silly 
Some people . . . arc always hoping without sense or 
reason. . . . Poor sillies, they luivr wind mi tin 1 bruin, and 
dream while they are awake. 
Spuryeon, John Ploughman's Talk, p. 101. 
Cillyhow (sil'i-hou), n. [Also dial, sillulieie; lit. 
' lucky cap' (a child born with a caul on the head 
being considered bymidwives especially lucky), 
< silly, ' lucky,' happy (see silly), + *hnw, a dial, 
form of houce.] A membrane that in some cases 
covers the head of a child when born ; a caul. 
See involution, 4. [Old Eng. and Scotch.] 
Great conceits are raised of the involution or membra- 
nous covering, commonly called the nllil -how, that some- 
times is found about the heads of children upon their 
birth. SirT. Browne, Vulg. Err.,v. 23. 
sillytont (sil'i-ton), . [< silly + -ton, as in sim- 
pleton.'] A simpleton. 
SiUylon, forebear railing, and hear what 's said to you. 
N. Bailey, tr. of Colloquies of Erasmus, p. 586. 
Silo (si'16), n. [= F. silo, < Sp. silo, silo, < L. 
sins, < Gr. aip6f, aeip6f, a pit to keep corn in, 
an underground granary, a pitfall.] A pit or 
chamber in the ground, or a cavity in a rock, or 
more rarely a warm air-tight structure above 
ground, for the storing of green crops for future 
use as fodder in the state called ensilage. The 
material is tightly packed in the silo soon after it is gath- 
ered (sometimes with addition of a little salt), covered, and 
pressed down with heavy weights. Thus it is subjected 
to fermentation, which, if not carried too far, is beneficial 
rather than injurious. The resulting fodder is analogous 
in its nutritious quality to sauerkraut, which is the pro- 
duct of fermentation of cabbage. Similar pits or cavities 
in the ground or in rock have been used from remote 
times, in various parts of the world, for the prolonged 
preservation of grain in a dry state, through the careful ex- 
clusion of air and moisture. 
Silo (si'16), r. t. [< silo, .] To preserve in a 
silo ; make silage or ensilage of. 
The crop can be cut and mined in any weather, however 
wet. H. Robinson, Sewage Question, p. 220. 
silometer (si-lom'e-ter), w. An erroneous spell- 
ing of sillometer. 
silourt, ". A Middle English form of celure. 
Silpha (sil'fii), n. [NL. (Linnaeus, 1758), < Gr. 
ai'tyr], a beetle, a bookworm.] A large and 
important genus of clavicorn beetles, typical of 
the family Silpliidic; the carrion-beetles. They 
have eleven-jointed clavate antenn&e, the first joint of 
normal length, and the head free and mobile. They 
Carrion-beetle (Silffta inaqnelis'1. 
a, larva ; rf, same, natural size ; /, f, fi, mandible, labhim, and 
maxilla of larva ; i,j, anal process and antenna of same ; w, one of 
the lateral processes, more highly magnified, b, pupa ; r. same, natural 
size ; /, anal process of same, f, beetle ; >fr, anterior tarsus of same. 
(Lines show natural sizes of a, b, c.) 
are rather large dark-colored beetles, often with a red or 
yellow pronotum, and are found under stones or in dark 
places, or about carrion, upon which they feed principally, 
although not exclusively. The genus is wide-spread, but 
contains less than 100 species, of which 10 inhabit the 
United States. S. opaca of Europe feeds to an injurious 
extent upon the leaves of the beet and mangel-wurzel. 
S. in&qualis is a North American species. 
silphal (sil'fal), a. [< Silplia + -al.~\ Resem- 
bling, related to, or pertaining to the genus 
Silpha. 
silphid (sil'fid), n. and a. I. . A necropha- 
gous beetle of the family Silphidse; a sexton- or 
burying-beetle ; a carrion-beetle ; a grave-dig- 
ger. See cuts under Silplia, burying-beetle, and 
sexton-beetle. 
II. a. Of or pertaining to the family SilpMdae. 
Silphidse (sil'fi-de), n. pi. [NL. (Leach, 1817), 
< Silplia + -idse.~] A family of clavicorn bee- 
tles, having the dorsal segments of the abdo- 
men partly membranous, the ventral segments 
free, the mentum moderate or small, the palpi 
approximate at their bases, the posterior coxse 
more or less conical and prominent, and the 
eyes finely granulated, sometimes absent. These 
beetles are often of considerable size, and live mainly upon 
carrion, a few upon decaying or living vegetation. Some 
are found in the nests of ants, mice, and bees, while others 
inhabit caves. The family is of universal distribution, 
and about 000 species have been described, of which about 
100 are from America north of Mexico. Also Silpha, Sil- 
phales, Silphiadse, SUpMda, Silphides, Silphina, and SU- 
phitfs. See cuts under Silpha, burying-beetle, and sexton- 
beetle. 
5632 
silphium(sirfi-um), . [L.,<Gr.m'/l0n',aplant 
(see def. 1), so called in allusion to its resiin 1 "* 
juice; cf. ]nii/-p!ant and Tliiijmid.'} 1. An um- 
belliferous plant the juice of which was used 
by the ancient Greeks as a food and medicine : 
called in Latin lascrjiilium. (See ln<-r, /./- 
pitiiim.) It has been variously identified, as 
with Thapsia Gtiri/rniica. 2. [.cap.] [NL. (Lin- 
nseus, 1752).] A genus of composite plants, of 
the tribe Heliantlioideee and subtribo M<-lin>ij><>- 
dieee. It is distinguished by its large flower-heads with a 
broad involucre, sterile disk-flowers, and pistillate and fer- 
tile strap-shaped ray-flowers in one or two rows, producing 
compressed achenes bordered by two wings which are 
toothed or awned at the apex. Twenty species have been 
described, of which eleven are now considered distinct. 
They are all natives of the United States, chiefly in the Mis- 
sissippi valley and Southern States. They are tall rough- 
hairy perennials, with a resinous juice, bearing alternate, 
opposite, or whorled leaves of various shapes, and either 
entire, toothed, or lobed. The yellow flowers (in one spe- 
cies the rays are white) are borne in long-stalked heads, 
which are solitary or loosely corymbed. S. terebinthina- 
ceum, remarkable for its odor of turpentine, is the prairie- 
dock of the west. For S. perfoliatum, see cup-plant ; and 
for 5. laciniatum, see rosin-weed and compass-plant. 
silphologic (sil-fo-loj'ik), a. [< silpholo<j-y + 
-ic.] Relating to silphology; pertainingto those 
stages of development commonly called larval. 
silphology (sil-fol'o-ji), n. [< Gr. a'Atyri, a bee- 
tle, + -Aoy/a, < 'tJkytiv, speak: see -ology.] The 
science of larvae, or larval forms; especially, 
the doctrine of the morphological correlations 
of larval stages, or those which immediately 
succeed the last of the embryonic stages. Thus, 
the characteristics of prototypembryos, derived from the 
adulU of a common more or less remote stock of the same 
division of the animal kingdom, are matters of silphology. 
Hyatt. 
silt (silt), n. [ME. silte, erroneously elite; with 
formative -t. < silen, drain, filter, strain: see 
site 1 .] A deposit of mud or fine soil from run- 
ning or standing water ; fine earthy sediment : 
as, a harbor choked up with silt. 
In long process of time the tilt and sands shall . . . 
choke and shallow the sea. Sir T. Browne, Tracts, xii. 
Oh, that its waves were flowing over me ! 
Oh, that I saw its grains of yellow silt 
Roll tumbling in the current o'er my head ! 
M. Arnold, Sohrab and Bustum. 
silt (silt), r. [< silt, n.] I. trans. To choke, fill, 
or obstruct with silt or mud : commonly with uj>. 
Like a skilful engineer, who perceives how he could, 
fifty years earlier, have effectually preserved an important 
harbour which is now irrecoverably silted up. 
Whately, Annotations on Bacon's Essays (ed. 1887), p. 223. 
II. intrans. 1. To percolate through crev- 
ices ; ooze, as water carrying fine sediment. 
2. To become obstructed or choked with silt or 
sediment: with up. 
During the dry months the Hugli silts up 
Xineteenth Century, XXIII. 45. 
Silt-grass (silt'gras), n. See Paspalum. 
silty (sil'ti), a. [< silt + -y 1 .] Consisting of or 
resembling silt; full of silt. 
silureH, A Middle English form of celure. 
silure 2 (si-lur'), n. [< F. silure = Sp. situro, < 
L. silurus, < Gr. ai/.ovpof, a river-fish, prob. the 
sheat; formerly derived < aeieiv, shake, + ovpd, 
a tail ; but the element <nX- cannot be brought 
from of (fn'.] A siluroid fish; specifically, the 
sheat-fish. See cut under Siluridse. 
Silurian (si-lu'ri-an), o. and n. [< L. Silures 
(Gr. Sniper), the Silures (see def. I., 1), + -ian.~] 
I. a. 1. Of or belonging to the Silures, a people 
of ancient Britain, or their country. 2. In 
geol., of or pertaining to the Silurian. See II. 
II, n. A name given by Murchison, in 1835, 
to a series of rocks the order of succession of 
which was first worked out by him in that part 
of England and Wales which was formerly in- 
habited by the Silures. The various groups of fossi- 
liferous rocks included in the Silurian had, previous to 
Murchison's labors, been classed together as one assem- 
blage, and called by the Germans grattwaclte, sometimes 
Anglicized into graywacke (which see), also the Trans- 
ition series or Transition limestone. In England and Ger- 
many these lower rocks have been greatly disturbed and 
metamorphosed, and have also been frequently invaded 
by eruptive masses; hence it was not until after consid- 
erable progress had been made toward a knowledge of 
the sequence of the higher fossiliferous groups that the 
lower (now designated as Silurian and Devonian) began to 
be studied with success. Almost contemporaneously with 
the working out of the order of succession of these lower 
rocks by Murchison in Great Britain, groups of strata of 
the same geological age, but lying for the most part in al- 
most entirely undisturbed position, began to be investi- 
gated on and near the Atlantic coast of the United States, 
especially in New York, by the Geological Survey of that 
State, and a little later in Bohemia by Joachim Barrande. 
Murchison, Barrande, and James Hall, paleontologistof the 
New York Survey, are all agreed as to the adoption of the 
name Silurian, and in regard to the essential unity of the 
series or system thusdesignated. TheSilurianisthelowest 
of the four great subdivisions of the Paleozoic, namely 
siluroid 
Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. When 
undisturbed and unmetainorphosed, the Silurian is usu- 
ally found to be replete with the remains of organic 
forms, of which by far the larger part is marine. The 
Silurian is divided into an Upper and a Lower Silurian, 
and each of these again is subdivided into groups and sub- 
groups varying in nomenclature in various countries. The 
line between the Upper and Lower Silurian is drawn in 
Great Britain at the top of the May Hill sandstone or 
Upper Llandovery group ; in New York, at the top of the 
Hudson Elver or Cincinnati group. The almost entire ab- 
sence of vertebrates and of land-plants, and the paucity 
of plant-life in general, are the most striking features of 
Silurian life. The most prominent forms of the animal 
kingdom were the graptolites. trilobites, and brachiopods, 
and of these the first-mentioned are the most characteris- 
tic of all, since they range through nearly the whole Silu- 
rian, and disappear in the Devonian ; while the trilobites, 
which begin at the same time with the graptolites, con- 
tinue through the Devonian, and end only with the Car- 
boniferous. As the line between tjie Silurian and Devo- 
nian is commonly drawn in England namely, so as to 
include in the former the Ludlow group the first verte- 
brates, in the form of a low type of fishes, appear near the 
top of the Upper Silurian ; traces of land-animals (scor- 
Sions) have also been found in the Upper Silurian of Swe- 
en and Scotland ; and in France, in the Lower (?) Silurian, 
traces of insect life. A scorpion has also been found in 
the United States, at Watervillc, New York, in the Water- 
lime group, or near the middle of the Upper Silurian. Mr. 
Whitfleld, by whom the specimen was described, inclines 
to the opinion that the species, for which he instituted a 
new genus (l>roscorpius), was aquatic and not air-breath- 
ing, and that it forms a link between the true aquatic 
forms like Evrypterus and Pterygotw and the true air- 
breathing scorpions of subsequent periods. He intimates 
that the same is likely to be true of the Swedish and Scot- 
tish Silurian scorpions. The traces of land-plants in the Si- 
lurian are rare, and for the most part of doubtful identi- 
fication. Alga;, on the other hand, are of somewhat fre- 
quent occurrence. As the line between Silurian and De- 
vonian is drawn in the United States namely, between 
the Oriskany sandstone and the Cauda-galli grit there 
are neither land-animals nor fishes in the Silurian ; and 
the evidence of the existence of land plants lower than 
the Devonian is for the most part of a very doubtful char- 
acter. The Silurian rocks are widely spread over the 
globe, with everywhere essentially the same types of ani- 
mal life. This part of the series is of importance in the 
United States, especially in the northeastern Atlantic 
States and in parts of the Mississippi valley. 
Siluric (si-lu'rik), a. [< L. Silures (see Silurian) 
+ -ic.] Same i as Silurian. [Rare.] 
silurid (si-lu'rid), a. and n. Same as siluroid. 
Siluridae (si-lu'ri-de), n.pl. [NL., < Silurus + 
-idee.] A very large family of physostomous 
fishes, of the order Xematognatlti, represented 
by such forms as the sheat-fish of Europe and 
the catfishes or cats of America. It was the same 
as Siluroides of Cuvier. By Cope its name was used for 
Nematognathi with the anterior vertebrae regularly mod- 
ified, the inferior pharyngeal bones separate, and an oper- 
culum developed. It thus contrasted with the Aspre- 
dinidir and Hypophthalmida, and included all the Kema- 
tognathi except those belonging to the two families named. 
By Gill the family was restricted to those Nematognathi 
which have the anterior vertebra? regularly modified ; the 
lower pharyngeal bones separate ; the operculum devel- 
oped ; a dorsal fln, in connection with the abdominal por- 
tion of the vertebral column, rather short, and preceded 
by the spine ; the pectoral fins armed with well-developed 
spines having a complex articulation with the shoulder- 
girdle ; and the body naked, or with plates only along the 
lateral line. The lower jaw has no reflected lip, and there 
are usually from four to eight pairs of barbels, maxillary 
barbels being always developed. Species of the family 
thus limited are very numerous, several hundred having 
been described, and referred to many genera. Most of 
them inhabit fresh water, especially of tropical and sub- 
tropical countries, but many are also found in tropical 
seas. In Europe, one, the sheat-flsh, Silvrtis giants, oc- 
Sheat-nsh (Silurtts 
curs in the central and eastern regions of the continent ; 
while a second, more southerly, and supposed to be the 
glanis of the ancients, has lately (1890) been distinguished 
as Silurus (ParasHurvs) artotouKs. In North America the 
family is represented by a number of species belonging to 
different subfamilies, which are generally known under 
the name of catfishes. The leading genera of North Amer- 
ica are Noturus, stone-cats ; ^miun<8,ordinary cats, pouts, 
bullheads, etc. ; Ictalurus, channel-cats : Arius, sea-cats ; 
and jElurichthi/s (or FelicMhys), gaff-topsails. See also 
cuts under catfish, gaff-topsail, pout, and stone-cat. 
Siluiidan (si-lu'ri-dan), a. and n. [< silurid + 
-an.] I. n. Of or having characteristics of the 
Siluridte; siluroid. 
II. n. A silure or siluroid. 
silurine (si-lu'rin), a. and n. [< Silurus + -ine l .~] 
I. a. Of or pertaining to the Siluridee. 
II. M. A catfish of the family Sihtridx. 
siluroid (si-lii'roid), a. and n. [< Silurus + 
-old.] I. a. Pertaining to the Siluridx, or ha v- 
