stel] 



Elje ®tra£ttrg of SSatang, 



1094 



found growing on the trunks and branches 

 of trees. The stems are simple, with one 

 sheathing leaf, and ochreate bracts; and 

 the flowers are in terminal spikes or ra- 

 cemes, usually very minute, green yellow 

 or purple. Stelis is distinguished from 

 Pleurothallis, to which genus it is closely 

 allied, by having a short truncate three- 

 lobed column, the front angles of whose 

 anthers are uniformly mucilaginous. The 

 flowers of some species are irritable, 

 closing suddenly when moved or touched. 

 In one species, S. purpurascens, eight 

 pollen-masses have been found, the only 

 case at present known. [W. B. H.] 



STELLARIA. A genus of herbaceous 

 plants belonging to the tribe Alsmece of 

 the order Caryophyllacece, and distin- 

 guished by the following characters :— 

 Sepals five ; petals two-cleft ; stamens ten ; 

 styles three.; capsule opening by six 

 valves. Several species are indigenous to 

 Great Britain. S. Holostea, the Greater 

 Stitchwort, called also Satin-flower and 

 Adder's-meat, is one of our early hedge- 

 flowers, with long straggling quadrangular 

 stems, narrow grass-like leaves, and large 

 panicled lustrous white flowers with deep- 

 ly-cloven petals. S. media is the common 

 Chickweed, sufficiently marked by a line 

 of hairs on one side of the stem, changing 

 to the opposite side whenever it reaches a 

 pair of leaves. French : Stellaire ; German : 

 Augentrostgras. [C. A. J.] 



STELLATE, or STELLATES. A group 

 of monopetalous dicotyledons, scarcely 

 differing from Cinchonacece, but some- 

 times distinguished as a separate order 

 under the name of Galiace^: : which see. 



STELLATE, STELLIFORM. Having a 

 number of narrow divisions placed round 

 the stem like the rays of a star. 



STELLATO-PILOSE. Having hairs 

 formed in a stellate manner. 



STEM. That part of a plant which bears 

 or has borne leaves or their rudiments; 

 the ascending axis of growth. It may be 

 either subterranean, or exposed to the air 

 and light. 



STEM-CLASPING. When the base of a, 

 leaf surrounds a stem. The same as Am- 

 plexicaul. 



STEMLESS. Having no visible or ob- 

 vious stem. See Acatjlis. 



STEMONACANTHUS. A genus of Acan- 

 thacece from tropical America, containing 

 a few species of shrubs or herbs, with the 

 flowers in paniculate or contracted cymes. 

 The calyx is five-cleft or five-parted ; the co- 

 rolla-tube slightly curved and clavate, with 

 the subequal lobes spreading or reflexed ; 

 the didynamous stamens exserted ; the 

 anther-cells parallel, and often produced 

 beyond the connective ; and the capsule 

 four to eight-seeded. [W.C.J 



STEMONITIS. A genus of myxogas- 

 trous Fung)' with a more or less elongated 

 delicate single deciduous peridium, filled 



with a network of threads connected with 

 the stem, which penetrates more or less 

 completely the whole mass. S. fusca is one 

 of those species which occasionally occur 

 in great profusion m hothouses, and is 

 common in woods amongst fallen leaves, 

 &c. ; forming large tufts of cylindrical 

 peridia supported on dark bristle-shaped 

 stems, which are often more persistent 

 than the network. This species is found 

 in all parts of the world with slight modi- 

 fications. [M. J. B.] 



STEMONOPORUS. A name proposed by 

 Thwaites for a genus of Dipteracece, which 

 other botanists consider as a section only 

 of Yateria, as it has the fruit of that genus, 

 and only differs from the original type 

 in the stamens not numbering more than 

 fifteen, with obtuse not acuminate an- 

 thers. It consists of several species, tali 

 resiniferous- trees, with alternate entire 

 coriaceous leaves, and white flowers either 

 axillary or in terminal panicles. There 

 are several species known, natives of Tro- 

 pical Asia, but chiefly of Ceylon. 



STEMONURUS. A genus of Olacacece, 

 established by Blume for three or four 

 trees from the Indian Archipelago. In 

 the species which suggested the name the 

 anthers have at their back a curious long 

 tuft of hairs, which is turned inwards 

 over their face. This species, however, 

 proves to be strictly a congener of the 

 previously published Lasianthera from 

 Tropical Africa ; and the other species, for 

 which Blume's name is no longer appli- 

 cable, belong to Wallich's genus Gom- 

 phandra. The name Stemonurus is there- 

 fore now suppressed. 



STENACTIS. A genus of erect branched 

 herbs, natives of North America, Northern 

 India, &c. The leaves are toothed ; the 

 flower-heads solitary at the ends of the 

 branches, surrounded by an involucre of 

 two or three rows of narrow overlapping 

 scales; receptacle flat, naked; florets of 

 the ray strap-shaped, white or violet,— 

 those of the disk yellow, tubular; achenes 

 compressed; pappus of the outer ones 

 hairy deciduous, arranged in one row, that 

 of the inner in two rows. [M. T. M.j 



STENANDRIUM. A germs of Acanthacece, 

 containing several smali plants from South 

 America. It is allied to Crossandra, differ- 

 ing chiefly in its more lowly habit, and in 

 having more slender anthers. [W. C] 



STENANTHERA. A genus of Epacri- 

 dacece containing a single species, S.pini- 

 folia, which has a five-parted calyx sur- 

 rounded by numerous bracts ; a tubular 

 corolla twice the length of the calyx, with 

 a short spreading half-bearded limb; 

 stamens included within the throat of the 

 corolla; and a one-seeded drupe. The 

 flowers are axillary erect, with a slightly 

 swollen scarlet tube and greenish-yellow 

 limb ; and the leaves needle-shaped, and 

 much crowded on the branches. [R. HJ 



STENANTHIUM. A North American 

 genus of Melanthacece allied to Yeratrum, 



