1029 



Oje Cixas'ur^ of ISfltam?. 



[SCHE 



SCEXTWOOD of Tasmania. Alyxia 

 buxifolia. 



SCEPACE.E. An order founded by 

 Lindley on the genus Scejfa or Aporosa, 

 from tropica] Asia, which has, however, 

 since been united with the large order 

 Euphorbiacece. 



SCEPA. Tbis genus, long considered as 

 the type of a distinct family to which it 

 gave the name, is now generally placed in 

 the Euphorbiacece, among the genera of 

 .which it is readily known by its sterile 

 flowers being disposed in axillary drooping 

 catkins, somewhat like those of the birch, 

 and the fertile flowers (borne on different 

 plants) arranged in short axillary racemes 

 or fascicles, each flower having a two- 

 i celled four-ovuled ovary crowned with 

 two entire or forked styles. The name 

 Scepa should, however, give place to that 

 of Aporosa, which has the precedence. 

 About a dozen species are known, all from 

 the eastern hemisphere, and mostly from 

 India and Java. They are trees or bushes 

 with laurel-like leaves placed alternately 

 on the stem, and accompanied by minute 

 stipules. Aporosa (or Scepa, or Lepidosta- 

 chi/s) Roxburghii, known in India as Kokra, 

 affords, according to Dr. Roxburgh, a hard 

 wood, which is useful for various pur- 

 poses. [A. A. B.] 



SCEPTRE-FLOWER. Sceptranthus. 



SCELEFFERIA. A genus of Celastracece, 

 comprising two rigid glabrous shrubs from 

 the West Indies, Texas, and Xew Mexico. 

 The leaves are alternate or clustered, small 

 obovate or spathulate, and entire ; the 

 flowers are small and insignificant, dioe- 

 cious solitary, or in clusters in the axils of 

 the leaves. They have four sepals, petals, 

 and stamens, a small disk, a free two- 

 celled ovary with two ovules in each cell, 

 and a small pea-shaped drupe containing 

 two one-seeded nuts. 



SCHAFFXERIA. A curious fern of 

 Mexico, considered by Fee as the repre- 

 sentative of a distinct genus of scolopen- 

 drioid ferns, characterised by its reticu- 

 lated veins and radiately disposed short 

 double sori. The fronds are simple, with 

 a black stipes, rotundly flabellate or obo- 

 vate, the veins radiately forked, with the 

 xenules anastomosing in several series of 

 unequal elongated areoles. [T. M.] 



SCHAKAR. A Persian name for Saccha- 

 rum officinarum. 



SCHANGINIA. A small genus of Clie- 

 tiopodxacecR, consisting of about four spe- 

 cies, natives of Esrypt, Arabia, and North- 

 western Asia. These are herbaceous or 

 rarely shrubby plants from six to eighteen 

 inches high, smooth, and having narrow 

 alternate rather fleshy leaves, bearing in 

 their axils solitary or clusters of small 

 stalkless flowers, with minute scale-like 

 bracts at their bases. The Mowers are 

 either perfect or of the female sex only, 

 and have the calyx cut at the top into five 

 lobes. The fruit is half enclosed in the 



fleshy or berry-like tube of the calyx ; and 

 the seeds are vertical, double-coated, 

 having a flat spiral embryo without albu- 

 men. [A. S.] 



SCHAPZIGER, SCHABZETGER. A kind 

 of Swiss cheese, flavoured with the leaves 

 of Melilotus cceruleus. 



SCHARKARA. A Sanscrit name signi- 

 fying hard, stony: from which, according 

 to Humboldt, the generic name Saccliarum 

 is derived. 



SCHAUERIA. Euptis. 

 SCHEELEA. A few tropical American 

 palms have recently been formed into a 

 genus under this name, but the characters 

 by which it is distinguished from the older 

 : and better-known genera Attalea and 

 ! Maximiliana, to which two at least of the 

 | so-called species of Scheelea were formerly 

 1 referred, are very slight even if constant, 

 ; which is doubtful. With the exception of 

 one dwarf stemless species, they are lofty 

 palms with thick cylindrical trunks from 

 forty to eighty feet high, crowned with 

 magnificent pinnate leaves composed of 

 numerous narrow sharp-pointed leathery 

 leaflets. Their large flower-spikes are en- 

 closed in single thick woody spathes taper- 

 ing to both ends and eventually splitting 

 i open along the back ; some species have 

 both sexes of flowers on the same spike, 

 while others produce them on separate 

 I trees. The flowers are distinguished from 

 those of Attaleahy the petals being tapered 

 instead of flat, and by the stamens being 

 only six in number instead of ten or more ; 

 and from those of Maximiliana by the 

 shape of the petals, and by the shorter 

 stamens. Their fruits contain a single 

 hard bony stone, surrounded by a fibrous 

 and often oily husk. [A. S.] 



SCHEERIA. A genus of Gesneracea 



named in honour of F. Scheer, who intro- 



i duced the two species composing it from 



Mexico, where they are diminutive herb«, 



with perennial catkin-like rhizomes and 



small flowers, giving little promise that 



under cultivation they would become the 



ornamental plants we find them in our 



hothouses. Of S. mexicana we possess two 



varieties, one having purple, the other blue 



flowers; it is perhaps handsomer than its 



congener, 8. lanata. Scheeria belongs to 



: the Achimenes tribe, and has a. five-cleft 



j calyx, a funnel-shaped corolla, a mouth- 



i shaped (stomatomorphous) stigma, and a 



dehiscent capsule. The leaves are opposite, 



more or less heart-shaped and serrated, 



whilst the flowers appear in the axils of 



the leaves. [B. S.] 



SCHEIDWETLERIA. One of the forty- 

 two genera into which Klotzsch has at- 

 tempted to separate the 350 or more species 

 of the extremely natural genus Begonia. 

 It is much better regarded as a section of 

 the latter than as a distinct genus. [A. S.] 



SCHELHAMMERA. This not very eu- 

 phonious name commemorates Professor 

 Schelhammer of Jena, and is applied to a 



