S T R 
S T R 
STRATHGRYFE, the ancient name of the county of 
Renfrew, in Scotland; so named from the Gryfe, the princi¬ 
pal river. 
STRATHMARTIN, a parish of Scotland, in Forfarshire, 
about 2 miles square. Population 627. 
STRATHMIGLO, a parish of Scotland in Fifeshire, about 
5j miles long, and 3J broad. Population 1697. 
STRATHMIGLO, a town in the above parish. The in¬ 
habitants amount to 800, and are chiefly employed in the 
linen manufacture; 12 miles south-east of Perth, and 8 
east of Kinross. 
STRATHMORE, or the Great Strath, in Scotland, 
a name applied to that valley which traverses the kingdom 
from Stonehaven in Kincardineshire on the east, to the 
district of Cowal in Argyllshire on the west. Its northern 
boundary is formed by the Grampian mountains; and its 
southern by the Sidlaws, the Ochils, and the Lennox hills. 
The whole vale is fertile and pleasant, interspersed with 
numerous towns and villages and elegant seats. Strathmore, 
however, is more generally applied, in a restricted sense, to 
that part of it which is bounded by the Sidlaws, extending 
from Methven in Perthshire, to Laurencekirk in Mearns. 
STRATHMORE, a river of Scotland, in Sutherlandshire, 
which falls into an arm of the sea called Loch Hope. 
STRATHNAVER, or Strathnavern, a district, of 
Scotland, in Sutherlandshire, and the north-east division of 
the county, anciently a county of itself, which gives second 
title of Baroness to the Countess of Sutherland. 
STRATHPEFFER, a beautiful valley of Scotland, in 
Ross-shire, near the town of Dingwall. In this vale is a 
celebrated mineral spring, called the well of Strathpeffer, 
strongly impregnated with sulphurated hydrogen gas. 
STRATHSPEY, a district of Scotland, in Inverness and 
Moray shires, through which the Spey flows, celebrated for 
its great forests of fir. 
STRATHY, a river of Scotland, in Sutherlandshire, which 
has its rise from a small loch of the same name, where, after 
a course of 15 miles, it runs into the Northern sea, at a small 
creek called Strathy Bay. 
STRATHY HEAD, a promontory of Scotland, in Suther¬ 
landshire, forming the west boundary of Strathy Bay; 31 
miles east of Cape Wrath. Lat. 58. 33. N. long. 3. 50. W. 
STRATIFICA'TION, s. Arrangement of different mat¬ 
ter ; arrangement in beds or layers.—A mass in which there 
is no stratification. Dr. Hutton. 
To STRA'TIFY v. a. [stratificr, Fr. from stratum, 
Lat.] To range in beds or layers. A chemical term.— 
Steel is made from the purest and softest iron, by keeping it 
red hot, stratified with coal-dust and wood-ashes, &c. Hill. 
STRATIOTES. ['^Toahoir^c of Dioscorides. From 
adoodoc,, an army'], in Botany, a genus Of the class dioecia, 
order dodecandria, polyandria hexagynia (Linn.), natural 
order of palmae, hydrocharides (Jtiss.) —Generic Character. 
Male— Calyx: spathe common two-leaved, three or five- 
flowered: leaflets boat-shaped, compressed, obtuse, converg¬ 
ing, keeled, almost equal, permanent. Proper (of the lateral 
flowers) one-leafed, membranaceous, channelled at the back, 
opposite to the leaflets of the common spathe, and hidden by 
them. Corolla: petals three, obcordate, from erect spread¬ 
ing, twice as large as the perianth. Nectaries twenty, anther¬ 
shaped, linear-lanceolate, acute, in a ring, inserted into the 
receptacle. Stamina: filaments twelve, filiform, shorter than 
the nectaries, inserted into the receptacle. Anthers linear, 
erect. Female—Calyx: spathe two-leaved, one-flowered: 
leaflets boat-shaped, compressed, obtuse, converging, unequal, 
permanent. Perianth as in the male, superior. Corolla as 
in the male. Nectaries as in the male, a little larger. Pistil: 
Germ inferior, ovate-hexangular, compressed. Styles six, 
two-parted. Stigmas simple, recurved. Pericarp: berry 
ovate, narrowed to both ends, six-sided, six-celled: with a 
pellucid pulp. Seeds very many, oblong, cylindrical.— Es¬ 
sential Character. Spathe two-leaved. Perianth superior, 
trifid. Petals three. Berry six-celled. 
1. Stratiotes aloides.—Leaves all radical, forming a star-like 
tuft, as in the aloes and sedums: their substance is rigid. 
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brittle, vascular, and pellucid; their teeth and points very 
sharp; the keel also sharp. Peduncles several, shorter than 
the leaves, upright, smooth; each bearing one upright white 
flower, arising from a two-leaved sheath.—Native of some 
parts of Europe, and of Siberia. In England, it occurs plen¬ 
tifully in the fen ditches of the isle of Ely, and in many other 
parts. 
2. Stratiotes acoroides.— Leaves en&iform, flat, very 
smooth, spathe bearded at the point. Root creeping, little 
branched, jointed as in acorus.—Native of the Ceylonese 
islands. , 
3. Stratiotes alismoides. — Leaves cordate. Spathe one- 
leafed, with five, membranaceous, longitudinal angles,— 
Native of the East Indies and Egypt. 
Propagation and Culture. —Young plants must be pro¬ 
cured in spring, when they first rise on the surface of the 
water, and placed in canals, ponds, or large tubs or cisterns, 
where they will strike down their roots, and increase without 
farther care. 
STRATO, a philosopher of Lampsacus, who succeeded 
Theophrastus in the Peripatetic school, and took charge of 
it in the 3d year of the 123d Olympiad, B. C. 286, and 
presided in it 18 years, with a high degree of reputation for 
learning and eloquence; and from his attachment to natural 
philosophy, he obtained the appellation of “ Physicus.” 
Ptolemy Philadelphus chose him for his preceptor, and 
recompensed his services with a present of 80 talents. None 
of his works have reached our time. His constitution was 
feeble, and it is said that he lost the powers of perception 
before his death, which happened about the end of the 127th 
Olympiad. In his opinion concerning matter, Strato de¬ 
parted essentially from the system both of Plato and Aris¬ 
totle, and he is said to have nearly approached that system 
of atheism, which excludes the Deity from the formation 
of the world. From Cicero (De Nat. Deor. 1. i. c, 13.) we 
learn, that he conceived all divine power to be seated in 
nature, which possesses the causes of production; increase, 
and diminution, but is wholly destitute of sensation and 
figure; and the same author, in his Tuscul. Quaest. informs 
us, that he had nothing in common with the atomic prin¬ 
ciples of Democritus, but ascribes every thing to certain 
natural motions and librations. Brucker gives the following 
abstract of his opinions; that there is inherent in nature a 
principle of motion, or force, without intelligence, which 
is the only cause of the production and dissolution of bodies; 
that the world has neither been formed by the agency of a 
deity; distinct from matter, nor by an intelligent animating 
principle, but has arisen from a force innate to matter, 
originally excited by accident, and since continuing to act, 
according to the peculiar qualities of natural bodies. It 
does not appear, that he expressly either denied or asserted 
the existence of a divine nature ; but in excluding all idea 
of deity from the formation of the world, it cannot be 
doubted, that he indirectly excluded from his system the 
doctrine of the existence of a supreme being. Strato also 
taught, that the seat of the soul is in the middle of the brain, 
and that it only acts by means of the senses. Brucker by 
Enfield. 
STRATO'CRACY, s. [o-rparo?, Gr. an army, and 
kooc- ro?, porver.] A military government.—Ever since the 
invasion of Kouli Khan, Indostan, from being a well 
regulated government, became a scene of mere anarchy or 
stratocracy ; every great man protecting himself in his 
tyranny bv his soldiers. Guthrie. 
STRATO'GRAPHY, s. [ stratographie, Fr., err octroi; 
and youfpa, Gr.] Description of whatever relates to an 
army. 
STRATONISI, three small islands in the Grecian archi¬ 
pelago; 10 miles south of Speccia, Lat. 37. 16. N. lon°\ 
23.25. E. 
STRATOR, among the Romans, an officer who took 
care of the horses furnished by the provincials for the public 
service. 
Strator is also used for an officer in the army, whose 
business it was to take care there was nothing in the roads 
to 
