schl] 



5Tt)0 Erra^urg at 3Sotang» 



1034 



SCHLIMMIA jasminodora. An ex- 

 tremely fragrant Central American orchid 

 forming a genus of the vandeous suborder. 

 It is an epiphyte with long slender single- 

 leaved pseudohulbs, and radical bracteated 

 flower-stalks about a foot high, bearing on 

 one side and towards the summit three 

 pure white flowers. These have fleshy 

 unequal sepals, the upper one being narrow 

 straight and free, and the two lower much 

 larger and completely combined into a 

 deep sack, beyond the mouth of which the 

 two narrow reflexed petals project ; the 

 very minute lip is fleshy and warted at its 

 base, and thin and trowel-shaped above, 

 and is articulated with the column, which 

 is eared on each side of its apex, and has 

 its prolonged base connate with the lateral 

 sepals ; the two pollen-masses are attached 

 by a long wedge-shaped caudicle to a mi- 

 nute moon-shaped gland. [A. S.] 



SCHMIDELIA. A genus of Sapindacem 

 distributed through the tropics of both j 

 hemispheres, and consisting of a consider- 

 able number of species, either trees or 

 shrubs, with leaves composed of three 

 leaflets, or rarely of only one ; and pro- 

 ducing from their axils, simple or divided i 

 racemes of small white flowers, having 

 four sepals, as many petals (one of them I 

 always abortive), and four glands opposite j 

 the petals; the ovary is two or sometimes 

 three-lobed. In most cases only one of j 

 the lobes ripens, and forms a globose fleshy 

 or dry fruit, containing a single thin- 

 shelled seed. 



The fruits of S. africana form one of the 

 many remedies, employed in Abyssinia 

 against the tapeworm, which in that coun- 

 try is a common complaint. The dried 

 fruits are pounded and mixed with flour, 

 and then made into cakes. The species is 

 a native of both East and West tropical j 

 Africa, and forms a tree of from twenty to | 

 thirty feet high. The sweet pulpy part of 

 the fruit of S. edulis is eaten in Brazil, i 

 where the fruits are called Pruta de Parao ; 

 but the seeds of most of the genus possess 

 unwholesome properties, and those of S. 

 Cobbe, a Cingalese species, are reputed 

 to be poisonous. [A. S.] 



SCHOBERIA. A genus of marine plants 

 belonging to the Chenopodiacem, and 

 closely allied to Chenopodium, from which 

 they are most obviously distinguished by 

 their small fleshy semicylindrical leaves. 

 S. fruticosa, the Shrubby Sea-Blite, abun- 

 dant on the muddy coast of Norfolk, is an 

 erect shrub two to three feet high, locally 

 known by the name of Sea Rosemary. It 

 grows also on other parts of the eastern 

 coast of England, but is rare. S. maritima 

 is a procumbent annual species with a 

 branched diffuse stem, and is of frequent 

 occurrence on most parts of the coast. All 

 the species abound in soda, and in all the 

 flowers are inconspicuous. [C. A. J.] 



SCHCEXIA. A genus of Composite, near- 

 ly allied to Helichrysum, Helipterum, and 

 Pteropogon, from which it is described as 

 differing, in the inner scales of the invo- 



lucre being appendaged and radiant, in 

 the many-flowered heads, and in the central 

 florets being truly male. The flowers are 

 always tubular, but they are surrounded by 

 a scarious involucre in many series, the 

 inner of which have petaloid appendages, 

 which spread out so as to appear like ray- 

 florets. The receptacle is without scales, 

 and the achenes are obovate with a setose 

 pappus in a single series. They are Swan 

 River annuals. [T. M.] 



SCHCENOCAULOK Asagrcea. 



SCHCENOPRASUM. Allium Schcenopra- 

 sam. 



SCHCENORCHIS juncifolia is a Javanese 

 epiphytal orchid, with fleshy subulate 

 leaves, allied to Saccolabium, from which it 

 is distinguished chiefly by its column being 

 furnished with a couple of long slender 

 erect horn-like processes at its base. Two 

 other Javanese species were originally 

 placed in the genus by Blume, but they are 

 now removed to Saccolabium. [A. S.] 



SCHCENUS. A genus of sedge-grass 

 belonging to the tribe Ehynchosporece. It 

 has the inflorescence in heads or crowded 

 panicles, the spikelets of which are one or 

 many-flowered; glumes in two rows, the 

 lowest three or four empty, the upper 

 having flowers in their axils ; flowers her- 

 maphrodite, with bristles round the ovary. 

 There are upwards of thirty species de- 

 scribed in Steiidel's Synopsis; these have 

 a wide geographical range. S. nigricans 

 is the only European species. [D. MJ 



SCHGENUS, WHOLE. Scirpus Holoschce- 

 nus. 



SCHOMBURGKIA. A small tropical 

 American genus of epidendreous orchids of 

 the tribe Bletidew, named in honour of the 

 late Sir Robert Schomburgk, the well- 

 known scientific explorer of Guiana. The 

 plants belonging to it have generally very 

 large long pseudohulbs rising from naked 

 ring-scarred creeping rootstocks.and each 

 furnished with two or three leathery leaves. 

 They are also remarkable for the great 

 length of their slender terminal flower- 

 stems, which are clothed with great dry 

 spathaceous sheaths, and bear at their ex- 

 tremity a short roundish raceme of long- 

 stalked showy flowers. Generically it is 

 nearly allied to Epidendrum, from which, 

 however, its eight pollen-masses at once 

 distinguish it. The flowers have quite 

 similar spreading free sepals and petals, 

 and a membranous three-lobed half-cucul- 

 late lip, connate at its base with the edge 

 of the winged column. 



In one species, S. tibicinis, a native of 

 Honduras, the pseudohulbs are between 

 one and two feet long and quite hollow 

 and smooth inside, and are commonly 

 used by the native children as trumpets, 

 whence it is called the Cowhorn orchid. 

 At their base too there is always a small 

 hole, and masses of ants and other insects 

 take advantage of it in constructing their 

 nests. [A. SJ 



