812 
SCLEHOTIUM. 
albumen, with a simple skin, tunicated, enclosed in the dry 
hardened calyx. Embryo curved. Radicle superior.—A 
genus from the south coast of New Holland, composed of 
small, usually hoary, or somewhat woolly, shrubs. Leaves 
alternate, linear, narrow. Flowers axillary, solitary or ag¬ 
gregate. 
1. Sclerolsena paradoxa.—Flowers capitate. Calyx of 
of the fruit connate ; its segments tipped with spines. 
2. Sclerolsena biflora.—Flowers in pairs. Leaves linear, 
semi-cylindrical. 
3. Sclerolsena uniflora.—Flowers solitary. Leaves linear, 
somewhat club-shaped, imbricated. 
4. Sclerolsena divaricata. — (Anisacantha divaricata; 
Brown.) —Flowers four-cleft. Calyx of the fruit with un¬ 
equal dorsal spines. From the same country. We presume 
to unite the Anisacantha of our learned friend with his Scle¬ 
rolsena, as differing only in the number of the parts of fruc¬ 
tification, and in the spines of the calyx being dorsal, not 
terminal. The stamens are three or four. This is a smooth 
little shrub. Leaves alternate, semi-cylindrical. Flowers 
axillary, sessile, without bracteas. 
SCLEROPHTH.ALMIA [from e-xX^po?, hard, and 
op9a.\go<;, Gr„ the eye], in Surgery, an inflammation of the 
eye, in which there is an unusual dryness and hardness of 
this organ. 
SCLEROSARCOMA, a hard excrescence on the gums. 
SCLEROSIS, a hard tumour. 
SCLEROTHAMNUS, in Botany, a genus of the class 
decandria, order monogynia, natural order of papilionacese, 
leguminosse (Juss.) — Essential Character. Calyx five- 
cleft, two-lipped, with a pair of appendages at the base. 
Corolla papilionaceous; keel the length of the wings. Style 
ascending, thread-shaped. Stigma simple. Legume turgid, 
with two seeds. 
Sclerothamnus microphyllus, or small-leaved sclerotham- 
nus.—Observed by Mr. Brown, on the south coast of New 
Holland. It was sent to Kew in 1803, by Mr. Peter Good, 
and flowers from April to June, being treated as a greenhouse 
shrub. 
SCLEROTIC, adj. [sclerotique, Fr, a-xX^po?, Gr.] 
Hard : an epithet of one of the coats of the eye.—The 
ligaments observed in the inside of the sclerotick tunicles of 
the eye, serve instead of a muscle, by their contraction, to 
alter the figure of the eye. Raj/. 
SCLEROTICA, in Anatomy [from crxX^jpo?, Gr., hard), 
the external dense and firm membrane of the globe of the 
eye. 
SCLERO'TICS, Medicines which harden and con¬ 
solidate the parts they are applied to. 2u'mcy. 
SCLEROTIUM [from cncX^poTT)?, Gr., hardness or ri¬ 
gidity, in allusion to its texture], in Botany, a genus of 
the class cryptogamia, order fungi, natural order of fungi, 
sarcocarpi (Persoon.)—Essential Character. Simple, 
oblong, variously shaped, firm; internally smooth and uni¬ 
form ; filled with minute seeds. 
1. Sclerotium crocorum.—Subterraneous, tuberous, poly¬ 
morphous, reddish, cohering by long fibrous roots. This 
grows parasitically on the root of the cultivated saffron, 
crocus sativus, in France, and is so pernicious as to have 
acquired the name of la mart du Saffron. Duhamel, who 
has written on the subject, in the Memoires de l’Acad. 
Roy ale, for 1720, has observed the same fungus, as he be¬ 
lieved, on the roots of asparagus officinalis, and sambucus 
ebulus. Fougeroux de Bondaroy has also given a paper 
on this noxious fungus, in the Mem. de l’Acad for 1782. 
It is very destructive to saffron, soon causing the whole bulb 
to perish, and spreading with great rapidity over a whole 
field of that valuable crop, if not speedily stopped by a 
trench, fifteen to eighteen inches deep, to cut off the com¬ 
munication between the infected and the sound plants. The 
smallest quantity of earth from an infected field is said to be 
capable of communicating this plague, even if the ground 
were not planted with saffron till twenty years afterwards. 
Hitherto this destructive parasite has not been heard of but 
in France. The plants are of an irregular knobbed figure, 
from half an inch to an inch long, of a light reddish-browD, 
scarcely bursting; granular and paler within. Long, branch¬ 
ing, red, capillary roots are sent off in all directions, propa¬ 
gating the plant very extensively and rapidly by offsetts, 
which attach themselves to the saffron, and multiplying in 
the substance of the bulbs, soon destroy them. 
2. Sclerotium fungorum. — Subterraneous, irregularly 
lobed, pale. Found on the roots of decaying fungi; fre¬ 
quently undermining that of agaricus tuberosus. The 
plants are whitish; at first the size of mustard-seed, but 
subsequently three to six lines long, and unequally swelling ; 
the internal substance white. 
3. Sclerotium muscorum.—Subterraneous,roundish, bright 
yellow, somewhat tuberculated. Found attached to the 
roots of mosses in summer. Each plant is two or three lines 
long, at length varying in shape, of the same golden hue 
within and without; its substance rather succulent. 
4. Sclerotium lacunosum.—Subterraneous, nearly round, 
channelled, black. Found by Persoon in autumn, adhering, 
like a root, to the base of a remarkable agaricus, called by 
him racemosus. This species is the size of a small pea. 
5. Sclerotium durum.—Ovate, hard, somewhat striated* 
of a dull black. Found in autumn and winter on the dried 
stems of umbelliferous, and other large herbs. Generally 
ovate, but often indeterminate in figure, closed pressed to the 
stem on which it grows, and often covered by the cuticle. 
Its substance is firm, internally white; and the surface is 
marked with oblong furrows. 
6 . Sclerotium complanatum.—Erect, pale, somewhat 
pear-shaped, compressed, with a short stalk. Found in win¬ 
ter, adhering to rotten hay. or straw in dunghills. When 
young it is white, and scarcely compressed. Afterwards it 
generally becomes inversely heart-shaped, and of a pale 
dry hue. 
7. Sclerotium radicatum.—Obovate, black, with nume¬ 
rous long roots. Found in September, growing on the earth, 
in moist shady places. Each plant is about the size of a pea, 
nearly globular, half immersed in the ground, of a compact 
rather juicy substance, with a very black smooth skin, 
finally bursting in the centre. The roots are simple, nume¬ 
rous, longer than the fungus itself. 
8 . Sclerotium brassicse.—Oblong, depressed, black; dotted 
with black infernally. Found in winter among rotten cab¬ 
bage-leaves, laid by in cellars. Two or three lines broad, 
flattened, thin. 
9. Sclerotium varium.—Roundish, or oblong, somewhat 
lobed, rugose, variable. White when young ; then brown¬ 
ish, and black. Upon the stems and ribs of the leaves of 
cabbages in winter. This consists of little tuberous bodies, 
either solitary or from three to six crowded together, at first 
appearing in the form of minute snow-white globules, then 
becoming oblong, or kidney-shaped, obscurely lobed, vari¬ 
ous in size, changing to brown and black. 
10. Sclerotium semen.—Clustered, spherical, blackish- 
brown, finally wrinkled: internally white. On rotten 
cabbages and parsneps; as well as, according to Persoon, 
on decaying stems of potatoes, when heaped up in the fields 
in autumn and spring. About one or two lines in diameter, ra¬ 
ther soft and white, when young; becoming wrinkled by dry¬ 
ing. This fungus has been mistaken for the seed of cabbages. 
11. Sclerotium pubescens.—Clustered, globose, pale, 
villous at the base. Among the gills of a rotten agaric, 
late in autumn. About a line broad, sometimes slightly 
depressed in the centre. 
12. Sclerotium erisyphe.—Granules aggregate, brownish- 
black, attached by white down to the leaves of plants. This 
is found on the leaves of various plants in autumn, which 
thence appear to be sprinkled with a white mealy powder, 
and assume a languid condition; except only hazel-leaves, 
on whose backs it sometimes occurs, without injuring 
them. The fungus itself is very minute, globose, at first 
smooth and yellowish, then brown, finally rugged and 
nearly black. Some specimens, especially those which 
grow 
