sche] 



dje Crarturg at SSatang. 



1030 



genus of Melanthacecc. The species are 

 perennial herns, natives of eastern extra- 

 tropical Australia. The roots are fibrous ; 

 the leaves broad, amplexicaul; and the 

 flowers purple, terminal, solitary, stalked, 

 without bracts. The bell-shaped perianth 

 consists of six stalked segments, each 

 with a shallow pit at the base ; style cen- 

 tral ; stigmas three, central spreading; 

 fruit a three-valved capsule containing a 

 few seeds. One or two species are in cul- 

 tivation, and are pretty purple-flowered 

 greenhouse plants. [M. T. M.J 



SCHELLOLEPIS. Goniophlebium. 



SCHENKIA. The name of a genus of 

 Gentianacece, comprising an herbaceous 

 species, with rose-coloured flowers in 

 spike-like cymes. In the structm-e of the 

 flowers the genus resembles Sebcea, but 

 the anthers are not bent downwards, and 

 are unprovided with glands at their tips. 

 The capsule also differs in being partially 

 four-celled. The'species is a native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. [M. T. M.J 



SCHERBET, or SHERBET. An Eastern 

 beverage consisting of water in which 

 jelly or syrup has been dissolved. It is also 

 made with honey and various flavouring 

 ingredients, and is coloured by the juice 

 of the berries of Phytolacca decandra and 

 of Cornus mascula, the latter of which are 

 an esteemed fruit in Asia Minor. 



SCHEUCHZERIA. A curious rush-like 

 marsh-plant belonging to the order Junca- 

 ginacece, of which the characters are : Pe- 

 rianth of six reflexed leaves, the inner ones 

 narrower: filaments slender ; ovaries three; 

 capsules three, singularly inflated ; flowers 

 greenish, in a flexuose bracteated raceme. 

 S. palustris grows in marshes, but is rare in 

 Britain. [C. A. J.] 



SCHTAKA. A Caroline Island name for 

 Macropiper methysticum. 



SCHIEDEA. A genus of Caryophyllacea;, 

 consisting of a small shrub from the Sand- 

 wich Islands, with knotted forked branch- 

 es, the younger ones four-sided ; leaves 

 small opposite connate lanceolate ; flow- 

 ers small white in paniculate cymes ; parts 

 of the flower in fives, the stamens twice as 

 many as the small bifld scale-like petals ; 

 capsule ovoid, three or four-valved, with 

 numerous black globose tuberculated seeds 

 without a strophiole at the hilum. [J. T. S.j 



SCHILLERA. Eriolcena. 



SCHIMPERA. A genus of Crnciferce from 

 Arabia. It is a small herb with the habit 

 of Yella annua, having runcinate leaves, 

 flowers with entire petals, and a one-celled 

 indehiscent pouch crowned by the oblique 

 leaf-like style, and containing a solitary 

 pendulous seed. [J. T. S.] . 



SCHINTJS. The Greek name for the 

 mastick-tree, Pistacia Lentiscus, but now 

 applied to a genus of Anacardiacece, con- 

 sisting of trees and shrubs, natives of 

 tropical America, &c. The leaves are un- 

 equally pinnate, the terminal leaflet very 



long. The flowers are small white, in ter- 

 minal or axillary panicles, dioecious ; calyx 

 flve-parted, persistent; stamens ten, in- 

 serted beneath a wavy fleshy disk ; ovary 

 solitary ; styles three or four, terminal, 

 very short; fruit succulent round, the 

 stone one-celled one-seeded, its outer sur- 

 face traversed by six; longitudinal channels 

 filled with oil. 



'The leaves of some of the species are so 

 filled with a resinous fluid, that the least 

 degree of unusual repletion of the tissue 

 causes it to be discharged; thus some of 

 them fill the air with fragrance after rain ; 

 and »S. Molle and some others expel their 

 resin with such violence when immersed 

 in water as to have the appearance of spon- 

 taneous motion, in consequence of the re- 

 coil.'— Botanical Register, 1. 1580. 



S. Areira is said to cause swellings in 

 those who sleep under its shade. The fresh 

 juicy bark of this shrub is used in Brazil for 

 rubbing newly-made ropes, which it covers 

 with a bright dark-brown varnish. The 

 juice of this plant is used in diseases of 

 the eyes. The root of S. Molle is used me- 

 dicinally in Peru, while the resin that 

 exudes from the tree is employed to as- 

 tringe the gums. From the fruits is pre- 

 pared a kind of wine in Chili. The small 

 twitrs serve for toothpicks. The specific 

 name Molle or Mulli is an adaptation of the 

 Peruvian name for the shrub. [M. T. M.] 



SCHISMATOPERA. The plant bearing 

 this name, S. distiehophylla, only differs 

 from Pera in the four to eight stamens of 

 its sterile flowers being supported on the 

 end of a column formed by the union of 

 the filaments, which are nearly free in Pera. 

 The latter genus is remarkable among Eu- 

 phorbiacea? for its minute flowers, which 

 are sterile and fertile on different plants, 

 being enclosed in a small round involucre 

 that in the young state might readily be 

 mistaken for a leaf-bud, arising as it does 

 from the axil of the leaf. S.distichophylla 

 is a small tree of Brazil and Guiana, having 

 alternate two-ranked glossy leaves in size 

 and form like those of the Portugal laurel, 

 and bearing in their axils round involucres 

 the size of small peas, containing three or 

 four minute greenish-white sweet-scented 

 blossoms. [A. A. B.] 



SCHISMATOPTERTDES. A group of 

 ferns proposed by Willdenow, for those 

 genera in which the spore-cases are pseudo- 

 gyrate dehiscing by a cleft, or the fructi- 

 fication is disposed in spikes or panicles 

 instead of on the under-surface of the frond. 

 It included such genera as Gleiclienia, To- 

 dea, Schizma, and Osmunda. [T. M.] 



SCHISMUS. A genus of grasses belong- 

 ing to the Festucece, the inflorescence of 

 which is in simple panicles, the spikelets 

 of which contain from five to seven florets; 

 outer glumes two ; flowering glumes the 

 length of the florets or longer; lower pale 

 emarginate, with a short awn at the point ; 

 upper pale entire: stamens three; style 

 lengthened out. This genus contains only 

 I a few species, all annuals save one, 8. pa- 



