{ 
172 SEEDLING. 
tions, but they are especially interesting to the 
physiologist. I would, therefore, venture to 
suggest that advantage might be derived, and 
considerable knowledge obtained, by the careful 
performance of such a series of experiments as 
the following upon the steeping of barley :— 
Seed steeped ‘and washed in repeated waters ; 
steeped in as much water only as it can absorb ; 
steeped in diluted sulphuric acid; steeped in 
diluted muriatic acid; steeped in mixed saline 
solutions as above; steeped first in water and 
then again in the mixed saline solution ; steeped 
in nitrate or phosphate of soda; steeped first in 
water and then in nitrate or phosphate of soda.” 
SEED-BASKET. See Rusxy. 
SEED-CORN. See AcricutturaL Szeps. 
SEEDLING. A young plant which has not 
been removed from the seed-bed ; also a plant 
of any given species raised from seed, as distin- 
guished from one raised in any of the methods 
which do not originate varieties, or which do 
not renovate an old stock. 
SEED-LIP. A basket in which a sower car- 
ries seed-corn during the process of broadcast 
field sowing. 
SHED-SIFTER. See Sreve. 
SEEL. The season or suitable time for any 
agricultural operation. Barley-seel, for example, 
is the season for sowing barley ; hay-seel is the 
season of hay-making ; and bark-seel is the sea- 
son for barking trees. But the word, in all its 
uses, is provincial. 
SEELING. The commencement of the ap- 
pearance of white hair in a horse’s eye-brows. 
This usually occurs between the 14th and the 
16th year of a horse’s age, and is therefore a 
mark of his becoming old. 
SEG. A castrated bull. 
cial. 
SHGGING. See Oar. 
SEGS. The provincial name of sedges or 
carices, See the article Carex. 
SELAGO. A genus of ornamental greenhouse 
plants, of the verbena family. About 20 species 
have been introduced to Britain from South 
Africa; and about as many more are known. 
Most of the introduced species are evergreen 
undershrubs of from 8 or 10 inches to 3 feet in 
height, carrying either white, blue, violet, or 
purple flowers, and propagable from cuttings ; 
and all love a soil of peaty loam. 
SELF-HEAL,—botanically Prunella. A genus 
of hardy herbaceous plants, of the labiate order. 
One species grows wild in Britain; and 12 or 
13 species,—chiefly annual-stemmed perennials, 
of about 6 inches in height, carrying white or 
yellow or pink or blue or purple flowers in the 
latter part of summer and the early part of au- 
tumn—have been introduced from Continental 
Europe and North America. Most love a soil 
of peaty loam, and are propagated by division 
of the reots. 
The indigenous or common self-heal, Prunella 
The word is provin- 
SEMINARY. 
vulgaris, is the most interesting species, and 
may serve as a sufficient specimen of the whole 
genus. It inhabits the meadows and pastures of 
most parts of Britain, and is frequently found 
among clover. Its root is fibrous ; several quad- 
rangular, leafy stems rise from each root, and 
commonly attain a height of from 5 to 9 inches; . 
the leaves are stalked and opposite, and have a 
brownish colour, and are entire, ovate-oblong, 
and about 14 inch long and ? of an inch 
broad ; and the flowers are numerous, and grow 
in dense, solitary, erect, whorled spikes, and 
have either a white, a blue, or a purplish colour, 
and bloom in July and August. Two ornamen- 
tal varieties, the one red-flowered and handsome, 
and the other double-flowered and curious, oc- 
cur in gardens. This plant was formerly in 
repute as a vulnerary herb, and for the cure of 
a disease in the jaws and throat; but it has not 
now any recognised place in the materia medica. 
It somewhat readily finds its way among clover 
in consequence of its seeds ripening at the same 
time as those of that plant, and considerably 
resembling them ; yet the seeds of self-seal may 
quite easily be distinguished by any ordinary 
observer from their being rather larger than 
clover-seeds and kidney-shaped. 
SELENIUM. An elementary substance of an 
intermediate character between the metals and 
the simple non-metallic bodies. It is very scarce, 
and occurs for the most part in combination 
with sulphur. It is a brittle, opaque, tasteless, 
odourless body, of metallic lustre and lead-like 
appearance ; but assumes a deep red colour when 
reduced to powder, softens into remarkable tena- 
city at a temperature of 212°, melts at a little 
higher temperature, and boils and evaporates 
with high yellow-coloured vapour at 650°. It 
greatly resembles sulphur in many of its proper- 
ties and in the general character of its affinities 
or combinations. Some of the chief compounds 
of it are oxide of selenium, selenious acid, selenic 
acid, and seleniuretted hydrogen. 
SELINUM. See Mirx-Parstey. 
SELLANDERS. See Matitenpers and Sat- 
LENDERS. 
SEMBRADOR. One of the earliest invented 
drill-sowing machines. It was invented by the 
Spaniard Don Joseph de Lucatello, and brought 
early to the notice of Britons through the Philo- 
sophical Transactions. It was fastened to the 
tail of the plough, and it dropped the seeds of 
corn-crops regularly into the furrow, and effected 
the sowing of any given area with abont one- 
fifth of the seeds which were usually employed in 
hand-sowing ; but it was not found to answer in 
common practice, and is now on record as a 
mere agricultural curiosity. See the article Sow- 
inG-Macuinus. 
SEMICARPUS. See Casunw-Nor. 
SEMINARY. A piece of ground allotted for 
raising perennial plants from seed, and keeping 
them till they become fit for removal into the 
