819 
SCO 
fofthe insect kind, found in the year 1736, by Klein, in 
Prussia, and at the same time by Mfi Brown, in some parts 
of Kent. 
It was met with in Prussia in vast abundance, in the places 
where they take cray-fish, and having not been met with 
there before, surprised the people employed in that fishery so 
much, that they brought home many of them. 
In Kent, its appearance was attended with greater singu¬ 
larity, Mr. Brown found it in a pond on Bexley Common, 
where the country people had observed vast numbers of them 
for five or six weeks before. The pond was quite dry on the 
24th of June that year, but being filled by the thunder 
shower on the 25th of the same month, the pond was ob¬ 
served to swarm with them in two days, by a farmer water¬ 
ing his cows there ; and what is very remarkable is, that 
there appears no channel into this pond that could convey 
them from any other place. 
The creature is about an inch and a half in length, and 
somewhat less than an inch in breadth, and though so small, 
yet bears a great resemblance, in many of its parts, to the 
.great Molucca crab, called by some the buckler crab. When 
the back is viewed, it is seen to be covered with a case or 
shield, so that it in some measure resembles a tortoise, only it 
is remarkably gibbous, or prominent all along the middle of 
the back, and has a triangular opening in the shell near the 
tail. On the head it has two short horns, standing in the 
common place of the antenna. When the case or shell is 
taken off, the rings on the body are found to be about thirty 
an number. The legs are very extraordinary; they are forty- 
two on each side; the twenty that stand next the head are 
nearly of the same size, but then they grow gradually 
smaller towards the tail. The feet consist each of five mem¬ 
branaceous claws; these are flat, and have a stiff rib in the 
middle, and are beset at the edges with hairs, in the manner 
of the legs of a crab. The whole structure of the legs seem 
Calculated for swimming rather than walking. Philos. Trans. 
N° 447. p. 151. 
SCOLOPENDRITES. See Echinus. 
SCOLOPENDR1TES LAPIS, a name given by some 
authors to a species of the lapis si/ringoides, or pipe-stone, 
the tubules of which they suppose to resemble the figure of 
the body of the scolopendra. 
SCOLOPENDRIUM, a name applied by the ancients to 
several herbs, whose long hairy stems, or roots with nu¬ 
merous fibres, bore some resemblance to the insect called 
'S.KoAoirtvlox,, Scolopendra, or forty-foot. It has remained 
with the fern called Lingua Cervina, or harts’-tongue, as 
a specific name, and is retained as a generic one for the 
same plant, on its being separated from Asclenium , by Sir 
J. Smith. See the Linnaean term Asclepium. 
SCOLOPIA [SKoXoma from ovcoAo?, a sharp stake, or 
thorn, the same with o-KoXoirevSya or tr/coXoirsySyioi', the name 
of a plant in Threophrastus], in Botany, a genus of the 
.class icosandria, order monogynia.—Generic Character. 
Calyx: perianth one-leafed, three or four-parted, perma¬ 
nent: segments ovate, obtuse, concave, spreading. Corolla: 
petals three or four, oblong, subcoriaceous, obtuse, spreading, 
permanent, twice the length of the corolla. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments numerous, filiform, flatfish below, villose at the base, 
spreading, permanent, length of the corolla, inserted into 
-the calyx. Anthers linear. Pistil: germ roundish, supe¬ 
rior. Style cylindrical, straight, longer than the stamens. 
Stigma thickened, three-lobed, impressed above with three 
little pits. Pericarp: berry roundish, crowned with the 
permanent style, one-celled. Seeds six, rounded, four-sided, 
arilled. Arils membranaceous, thin, pulpy, angular, two 
fastened to three ribs, glued to the inner wall of the berry. 
The ribs easily separate from the berry, and are resolved 
into six unequal threads, from the apex of which the arils 
hang down.— Essential Character. Calyx inferior, three 
-or four-parted. Corolla three or four petalled. Berry 
crowned with the style, one-celled, six-seeded. Seeds 
arilled. 
Scolopia pusilla.—Berry elliptic-spheroidal, crowned with 
SCO 
a short style, fleshy-coriaceous, divided within into three 
incomplete cells by three prominences. Pulp separated 
every way from the cells by a very thin membrane, and 
formed into three soft oblong bags, in which the seeds are 
lodged. There are generally two seeds in each bag, seldom 
three, placed on each other, obliquely and irregularly trun¬ 
cate at the point of contact, in other parts subovate, convex 
on one side, angular on the other, black, and somewhat 
shining.—Native of Ceylon, where it is called Khatu-Ku- 
rundu, or thorny cinnamon; whence we may conjecture 
that it resembles the cinnamon in leaves and outward ap¬ 
pearance, but differs from it iu having thorns. 
SCOLOPOMAC/ERIUM, in Surgery, an incision-knife. 
SCOLOSANTHUS [from cnca>Aoc, a thorn, and avflo?, 
a Jdoiver ], in-Botany, a genus of the class tetrandria, order 
monogynia, natural order of luridse, rubiaceas (Juss .)— 
Generic Character. Calyx: perianth one leafed, superior, 
small, four-cleft: segments linear-lanceolate, four times 
shorter than the corolla, acute, spreading. Corolla: one- 
petalled with claws, tubular, before it opens exactly four- 
cornered, the angles acute, a little curved in, gradually 
widening upwards; when opened bluntly four-cornered. 
Border four-cleft: segments ovate, acute, revolute. Stamina: 
filaments four, erect, scarcely placed at the bottom of the co¬ 
rolla, cohering a little at the base in a four-cornered smooth 
tube, a little hairy below. Anthers linear, erect, the length 
of the tube. Pistil: germ inferior, small. Style capillary, 
a little longer than the corolla. Stigmas two, small, obtuse, 
a little thicker than the style. Pericarp: drupe sub-globular, 
size of black pepper, smooth, succulent, mucronate with the 
permanent calyeine segments. Seed one, in an oblong, 
somewhat stony, one celled shell.— Essential Character. 
Calyx four-cleft. Corolla tubular with a revolute border. 
Drupe one-seeded. 
Scolosanthus versicolor.—This is a small shrub, ap¬ 
proaching in habit to Justicia spinosa. Branches round, 
alternately compressed at top, remote, commonly opposite, 
the thickness of a packthread, green with a tinge of ash- 
colour, appearing pubescent when examined by a magnifier, 
jointed, the internodes about half an inch in length ; the 
joints surrounded by a sort of ring formed by the short 
evanescent membrane of the stipules. Leaves subsessile, 
opposite, from two to five on each side, scarcely half an inch 
long; obovate, entire, sub-coriaceous, veinless, nerveless, 
shining. Spines commonly in pairs, from each alternate 
axil, connate at the base, divaricating, a little longer than the 
leaf, purplish, often floriferous at one of the tips. They ary. 
the younger spines that commonly bear the flowers, and 
they keep growing on after the flowers are fallen. Flowers 
on very short peduncles: those from the apex of a spine 
solitary a little smaller, purple, abortive : others axillary, soli¬ 
tary or more rarely two or four together, erect, saffron 
coloured, fertile. Fruit snow-white.—Discovered in the 
island of Santa Cruz. 
SCOLYMUS [of Pliny, '2i<o\vp.o; of Dioscorides and 
Hesiod], in Botany, a genus of the class syngenesia, order 
polygamia aequalis, natural order of compositae semifloscu- 
losae, cichoraceae (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx, 
common, imbricate, ovate: scales numerous, lanceolate, 
spiny, loose. Corolla, compound, imbricate, uniform .- 
corollets hermaphrodite, numerous, equal.—Proper one- 
petalled, ligulate, linear, truncate, very finely five-toothed.— 
Stamina: filaments five, capillary, very short. Anther cy¬ 
lindrical, tubular. Pistil: germ oblong. Style filiform, 
longer than the stamens. Stigmas two, reflexed. Pericarp 
none. Calyx unchanged. Seeds solitary, somewhat ob¬ 
long, triangular, acuminate at the base. Pappus none. 
Receptacle chaffy, convex: chaffs roundish, flat, three¬ 
toothed at the tip, longer than the seeds and separating 
them.— Essential Character. Calyx imbricate, spiny. 
Pappus none. Receptacle chaffy. 
1. Scolymus maculatus, or annual golden thistle.—This 
plant rises with a branching stalk four or five feet high, 
having leafy wings running along the sides from joint to 
joint, 
