SESBANTA, 
in umbels, and bloom in May and June; and its 
fruit are large and fleshy, and have different 
shapes in the different varieties. This species 
takes the name of sweet or true service on ac- 
count of the edibleness of its fruit; and it ranks 
as a dessert fruit-tree in France and Italy and 
some other parts of the Continent ; but it has 
poor and scanty reputation as a fruit-tree in 
Britain. Its trees are slow in growth, and not 
early bearers; and require, for fruiting purposes, 
to be raised from layers,—and these make roots 
very tardily, and must remain at least two years 
in attachment to the parent-tree before they 
become fit for removal. Plants raised from seeds 
very rarely come true to the parental characters. 
The pear-shaped variety is the kind cultivated 
|| in orchards; and the fruit of it grows on the 
point of the branches, and requires, when 
gathered, to be laid in the fruit-room till the 
pulp passes into a state of decay; and it then 
has a comparatively mild acid taste, yet is sel- 
dom relished so much by Britons as the medlar. 
The wild or griping service-tree, Pyrus tor- 
minalis—called by Linneus Crategus torminalis 
| —grows wild in the woods and hedge-rows of 
several parts of England. Its stem commonly 
attains a height of about 50 feet; its growth is 
slow ; its wood is hard; its leaves stand on long 
stalks, and are simple, seven-lobed, somewhat 
heart-shaped, serrated, and dark green; its flowers 
are white and numerous, and grow in large, ter- 
minal, downy, corymbose panicles, and bloom in 
April and May; and its fruit is umbilicated and 
not larger than that of the hawthorn, and be- 
comes edible and agreeably acid when touched 
with frost or when partially decayed. 
The mongrel or pinnatifid service-tree, Pyrus 
pinnatifida—called by Linneus Sorbus hybrida— 
grows wild on rocky ground in some parts of 
England. It attains a height of about 40 feet, 
and is useful as a timber tree. Its stem is erect ; 
its young branches are whitish; its leaves are 
very downy; and its flowers are white, and grow 
in umbels, and bloom in May and June.—Three 
other species of pyrus were comprised in the old 
sorbus genus, and may therefore be regarded as, 
in a sense, service-trees,—the common mountain- 
ash, the intermediate pyrus, and the small-fruited 
pyrus. 
SESAMUM. See Orny Grain. 
SESBANIA. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
yellow-flowered plants, of the lotus division of 
the leguminous order. Two evergreen shrubs of 
about 4 feet in height, one biennial of about 6 
feet in height, and 9 or 10 annuals of from 2 to 
4 feet in height, have been introduced to the 
hothouse collections of Britain; and all bloom in 
July and August, and thrive in either common 
soil or a mixture of peat and loam, and are pro- 
pagated from seeds. ‘The oldest-known kinds 
were viewed by old gardeners as a sort of bastard 
sensitive plants. 
SESELI. See Muanov- SAXIFRAGE. 
SETON. 175 
SESLERIA. A genus of grasses of the cyno- 
surus tribe. The blue species, S. cerulea, grows 
wild in the moist, calcareous, rocky, upland fields 
and pastures of Britain. Its root is perennial, 
long, and strong, and forms dense tufts; its culms 
are smooth, simple, principally naked, and from 
4 to 15 inches high; its leaves are linear, rather 
obtuse, keeled, and of a colour between sea-green 
and bluish; and its spikes are ovate, oblong, 
imbricated, about an inch long, and of a leaden 
colour sometimes inclining to purple, and have 
short, alternate, notched or jagged bracts, and 
bloom from April till June. This grass has an 
elegant and singular appearance, and is interest- 
ing to the botanist, but ranks only as a weed in 
the classification of the farmer. Seven or eight 
hardy, perennial species, varying in height from 
3 to 20 inches, have been introduced to Britain 
from various parts of Continental Europe; but 
though some are ornamental, none possess any 
agricultural interest. 
SESUVIUM. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
herbaceous, red and white flowered plants, of 
the order Ficoidee. Two annual species, and 
three perennial ones, varying in height from 1 
foot to 3 feet, and all blooming in the latter part 
of summer, have been introduced to the hot- 
houses of Britain from South America and the 
two Indias. The sessile-flowered species, S. ses- 
sile or S. portulacastrum, one of the perennials 
from the West Indies, 3 feet in height, and a 
herbaceous evergreen, contains a large quantity 
of saline matter, and is an excellent substitute 
for summer spinach. 
SETARIA. A genus of grasses of the panicum 
tribe. Its species differ from the true panicums 
principally in having their panicles so con- 
tracted as to resemble spikes. Two species of 
economical interest and agricultural value are 
noticed in the article Miuumr. The green and 
the whorled species, S. viridis and S. verticillata, 
are annual indigens of respectively the sandy and 
the moist fields of some parts of England, and have 
a height of about 20 inches, and bloom in July 
and August. Upwards of 20 species, principally 
hardy annuals, have been introduced to Britain 
from various and widely-distant parts of the 
world; but all, as well as the true indigenous 
species, rank in the farmer’s vocabulary as mere 
weeds. 
SETON. A sak of thread or a piece of coarse 
tape looped through the skin of a horse or an 
ox, to act as a counter-irritant. It may be of 
any size or thickness, from very small to very 
bulky ; and it admits of application to almost any 
part of the body. The tape is smeared or moist- 
ened with some digestive or stimulating un- 
guent; and is passed beneath the skin by means 
of a strong flat needle; and ought to be secured at 
each end with a large knot of many ties or knots. 
Setons counteract inflammation in the same way 
as rowels, blisters, and cauteries ; but they are the 
simplest and most manageable and most generally 
