tens, which is a native of Cuili, the others 

 being African and Persian. [D. M.] 



SCHISTACEUS. Slate-grey. 



SCHISTANTHE. A genus of Scrophula- 

 riacece, containing a single species, an im- 

 perfectly known herb from South Africa, 

 which in habit and general structure re- 

 sembles the South American genus Alfon- 

 soa, except that the posterior lobes of the 

 corolla are separated to the base. [W. C] 



SCHISTOGYNE. A genus of Asclepia- 

 dacece, containing a single species, a twin- 

 ing shrub from Southern Brazil. It has 

 velvety cordate leaves, and few-flowered 

 extra-axillary peduncles. The calyx is five- 

 parted. The corolla is rotate-campanulate, 

 clothed with a white villous covering on 

 the inside, and the limb is divided into 

 five spreading linear-lanceolate segments. 

 The five-leaved staminal corona isinserted 

 at the base of the included gynostegium ; 

 the anthers are terminated by a membrane; 

 the ovoid pollen-masses attached below 

 the apex ; and the enlarged stigma divided 

 into subulate segments. ["W. C] 



SCHISTOSTEGA. A beautiful genus of 

 acrocarpous annual mosses, consisting of a 

 single species, with minute often frond-like 

 stems springing from a mass of green 

 threads, and bearing a small capsule with- 

 out any peristome, containing spores radia- 

 ting in lines from the columella as in 

 Splachnum. The only species, S. osmnn- 

 dacea, occurs in several parts of England in 

 caverns, which are illuminated by a golden- 

 green light from the refractive property of 

 its conferva-like shoots. The leaves are re- 

 duced at the base of the stems to mere 

 threads; above they are vertical, two-rank- 

 ed, and more or less confluent with each 

 other or the stems, or leafy only at the tip, 

 where they form a rose-like tuft, so that in 

 the same species there are transitions from 

 the more simple to the usual horizontal 

 eight-ranked insertion. The name alludes 

 to a supposed splitting of the lid, but this 

 is not a constant character. [M. J. B.] 



SCHIVERECKIA. A genus of Cniciferce 

 from Russia, with the habit of Brabn, but 

 the longer stamens having dilated and 

 toothed filaments; pouch elliptical, with 

 convex valves, depressed longitudinally in 

 the middle ; seeds numerous, compressed 

 not margined; seed-stalks free. [J. T»S.] 



SCHIZ.EINE^. A tribe of polypodia- 

 ceous ferns, distinguished by having the 

 horizontal ring apical on the spore-cases, 

 so that they appear to be crowned by its 

 convergent stria?, and thus become radiate- 

 striate at the apex. It consists of two sub- 

 tribes— the Lygodiece, scandent plants in 

 which the striae are united at the apex so 

 as to leave no vacant space ; and the Schi- 

 zcece, dwarf herbaceous plants, in which 

 the stria? are disjoined so as to form an 

 orbicular apical vacuity. [T. MJ 



SCHIZJEA. The typical genus of the 

 « Wn zrr-inf_.cn of the group Schizrpre, and 

 distinguished by having its fructifications 



seated on special contracted converging 

 pinnaeform appendages. They are very 

 curious plants, with dichotomously-branch- 

 ed wiry-looking fronds ; and are widely 

 dispersed, occurring in North and South 

 America, the West Indies, India, New Hol- 

 land, the Pacific Islands, and the Cape of 



Schizaea flabellum. 



Good Hope. In some cases (as in S. flabel- 

 lum of Brazil) they form very handsome 

 fan-shaped fronds, with a fringe of the fer- 

 tile appendages on the upper margin. The 

 segments of these appendages are beautiful 

 objects under a magnifier. [T. MJ 



SCHIZ ANDRACE2E, or SCHIZANDRE.E. 

 A tribe of Magnoliacece, considered by some 

 botanists as a distinct order, distinguished 

 from true Magnoliece chiefly by their usually 

 climbing habit, want of stipules, and uni- 

 sexual flowers. They extend over tropical 

 and Eastern Asia and North America, and 

 only comprise two genera, Schizandra and 

 Kadsura. 



SCHIZANDRA. A genus of Schizandra- 

 cece (or, according to some authorities, of 

 Magnoliacece, tribe ScJiizandrece) , consisting 

 of weak or climbing shrubs, with alternate 

 entire leaves marked with transparent 

 dots and without stipules, and solitary 

 one-flowered axillary or lateral pedicels. 

 The flowers are unisexual, red white or 

 yellowish. The sepals and petals, varying 

 in number from nine to twelve altogether, 

 pass gradually the one into the other. The 

 stamens in the males are more or less 

 united in a globe or a ring. The carpels of 

 the females are in a head when in flower, 

 which as the fruit ripens becomes a long 

 loose spike. There are six species known, 

 one from North America with red flowers. 

 The others, from tropical Asia, the Indian 

 Archipelago, North-eastern Asia or Japan, 

 have been distinguished, from differences 

 in their stamens, into two or three genera, 

 or united into one under the name of 

 Sphcerostema. One, the S. grandiflora from 



