minute 

 flowers, the sterile and fertile on different 

 plants. The leaves, which are of the same 

 form as the leaflets of a horse-chestnut, 

 are in 8. Hookeri two to three feet long. 

 Of those of S. longifolium, which are not 

 so large, Mr. Thwaites remarks : 'As they 

 are of a firm consistence, and do not ra- 

 pidly decay, they are used by the Cingalese 

 for thatching.' [A. A. B.] 



SARCOCOCCA. Small branching ever- 

 green shrubs of the order Euphorbiacece, 

 found in the temperate parts of India 

 Ceylon and Java. They have glossy lance- 

 shaped or elliptical entire three-nerved 

 leaves ; and in their axils short spikes of 

 small white or yellowish unisexual flowers 

 not unlike those of the box, followed by 

 black berries a little larger than cherry- 

 stones. These plants are closely related 

 to the common box of our gardens, but 

 differ in the berried fruit, and the position 

 of the fertile flowers, which are at the base 

 instead of the apex of the spikes, as well 

 as in their trinerved leaves. The generic 

 name refers to the fleshy nature of the 

 fruit, a circumstance uncommon in the 

 family. [A. A. B.] 



SARCOCOLLA. One of the few genera 

 composing the small order of Penceacece, 

 and, like its congeners, found only in the 

 neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope. 

 The four described species are little shrubs, 

 with opposite entire overlapping leaves, 

 furnished with little blackish wart-like 



bodies in their axils. The flowers have 

 two small bractlets at their base, and are 

 produced in clusters at the points of the 

 branches in the axils of large leaf-like 

 coloured bracts, which are frequently co- 

 vered with a greasy resinous exudation. 

 The gum-resin called Sarcocool, now but 

 seldom met with, is generally said to be the 

 produce of S. squamosa (alias Pencea Sarco- 

 colla) and of Pencea mucronata, but there is 

 no evidence that such is the case. The Sar- 

 cocolla of the ancients, so named from the 

 Greek words sarx 'flesh' and kolla 'glue,' 

 in consequence of its being supposed to 

 possess the property of agglutinating 

 wounds, is said by Dioscorides to have 

 been obtained from a Persian tree, and 

 consequently not from any species of the 

 present genus, which is confined to South- 

 ern Africa. Sarcocool occurs in the form 

 of little gravel-like grains, and has a bitter- 

 sweet taste. It contains sarcocolline, a 

 peculiar principle convertible into oxalic 

 acid by the action of nitric acid. [A. S.] 



SARCCDERM. An intermediate fleshy 

 layer in the testa of some seeds ; a layer of 

 either the primine or secondine. 



SARCODES. A genus of Ericaceae of the 

 tribe Monotropece, allied to Pterospora, but 

 with much larger flowers, an elongated 

 style, and wingless seeds. It consists of a 

 single species, an erect herbaceous parasi- 

 tical plant from California, with a fleshy 

 stem, succulent scale-like leaves, and a long 

 raceme of pendulous flowers, the whole 

 plant of a blood-red colour. 



SARCOGLOTTIS. Under this name are 

 grouped a few West Indian and tropical 

 American terrestrial orchids, which some 

 authors regard as a section of Spiranthes, 

 and others as entitled to rank as a distinct 

 genus, characterised mainly by the erect 

 flowers having the lateral sepals decurrent 

 the whole length of the ovary and forming 

 a sort of sac, and by the pollen-masses 

 being stalked. [A. S.J 



SARCOGONUM. A section of the poly- 

 gonaceous genus Miihlenbeckia, consist- 

 ing of those Australian species which have 

 fringed stigmas. [J. T. S.] 



SARCOL^NA. A genus of Clilenacece 

 peculiar to Madagascar, and comprising a 

 few species, having a shrubby habit, decum- 

 bent branches, ovate leaves (more or less 

 plicate when young"), paniculate flowers, a 

 fleshy involucre surrounding the calyx, 

 five petals, an indefinite number of sta- 

 mens, and a three-celled capsule, each cell 

 containing two seeds. [B. S.] 



SARCOLOBTJS. A genus of Asclepia- 

 dacece, containing three species of glabrous 

 twining shrubs from India and Java. They 

 have opposite oval fleshy or coriaceous 

 leaves, and few-flowered interpetiolar um- 

 bels. The calyx is five-leaved ; the corolla 

 rotate and five-cleft, with a naked throat, 

 and no staminal corona ; the gynostegium 

 is somewhat hemispherical ; the pollen- 

 masses are erect, clavate with long stalks; 

 the stigma is five-sided and mamillose ; 



