SEPTAS. 
Such change takes place more rapidly when the 
temperature is elevated, than when it is low. 
The return of the sun’s influence readily restores 
the plant to its irritable state. It appears, there- 
fore, that it is by the action of light that the 
vital properties of vegetables are supported, as 
it is by the action of oxygen that those of ani- 
mals are preserved; consequently, etiolation is 
to the former what asphyxia is to the latter.” 
SEPTAS. A genus of curious, evergreen, 
white-flowered, South-African, herbaceous plants, 
of the houseleek family. Three species, varying 
in the height of the flower-stem from 4 to 10 
inches, have been introduced to the greenhouses 
of Britain; and they love a soil of sandy peat, 
and are propagated by division of the root. The 
name septas alludes to the curious fact that all 
parts of the flower are divided into seven. 
SEPTEMBER. See CaLenpar. 
SEPTFOIL,—botanically Tormentilia. A small 
genus of indigenous, perennial-rooted, herbace- 
ous plants, of the rosaceous order. 
The erect or officinal species, 7. erecta, or 7. 
officinalis, abounds in the heaths and coarse dry 
pastures of many parts of Britain. Its root is 
knotty and woody; its stems are erect, cylin- 
drical, leafy, branched, diffuse or procumbent, 
and commonly about a foot high; its leaves are 
almost sessile, ternate, lanceolate, serrated, and 
hairy, and are accompanied with deeply incised 
stipules; its flowers stand on long, opposite, 
solitary, one- flowered footstalks, and have a 
golden yellow colour, and bloom from May till 
October; and its seeds are few and wrinkled. 
The root has powerfully astringent properties, 
and is a common and valuable remedy for inter- 
mittents and especially for diarrhoeas and chronic 
purgings. It is used also, though not often, as a 
gargle or lotion for ulceration of the tongue 
and mouth, and as a local application to fetid 
and refractory sores. It is blackish without and 
reddish within, and has a slightly aromatic odour 
and an austere styptic taste, and yields all its 
active principles to boiling water. A dwarfish 
double-flowered variety of the plant, 7. e. flore- 
pleno, occurs in some parts of Wales, but is rare. 
The creeping or trailing septfoil, 7’. reptans, 
occurs about hedges and the borders of fields, 
and in some meadows and pastures, in various 
parts of Britain. Its stems are hairy and about 
two feet long, and have a prostrate but not 
creeping mode of growth; its stipules are un- 
divided ; its leaves stand on long hairy footstalks, 
and have each five leaflets, obovate, strongly 
serrated, and bright green; and its flowers are 
twice as large as those of the erect species, and 
have a full yellow colour, and bloom in June and 
July. This species also possesses astringent pro- 
perties, but not in a sufficient degree to entitle 
it to a place in the Materia Medica. 
SEPTUM. A partition in the interior or be- 
tween the parts of any organism. 
SERAPIAS. A small genus of curious, tuber- 
SERVICE-TREE. 
ous-rooted, brown-flowered, greenhouse, herba- 
ceous plants of the orchis order. See the article 
ORCHIS. 
SEROUS FLUIDS. Animal liquids of a whey- 
like appearance. Whey itself is the chief or 
normal serous fluid, or simply serum, and will 
be found noticed in our articles Wry and Mirx. 
The serum of blood is the thin liquid which 
separates during coagulation; and it has a yel- 
lowish colour, a slightly saline taste, a somewhat ~ 
unctuous touch, and an average specific gravity 
of about 1:029, and possesses a slight alkalinity, 
and consists, according to Marcet, of 90 per cent. 
of water, 868 of albumen, 0°66 of muriate of 
potash and soda, 0°165 of carbonate of soda, 
0:035 of sulphate of potash, 0:06 of earthy phos- 
phates, and 0:4 of muco-extractive matter. The 
serous liquid secreted by the pleura, the pericar- 
dium, the peritoneum, and other serous mem- 
branes of the animal system, consists, according 
to Bostock, of 92 per cent. of water, 5°5 of albu- 
men, 0°5 of muriate of soda, and 2 of mucus. 
The serous liquid which surrounds a foetus, or 
what is often called the liquor of the amnios, 
differs in composition in different animals, and 
contains a peculiar acid in the cow. 
SERRATED LEAF. A leaf whose edges are 
notched or indented in the manner of a saw. 
SERRATULA. See Saw-worz. 
SERRURIA. A genus of ornamental, ever- 
green, Cape-of-Good-Hope shrubs, of the protea 
family. About 40 species have been introduced | 
to the greenhouses and conservatories of Britain ; 
and a number more are known. The introduced 
species vary in height from 1 foot to 8 feet; and 
most have purple flowers; and some require to 
be raised from seeds, though others are propa- 
gable from cuttings. The soil suitable for most 
is either a sandy or a peaty loam. 
SERUM. See Szrous Fiurps. 
SERVICEH-TREE. Several species of rosace- 
ous-flowered trees, of the pyrus or pear genus. 
They formerly were regarded as constituting a 
separate genus under the name of Sorbus. 
The sweet or true service-tree, Pyrus sorbus— 
called by Linnzeus Sorbus domestica—is a rare 
and somewhat doubtful indigen of moist woods 
in some parts of England, and probably was long 
ago introduced from the South of Europe. It 
presents a somewhat close resemblance to the 
mountain-ash, but is larger and more valuable. 
Its stem is upright, and commonly attains a 
height of about 30 feet ; its young shoots have a 
downy or mealy appearance in summer, but in- 
cline toward a purplish colour, spotted all over 
with whitish spots, in winter; its buds, at the 
extremity of the shoots in winter, are turgid; 
its leaves are finely pinnated, and comprise seven 
or eight pairs of leaflets and a terminating odd 
one, and are broader and larger than those of 
the mountain-ash, and are more deeply and irre- 
gularly serrated, and have a much more downy 
under-surface; its flowers are white, and grow 
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