SCAIVOLA. 
by cattle, yet is eaten by sheep and goats. A 
white-flowered variety of it, S. a. flore-albo, occurs 
in gardens. 
SCAIVOLA. A genus of ornamental exotic 
plants, of the goodenia tribe. ‘Two evergreen 
herbaceous species about 20 inches high, and 6 
or 7 evergreen ligneous species of from 20 to 40 
inches in height—the former propagable by radi- 
cal division, the latter from cuttings, and all lov- 
ing a soil with some mixture of peat—have been 
introduced to the greenhouses and hothouses of 
Britain, principally from Australia and India; and 
nearly 20 more are known. ‘The flowers of most 
are white; and those of the rest have some shade 
of blue or red. 
SCALLION. See Onton and SHannor. 
SCAMMONY. See Binpweep. 
SCANDIX. A genus of white-flowered, an- 
nual plants of the umbelliferous order, Venus’s 
comb or the shepherd’s needle, Scandix pecten, is 
a common troublesome weed of the corn-fields 
and other cultivated lands of Britain. Its root 
is tapering ; its stems are simple but bushy, 
Spreading, furrowed, leafy, and from 6 to 12 
inches high; its leaves are light green and trebly 
pinnatifid; its leaflets are linear, acute, and 
smooth ; its umbels are small, simple, solitary 
or in pairs, and chiefly terminal ; and its fruit is 
nearly smooth, and has a bushy edge, and sends 
out a beak like a large needle to the length of 
one or two inches. 
SCANTERING. See Drarrua@a. 
SCARCEMENT. A projecting slope from the 
base of an earthen fence, or from the line or 
level of a bank along which a hedge is planted. 
Scarcements were recommended by the old writ- 
ers on hedging; but are now regarded, by all 
good judges, as serving no good purpose, and as 
encouraging arank and noxious growth of weeds. 
SCARIFIHR. See Grosser. 
SCARLET RUNNER. See Kipyuy Buay. 
SCHEDONORUS. A genus of grasses of the 
glyceria tribe. Five species are indigenous in 
Britain ; at least a dozen species have been in- 
troduced from ‘other countries; and about 20 
more are known. The majority of the species at 
present in Britain are ranked by all the older 
botanists as fescues, and have been noticed in 
our article Fusruca; and the others, even when 
viewed in the aggregate, do not possess much 
economical interest, and comprise only three 
which have any noticeable claim to the status 
of agricultural plants; and these three are, SS. 
decidwus, a perennial indigen of the moist mea- 
dows of Britain, about 20 inches in height,—and 
S. poeformis, and S. nigrescens, both perennials 
of about a foot in height, introduced in 1819 from 
Switzerland. The name schedonorus signifies 
“near to a mountain,” and alludes to the habi- 
tat of some of the principal species. 
SCHEUCHZERIA. A curious evergreen her- 
baceous plant, of the order Juncaginee. It oc- 
| cursin the marshes and wet spongy bogs of some 
SCHIZANTHUS. 155 
parts of England, but is very rare. It consti- 
tutes a genus of itself; and takes the specific 
name of palustris. Its root is creeping; its herb- 
age is smooth, and has a white, shining, lax cu- 
ticle; its stem is erect, wavy, simply racemose, 
and 4 or 5 inches high; its leaves are few, sheath- 
ing, and cylindrical; and its flowers grow in a 
terminal cluster of about five, and have a brown- 
ish green colour, and bloom in May and June. 
SCHINUS. A genus of ornamental exotic 
plants, of the terebinth tribe. The Peruvian 
Species, or Indian mastic, S. mole, is an ever- 
green shrub of Peru and Mexico, and was intro- 
duced to the gardens of Britain toward the close 
of the 16th century. Its stem is from 8 to 12 
feet high, and divides into many branches ; its 
bark is dark brown; its leaves are alternate and 
pinnate, and have each from 10 to 15 pairs of 
leaflets, and a comparatively long terminating 
odd one; its leaflets are about 1} inch long and 
¢ of an inch broad, and taper to the point, and 
are somewhat sawed on the edges, and have a 
lucid green colour, and emit a turpentine odour 
when bruised ; and its flowers are very small, 
odourless, and of a greenish white colour, and 
grow in loose bunches at the end of the branches, 
and bloom in July and August. This plant re- 
quires a soil of rich mould, and is propagated 
from seeds or layers. Its leaf-stalks, when broken, 
and also the entire leaves of the nearly allied 
terebinthaceous plant, Duvaua latifolia, exhibit 
a curious and beautiful phenomenon when thrown 
into water,—the former producing numerous, 
tinted, floating, star-like figures which move 
about like dancers in a ball-room or like the 
ships of a fleet in manceuvring, and the latter 
starting and jumping up as if they were alive, 
and, at the instant of each start, discharging a 
jet of oily matter into the water. “This cir- 
cumstance,” says Dr. Lindley, “appears to be 
owing to some peculiar irritability of the paren- 
chyma of the leaves, which, when acted upon by 
water, causes the turpentine sacs, that abound 
in the leaves, to empty themselves with violence ; 
and the movements of the leaves may be ascribed 
to the recoil produced by the discharge. ‘Thus 
we have in every leaf a sort of vegetable battery, 
which will keep up its fire until the stock of am- 
munition is expended.” 
SCHISMUS. A small, hardy, annual grass, of 
the oat tribe. It was ranked by Linneus as a 
fescue; but it now constitutes a genus of itself, 
and is specifically called marginatus or the mar- 
gined. It is a native of Spain, and was intro- 
duced to Britain nearly 70 years ago. 
height of only 6 or 7 inches. 
SCHIZANTHUS. A genus of ornamental, 
hardy, annual plants, of the figwort family. 
The name signifies torn-flower ; and alludes to 
deep and numerous indentations in the borders 
of the corolla; and is very descriptive. Five 
species, —the pinnate, the spreading-stalked, 
Graham’s, Hooker’s, and the retuse-petaled— 
It has a 
