1021 



€§z Crea£urj) at 23fltaiig. 



[sARG 



and the follicles are fleshy, and contain 

 margined seeds without hairs. ["W. CJ 



SARCOMA. One of the names of the 

 disk. 



SARCOPHYSA. A genus of Atropacece, 

 comprising a climbing shrub, native of 

 Sew Grenada. The leaves are alternate 

 and leathery, and the flowers handsome, in 

 pendulous clusters. The calyx is large and 

 brightly coloured, fleshy and distended, tu- 

 bular and contracted at the throat, the limb 

 divided into five erect persistent seg- 

 ments : the corolla has a long tube, some- 

 what dilated in the middle, and a shortly 

 five-lobed limb ; and the fruit is included 

 within the fleshy calyx. The name of the 

 genus is expressive of the peculiarities of 

 the calyx, from scu-x ' flesh ' and phusa ' a 

 bladder.' [M. T. MJ 



SARCOPHTTE. This is one of those 

 curious parasitical plants of the family 

 Balanophoracece, which have been so ela- 

 borately described by Dr. Hooker in the 

 Transactions of the Linncean Society. It 

 comprises a single species, a fleshy fungus- 

 like plant, found growing in South Africa 

 on the roots of species of Mimosa. The 

 inflorescence is branched, with small bracts 

 at the base of the pedicels. The flowers 

 are dioecious, the males pauicled, each with 

 a three-lobed perianth, concealing three 

 free stamens, with many-celled anthers; 

 and the females in globose heads, without 

 a perianth. The name, derived from the 

 Greek, signifies ' flesh-plant.' [M. T. MJ j 



SARCOPODIUM. A genus of tropical 

 Asiatic orchids of the Dendrobidece group, j 

 allied both to Dendrobium and Bolbophyl- j 

 lum, to one or other of which most of the 



■ known species, about twenty in number, I 



j were at one time referred. The plants I 

 belonging to it are creeping epiphytes, 



i with leathery leaves, borne singly upon 

 the pseudobulbs, from the base of which 

 the single or few-flowered peduncles arise. 

 Their flowers are of a thi ck leathery nature, 



j rather showy, with ringent sepals (the 

 lateral ones enlarged at the base and ad- 

 nate with the foot of the column), smaller 

 petals, and a short fleshy lip enlarged at its 



, base and moveably jointed with the base 

 of the column, which is short hornless and 

 furnished with a prolonged foot ; the two- 

 celled anther contains four nearly equal 

 free pollen-masses. [A. S.] 



SARCOSTEMMA (including Philibertia). 

 A genus of Asclepiadacece, composed of 

 about forty species indigenous to the tro- 

 pics of both hemispheres, and consisting 

 of climbing or erect often epiphytal 

 shrubs, which are either leafless or fur- 

 nished with linear or cordate leaves, and 

 umbellate white yellow or purplish flowers, 

 often emitting a powerful scent. The calyx 

 is flve-cleft ; the corolla either rotate or ur- 

 ceolate-rotate ; thestaminal coronadoubie; 

 the pollen-masses in club-shaped cylinders; 

 the follicles smooth ; and the seeds fur- 

 nished with a hairy appendix. 8. glaucum 

 yields the Ipecacuanha of Venezuela, and is 



used as a sudorific and in cases of humoral 

 asthma. The young shoots of S. For.skali- 

 anum and those of 8. stipitaceum of Arabia 

 are eaten. The pith of S. pyrotechnicum is 

 used as tinder. The milky juice of S. vimi- 

 nale is slightly and agreeably acid, and used 

 by travellers to allay thirst. [B. S.] 



SARCOSTIGMA. This genus consists of 

 two species, natives of Southern India and 

 Java, both climbing or twining shrubs, 

 with alternate simple entire thickish 

 leaves without stipules, and flowers of 

 separate sexes on distinct plants ; the long 

 flower-spikes being produced usually in 

 pairs from the sides of the branches, and 

 having the stalkless flowers in little clus- j 

 ters along them. The genus was first re- j 

 ferred to the Tliymelacece, afterwards to 

 Phytocrenacea, but is now placed in the 

 order Icacinacece. S. Kleinii, a nalive of | 

 Courtallum and Cochin on the Malabar 

 coast of India, produces oval somewhat 

 flattened fruits about an inch long and I 

 half an inch broad, containingalargeseed, j 

 from which a ttiick semifluid oil called 

 Odal or Adu lis expressed. [A. S.] 



SARCOTHECA. A genus of Oxalidacea?, I 

 comprising a shrub, native of the Indian 

 Archipelago, with square branches, entire ! 

 thick leaves, and elongated axillary or ter- | 

 minal racemes of flowers, occurring either 

 singly or in pairs. The calyx consists of J 

 five persistent overlapping sepals; the i 

 corolla of five stalked oblong petals, con- ! 

 volute in aestivation ; stamens ten, five 

 long, five short, the filaments awl-shaped, 

 connected at the base into a cup ; ovary 

 sessile, five-celled, with two ovules in each 

 cell ; styles five, filiform ; capsule globose, 

 five-celled. [M. T. M.J 



SARGASSUM. A genus of dark-spored 

 Algw belonging to the natural order Fu- 

 cacete, characterised by the fruit-bearing 



Sargassum bacciferum. 



receptacles being collected in little bundles 

 in the axils of the leaves ; the air-vessels, 

 which are merely transformed leaves, with 

 or without a terminal point, being stalked 

 and separate. The species are extremely 

 numerous, and chiefly tropical or subtro- 

 pical. The great interest of the genus to 

 the general reader consists in the far-famed 

 Sargasso-sea owing its origin to one of the 

 species, <S. bacciferum. We have no species 

 inhabiting our shores, but 8. vulgare and 



