seet] 



Cfje €rtas?ur» of asafcmii, 



1046 



SEET. A name 'hi Burmah for the wood 

 of several species of Acacia. 



SEG. An East Anglian name for rushes 

 reeds and sedges. — , SEA. Carex arenaria. 

 SEGG. The Flag, Iris Pseudacorus. 

 SEGGRUM. Senecio Jacobaa. 

 SEGRA-SEED. Feuillea cordifolia. 



SEGUIERIA. A genus of Petiveriacece, 

 comprising a few species of South Ameri- 

 can shrubs with alternate entire ovate or 

 elliptical leaves, and terminal panicles of 

 white or greenish-yellow flowers. The 

 whole of the plant smells more or less of 

 garlic ; the stipules often become hardened, 

 and hooked like prickles. The flowers have 

 a five-parted coloured calyx, no petals, 

 numerous stamens, and a one-celled ovary 

 with one ovule. The fruit resembles one 

 of the two portions which make up the 

 fruit of a maple. The nearly allied genus 

 Oallcsia has a like fruit, but the calyx is 

 four instead of five-parted. 'The root, 

 wood, and all the herbaceous parts of S. 

 alliacea have a powerful odour of garlic 

 or assafoetida ; baths impregnated with 

 them are in repute in Brazil in cases of 

 rheumatism, dropsy, and hemorrhoidal 

 affections. The wood abounds in potash, 

 and the ashes are employed in clarifying 

 sugar, and in soapmaking in Brazil.'— Lincl- 

 ley's Vegetable Kingdom. [A. A. B.] 



SEHU. (Fr.) Sambucus. 

 SEIGLE. (Fr.) Secale. — BATARDE. 

 Bromus secalinus. 



SELAGlNACEiE. A small order of mo- 

 nopetalous dicotyledons, agreeing with 

 Verbenacece in their irregular flowers, two 

 or four stamens, and free two-celled ovary 

 not lobed, with one ovule in each cell; but 

 differing from that order, as well as from 

 the closely allied Myoporaceai, in the an- 

 thers being always one-celled only. They 

 are herbs or small shrubs, with alternate 

 leaves, and blue white or rarely yellow 

 flowers in terminal heads or spikes. There 

 are about a dozen genera, of which Globu- 

 laria is European, Gymnandra from tem- 

 perate or Northern Asia or North-western 

 America, and all the others, including 

 tself, from Southern Africa. 



SELAGINE. (Fr.) Selago. 



SELAGINELLA. A genus of clubmosses 

 distinguished from Lycopodium by the flat 

 two-ranked stem, and double two tothree- 

 valved fruit, one of which contains the 

 large pallid spores, the other the free 

 spore-like orange or scarlet antheridia, 

 which at length produce the spiral sper- 

 matozoids. Both sometimes occur together 

 in the axil of the same leaf, but they are 

 sometimes separate. The species vary 

 greatly in stature and habit, some being 

 small and like the larger Jimgermanvia- 

 cece, while others attain a considerable 

 height. The leaves, which sometimes 

 assume a bluish tint, are generally of 

 different sizes, as in Hypopterygium or 

 Cyathophorum amongst mosses. Germi- 



nation takes place by cellular division of 

 a portion of the spores, and the young 

 plant when produced from the arche- 

 gonium has two opposite leaves like 



Selaginella Sprucei. 



cotyledons, looking very much like the 

 embryo of some exogens. The species are 

 numerous, and are inhabitants of warm 

 regions. They are frequently extremely 

 elegant, and are in consequence favourite 

 objects of cultivation. S. convoluta has 

 the fronds curiously curled in and con- 

 tracted when dry, so as to form a ball like 

 the rose of Jericho, which expands when 

 moistened. S. mutabilis has the remark- 

 able property of changing its colour every 

 day : in the morning it is of a bright green, 

 but as the day advances it gradually be- 

 comes pale, and at night resumes its deeper 

 tint. Dr. Hooker has observed that this 

 arises from a daily contraction of the green 

 contents of the cells under the influence 

 of light. Several of the smaller species 

 have a creeping habit, but many of them 

 are erect variously branched and forked, 

 while others are partially supported by 

 bushes. Several send down long straight 

 roots into the soil, which serve both as or- 

 gans of nutrition and as props. S. Sprucei 

 is a good representative species. [M. J.B.] 



SELAGO. A genus of Selaginacece, con- 

 taining upwards of seventy species of j 

 herbs or undershrubs from the Cape of 

 Good Hope. They have small entire and 

 alternate leaves, and sessile spiked flowers 

 with large bracts ; the calyx is ovate or 

 campanulate, and more or less deeply 

 three to five-lobed ; the tube of the corolla 

 is short, and the limb four to five-lobed, 

 sometimes somewhat two-lipped ; there 

 are four stamens. The single style has an 

 acute stigma ; and the ovary breaks up 

 into two one-seeded achenes. [W. C.J 



SELENIA. A genus of Cruciferce, re- 

 sembling those of the tribe Cremolobidce in 

 the inverted seeds, but differing in the 

 pouch having a broad and not a narrow 

 septum. It consists of an annual herb 



