snow] 



djc STrratfurji cf 2$atau£. 



1068 



SNOW-MOULD. Lanosa nivalis. 



SNOW-PLANT. Protococcus. 



SOAPBERRY. The seed of Sapindus 

 Saponaria, S. emarginatus, and other spe- 

 cies. 



SOAPNUT. The fruit of Acacia concinna 

 (alias Mimosa abstergens). 



SOAP-PODS. The Chinese name of the 

 pods of several species of Ccesalpinia. 



SOAP-ROOT, EGYPTIAN. Gypsophila 

 StriUhium. 

 SOAPWOOD. Clethra tinifolia. 



SOAPWORT. Saponaria, especially S. 

 officinalis ; also Vaccaria vulgaris. 

 SOBOLE. A creeping rooting stem. 

 SOBOLEWSKIA. A genus of Cruciferm 

 from Southern Russia. The plants have 

 stalked cordate-reniform toothed leaves, 

 elongated racemes of white flowers, and 

 ] an indehiscentwingless oblong-compressed 

 I one-celled one-seeded pouch. [J.T.S.] 



SOBRALIA. One of the genera of or- 

 chids of the tribe Vanillidce, comprising 

 about twenty-five tropical American spe- 

 cies, all terrestrial plants with slender tall 

 reedy stems, clothed with leaves which 

 are often plicate, and bearing upon their 

 summits several often very large and ex- 

 tremely showy flowers, which in some 

 species are of a thin almost transparent 

 nature. It has nearly equal sepals joined 

 at their bases, similar or very slightly 

 different petals, an undivided or three- 

 lobed cucullate lip rolled round the long 

 column, which is thin-edged and thickened 

 upwards, with a trifid anther-bed, having 

 the anther attached to the central of the 

 three fleshy segments. The original and 

 finest species of the genus is the Peruvian 

 S. dichotoma, which Poppig describes as 

 having bamboo-like stems from twelve. to 

 twenty feet high forming impenetrable 

 thickets, and flowers two inches long, 

 white externally and violet internally. 

 Other species, however, far exceed this in 

 the size and beauty of their flowers— such, 

 for example, as the S. macrantha of Mexico 

 and Guatemala, the very fugitive flower 

 of which measures eight inches across, and 

 varies from rich purple to very pale rose- 

 colour or nearly white. [A. S.] 



SOCRATEA. A small genus of palms 

 inhabiting the forests of tropical America, 

 and formerly associated with the old genus 

 Iriartea (Deckeria), from which it may, 

 however, at once be distinguished by 

 being very bitter in every part. This pro- 

 perty disqualifies the leaves from being 

 eaten as ' cabbage,' and in Central America 

 has obtained for these palms the name of 

 Palmas amargas, in contradistinction to 

 the different species of Iriartea, which 

 are termed there Palmas dulces, and are 

 used as food. The Socrateas are fine un- 

 armed trees, bearing a crown of pinnatifid 

 leaves, with generally sinuate-dentate 

 segments, below which the spadices ap- 

 pear. The spadix is enveloped in five to 



eight spathes, and one and the same 

 spadix bears monoecious flowers. The 

 male flowers have a three-leaved calyx 

 and corolla, both valvate, twenty-four or 

 more stamens, and a small rudimentary 

 germen ; the female flowers have the same 

 kind of calyx and corolla, but the latter is 

 imbricate; there are no stamens or sta- 

 minodes, and the germen is three-celled, 

 developing into an elliptical or oblong- 

 obovate one or two-seeded berry of an 

 orange or yellow colour. [B. S.] 



SOCRATESIA. A genus of Vacciniacece, 

 comprising a Central American shrub with 

 five-nerved leaves, and pendulous flowers 

 in terminal racemes, protected by scarlet 

 bracts ; the calyx is short, tubular, with 

 five radiating tubular processes at the 

 base ; the filaments are of unequal length, 

 and the anthers open by two pores at the 

 top. [M. T. M.] 



SODA. An alkaline product of several 

 species of Salsola, Suceda, and Salicornia. 



SOFTWOOD, BLACK. Myrsine lata. 



SOGALGINA. A genus of Composite, 

 comprising two Mexican weeds furnished 

 with opposite lance-shaped three-nerved 

 leaves, and solitary stalked yellow flower- 

 heads. The generic name is an anagram 

 of Galinsoga, a genus with which these 

 plants were formerly confounded. They 

 differ in the iuvolucral scales being in 

 more than one series, and in the two- 

 lipped ray-florets, the outer lip larger and 

 toothed, the innerof two linear lobeseitber 

 separate or grown together. [A. A. B.] 



SO J A (or SOYA) hispida is the only re- 

 presentative of a genus of Leguminosa of 

 the tribe Papilionacece, and much culti- 

 vated in tropical Asia on account of its 

 beans, which are used for preparing a 

 weli-known brown and slightly salt sauce 

 (Soy>, used both in Asia and Europe 

 for flavouring certain dishes, especially 

 beef, and supposed to favour digestion. Of 

 late it has been cultivated as an oil-plant. 

 S. hispida is an erect hairy herb, with 

 trifoliolate leaves, and axillary racemose 

 flowers, which have a five-cleft calyx, a 

 papilionaceous corolla, ten diadelphous sta- 

 mens, and an oblong pod which contains 

 from two to five ovate compressed seeds. 

 Modern botanists generally refer the plant 

 to Glycine: which see. [B. S.j 



SOLA, or SOLAH. The light Indian 

 Spongewood of Bengal, JEschynomene as- 

 pera. 



SOLANACE.E (Cestracea?, Nightshades) 

 An order of perigynous monopetalous 

 dicotyledons, characterised by regular or 

 nearly regular flowers ; the stamens in- 

 serted in the tube of the corolla, equal in 

 number to and alternate with its lobes ; a 

 free two-celled ovary with several ovules 

 in each ceil; and albuminous seeds in a 

 berry or capsule. It is thus easily distin- 

 guished from all others, except Scrophula- 

 riaceo?, from which it is only separated by 

 the more regular flowers ; while some ge- 



