a 
SAMPHIRE. 
SAMPHIRE (Mars). See Guassworz. 
SAMPHIRE (Prickxty),—botanically Hchino- 
phora spinosa. An indigenous evergreen herb, 
of the umbelliferous order. It occurs on the 
sandy sea-shores of some parts of England; but 
is exceedingly rare. Its root is long, fusiform, 
and fleshy, and has the flavour of a parsnip, one 
possesses stimulating and diuretic properties ; 
its herbage is glaucous and finely downy, and 
branches profusely, and spreads 2 or 3 feet on all 
sides ; its leaves are rigid and doubly pinnatifid, 
and have entire, awl-shaped, spinous leaflets ; and 
its flowers are white and bloom in July. 
SAMPLE. A small quantity of grain or of 
any other commodity, exhibited at a public or a 
private market, as a specimen. See the article 
Marker. 
SAMYDA. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
evergreen, calyciflorous shrubs, constituting, 
with the genus Casearia, the natural order 
Samydee or Samydacee. They have alternate, 
stipulate, entire leaves, covered with pellucid 
dots,—and axillary flowers, of no great beauty,— 
and fruit of somewhat similar structure to that 
of the Bixinez and the Flacourtianee. Hight 
or nine species of Samyda, varying in height from 
3 to 8 feet, and most producing white or green- 
ish flowers, and all propagable from cuttings, 
have been introduced to the hothouse collections 
of Britain ; and about as many more are known. 
SAND. Disintegrated, granular, mineral mat- 
ter. It results either from the separate deposi- 
tion of silicious substances in the course of the 
formation of alluvium,—or from the mutual at- 
trition of fragments of granular rock under the 
running action of water,—or from the comminu- 
tion and commixation of corals, shells, and boul- 
ders under the littoral refluxions of the sea. 
Some vast beds of it belong to remote geological 
periods ; and others are in constant course of de- 
position at the present day. 
Sand is exceedingly diversified in constitution ; 
it cannot be logically distinguished from other 
finely divided mineral deposits, such as clay and 
chalk, by any less general character than merely 
its granular or crystalline and incoherent struc- 
ture ; it possesses every variety of composition 
which could result from the disintegration of 
the most opposite kinds of granular minerals, 
and from the deposition of their water-worn de- 
bris under the most widely different circum- 
stances ; and it is in some places chiefly silici- 
ous,—in others, largely argillaceous,—in others, 
largely calcareous,—and in others, a combina- 
tion of any of these characters either with one 
another, or with the multifarious earths and or- 
ganic remains which commonly abound in allu- 
vium. Yet any considerable intermixture of 
argillaceous matter, makes it nearly allied to 
loam; any considerable intermixture of calcare- 
ous matter either makes it nearly allied to marl, 
or gives it the name of shell-sand; any consider- 
able mixture of other earths or of organic re- 
SANDEE 139 
mains, either makes it ean allied to alluvium, 
or gives it the name of sandy soil; and only 
when it consists very predominantly or quite 
characteristically of silicious matter, does it con- 
stitute ordinary or tolerably pure sand,—and 
then, not only i is it granular and incoherent, but 
it consists, in fact, of irregular quartz erystals, 
and has a near meletionshin to flint. See the 
article SILEX. 
Silicious sand is often classified, for economical 
purposes, particularly for those of the farm, into 
sea sand, river sand, and pit sand. Sea on 
except when it possesses such an intermixture 
of calcareous matter as not to be strictly silicious, 
iS generally the worst for any purpose; river 
sand is commonly good for some kinds of mason 
work; rivulet sand, but especially sand from the 
gentle washing of roads, is often the best for 
applying manurially to land; and pit sand is so 
exceedingly diversified in constitution as to be, 
in different specimens or in different circum- 
stances, either good, bad, or indifferent for almost 
any use to which silicious earth is applied. Most 
alluvial or loamy or argillaceous or calcareous 
sands are well fitted to act as fertilizers when 
used with due discrimination; yet some are so 
ferruginous or slaty or otherwise infertile as to 
be either useless or positively pernicious. 
Sand-drift, in both its silicious and its cal- 
careous varieties, and in both its loose and its con- 
solidated states, is sufficiently described in the 
article Downs. A vast tract of moving and de- 
structive sand-drift on both sides of the embou- 
chure of the Garonne, in the south-west of 
France, was reduced to fixture, in the early part 
of last century, by the simple expedient of flank- 
ing it with a great breadth of young plantation of 
the Pinus* maritima major; and a considerable 
and desolating tract, on the north-west coast of 
Ireland, was converted, not very many years ago, 
into actual profitable pasture for both sheep and 
cattle, by the still simpler expedient of planting 
it, in small rectangular holes, with little fan- 
shaped tufts or bunches of the sea-reed or mat- 
grass variously known as Arwndo arenaria, Psam- 
ma arenaria, and Ammophila arundinacea. The 
sea-reed, in fact, is the best known binder of sand- 
drift; the Hlymus arenarius is next to it; the 
Carex arenarius is next; and then follow Agro- 
pyrum gunceum, Festuca rubra, Galium verum, 
and Trifolium repens. See the article ARuNDo. 
Sand lands or pure sandy soils are such as 
consist very predominantly of silicious sand. 
They are either whitish, blackish, reddish, yel- 
lowish, or greyish; and they vary, in the size 
of their granules or the comparative comminution 
of their substance, from mere dust to absolute 
gravel,—but, in general, have a medium texture 
between these extremes. The black, the grey, 
and the ash-coloured are the most infertile, and 
occur principally on heaths, on commons, and in 
absolute deserts. Arable sand lands, when wet, 
feel firm under the foot, and are harsh and grat- 
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