known to yield from twelve to sixteen ounces in the 
space of twenty-four hours. A maple tree of 
moderate size, yields about two hundred pints in a 
season, and a birch tree has been known to yield in 
the course of the bleeding season, a quantity equal to 
its own weight. 
Sarcocarp. — The Sarcocarp is the fleshy pulp that lies between 
* the external cuticle, and the putamen, or shell of stone 
fruit. See Pericarp. 
Scales. — The term scales or squama is usually applied to de- 
signate the bracteae of amentaceous flowers; or 
indeed the bracteae of any flower, if they have a scaly 
appearance. 
Scape. — The Scape is a flower-stalk issuing immediately from 
the root, and forming the only trunk of the plant. It 
is well exemplified in the case of the several species 
of Primula. It is naked, as in the Hyacinth ; or scaly, 
as in Tussilago Farfara ; or leafy, as in Sweet-Flag. 
Scutella. — The little shields or caps found on the thalli of the 
Lichens, are by botanists designated scutellae. 
Seed. — The seed, which is the last and most noble part of the 
fruit, is the interior portion of the ripened ovary, con- 
tained within the pericarp, and containing the rudi- 
ments of a new plant similar to that from which it 
sprang. 
Segments. — The divisions of leaves, corollas and calyces. 
Sepals. — The several divisions of the calyx which had not till 
lately a proper name, are now called Sepals. 
Septicidal. — A mode of the dehiscence of fruit. [See Pe- 
ricarp.] 
Serrated. — Sawed. When the margin of a leaf has teeth like 
a saw. 
Serrulated. — When the margin is minutely serrated. 
Sessile. — When a flower is attached close to the branch or 
stem, it is said to be sessile. 
Sheath. — This term is applied to designate a sort of sack-like 
envelope, that invests the base of the fructification of 
the mosses, as also a circle of fibres that invests the 
pith longitudinally, and is usually designated by the 
name of medullary sheath. 
Shrub. — If the branches of a perennial proceed immediately 
from the caudex descendens, without any intervening 
trunk, the plant is called a shrub, as in Privet. 
Silicula. — If the tranverse and longitudinal diameters of a 
siliqua or silique are equal, or nearly so, it then takes 
the name of a silicula , as in Thlaspi. 
Simple Flowers differ from aggregate flowers in not having 
any parts of the fructification common to many florets, 
but consisting of a single blossom. 
Siliqua. — The silique is a dry and elongated pericarp or fruit, 
consisting of two valves, with two opposite seams, to 
which the seeds are alternately attached, as in Cheiran- 
thus. When the valves open they separate from the 
seams, and form a replum, with a dissepiment, which 
is sometimes fenestrate. 
Sinuated. — When the margin of a leaf is cut, as it were, into 
roundish scollops. 
Solitary. — Parts which stand singly or alone. 
Soredia. — Soredia are heaps of powdery bodies that lie scat- 
tered upon the surface of the thalli of the Lichens. 
Sori. — The clusters of spores or granules that are found on 
the fronds of Dorsiferous ferns, are denominated 
Sori. 
Spadix. — The Spadix is a species of inflorescence in which the 
flowers are closely arranged around a fleshy axis, 
which is enclosed in a spathe. It is peculiar to the 
Palms and Aroideae. 
Spathe. — The term spathe, is by some botanists restricted to 
the floral leaf that invests the spadix of the Palms and 
Aroideae, by others it is extended to the sheath that 
invests the unexpanded flowers of Narcissus, and simi- 
lar liliaceous plants. 
SpAtulate.— When a leaf is round at the apex, and gradually 
tapers towards the base. 
Species. — A species is a group of individuals connected to- 
gether, by certain obvious and unequivocal resem- 
blances, in the form and structure of their several 
parts or organs, but differing by some striking and 
peculiar trait, from all the other groups of allied indi- 
viduals, that may happen to belong to the same, or to 
any other genus. 
Spike. — The spike is a species of inflorescence consisting of 
an assemblage of flowers arranged in close succession 
upon a common and longitudinal axis, which is gene- 
rally a prolongation of the stem, as in Wheat and Barley. 
Spindle-shaped Root. — If a root tapers gradually from the 
base to the apex, and descends to a considerable depth 
in the soil, it is said to be spindle-shaped, as that of the 
Carrot or Parsnip. 
Spines. — The leaves or their segments, as well as the division 
of the calyx, are in many plants found to terminate in 
sharp indurated points, which may be called spines, as 
in the Thistles, particularly in that species which the 
Scotch have adopted as emblematic of their nation. 
Hence the origin of the motto, Nemo me impune lacessit. 
Spiral Vessels.— -The spiral vessels are fine, filmy, and trans- 
parent tubes, interspersed occasionally with the other 
tubes of the plants, but readily distinguished from 
them by their being twisted in the form of a cork- 
screw, from right to left, as in the stem of spearmint, 
or from left to right, as in the stem of Fuller’s Teasel, 
and terminating in a cone, as it is said. Grew and Mal- 
pighi, who first discovered and described them, repre- 
presented them as resembling in their appearance the 
tracheae of insects, and designated them by that name, 
an appellation by which they are still very generally 
known. 
Spongiolae. — The pulpy and bibulous extremities of the fine 
fibres of the root are called Spongiolae, from their ab- 
sorbing, like little sponges, the moisture of the soil. 
They are composed of one or more central ducts or 
vessels, enveloped by a cellular tissue, but they are 
destitute of an epidermis. 
Spores. — The small germs or granules by which plants of the 
class Cryptogamia are progagated, and which are 
lodged in the Soredia or Sporidia, botanists designate 
by name of spores or sporules. 
SpoRidia. — The fine and filmy envelopes that enclose the Spo- 
rules of the Fungi, and denominated Sporidia. 
Spur. — The Spur is a liorn-like process issuing immediately 
from the corolla, as in Orchis. Linnaeus regarded it as 
a nectary, but it does not always contain a nectari- 
ferous gland. 
Stalks. — The stems of herbaceous plants are called stalks. 
They are rarely woody, and live but for one or two 
years in the natural state. 
Stamens. — The Stamens, an appellation borrowed from the 
Latin term stamen, a thread : “ et gracili geminas inten- 
dunt stamine telas” — Ovid. Met. vi., — are substances 
of a very slender fabric, and of a thread-shaped figure, 
consisting of two parts, namely, a filament and anther, 
that is, a small bag, or viscus, which the filament sup- 
ports. They are situated immediately within the 
corolla, to which they are sometimes attached, and 
may be seen very conspicuously by opening up the 
blossom of a Tulip or a Lily. They are apparently of 
no importance in the eye of the vulgar spectator, but 
are essential to the botanical notion of a flower, be- 
cause indispensable to the formation of perfect fruit. 
The calyx is sometimes wanting, and the corolla is 
sometimes wanting ; or the calyx and corolla both, as 
in Euphorbia ; but the stamens are never wanting, 
except through adventitious or accidental causes united. 
Linnaeus suggested a rule for distinguishing the calyx 
