ye are 
226 SINNINGIA. 
in cases of dyspepsy, dysentery, obstinate diar- 
rhoea, and intermittent fever. 
The lofty simaruba, S. eacelsa, called by the 
old botanists Quassia excelsa, is a native of Suri- 
nam, Jamaica,and the Caribbean Islands, and was 
introduced to the botanical collections of Britain 
in 1818. It is called in some of its native dis- 
tricts the bitter ash. It isa tall and beautiful 
evergreen tree. Its stem is straight, tapering, 
and smooth, and naturally rises to the height of 
from 40 to 100 feet, and has, in many instances, 
a girth of about 10 feet near the base ; its bark 
is grey and smooth ; its leaves are pinnate, and 
have reddish ribs, and comprise each from 5 to 
8 pairs of opposite, oblong, pointed leaflets, and 
a terminating odd one; its flowers come out in 
clusters, and are small and of a yellowish green 
colour; and its berries are black, spherical, and 
about the size of pease. The wood of this spe- 
cies is imported in billets, and chipped or rasped 
by the druggists ; it is inodorous, and has a pale 
yellow colour, and an intensely bitter taste ; it 
contains much of the peculiar principle called 
quassine ; and it possesses similar tonic proper- 
ties, and is used for similar medicinal purposes 
as the root-bark of the officinal species. 
SINAPIA. See Musrarp. 
SINGLE-SEEDED CUCUMBER. See Sicyos. 
SINGLING OF TURNIPS. See Turnip. 
SINNINGIA. A genus of ornamental tropical 
plants, of the gesneria family. Six species, all 
small evergreen undershrubs, varying in height 
from 10 to 20 inches, and blooming for the most 
part in summer, and having flowers with some 
predominance of either yellow or white in their 
colours, have been introduced to the hothouses 
of Britain ; and all love a soil of peaty loam, and 
may be propagated from cuttings. 
SIPHOCAMPYLOS. A genus of ornamental, 
tropical American plants, of the lobelia family. 
It first became known in Britain in 1835; and 
it very soon and generally acquired the fame of 
an eminently beautiful genus. Several of its 
species are very nearly allied to the true lobe- 
lias ; but others possess very distinct characters 
of their own, and are remarkable for both the 
elegance of their habit and the brilliance of their 
flowers.—The revolute species, S. revolutus, was 
introduced in 1839. Its stem is erect, cylindri- 
cal, villous, green, and sparingly branched, and 
speedily attains a height of about 5 feet; its 
branches are zigzag; its leaves are stalked, al- 
ternate, rigid, wrinkled, spreading, villous, cor- 
date-ovate, acuminate, reflexed in the edge, sim- 
ply dentate, and the upper ones revolute in the 
apex ; and its flowers come out on solitary, erect, 
axillary footstalks, and have a green, villous, tur- 
binately-hemispherical calyx, and a purplish-red, 
large, tubular corolla, five times as long as the 
calyx.—The latana-leaved species, S. latanifolvus, 
was introduced from Caraccas in 1844. Its stem 
is erect and shrubby ; its leaves are stalked, oval, 
and rather large; and its flowers come out in 
SISYRINCHIUM. 
terminal, many-flowered racemes, and have long, . 
tubular, deep-crimson-coloured corollas, with 
five-parted, reflex, and interiorly pale pink-co- 
loured limb, and bloom in spring. This plant 
has a good appearance, but is of rather weak 
growtht—The scarlet-flowered species, S. cocci- 
neus, was introduced from the Organ Mountains 
of Brazil about 5 or 6 years ago, and has been 
prominently exhibited at public shows, and 
greatly admired. Its stems are numerous, and 
have aggregately a tufty appearance, and are 
shrubby at the base and comparatively succulent 
above; its leaves are alternate, broadly oval, 
doubly serrated, and glabrous; and its flowers 
come out singly from the axils of several of the 
leaves toward the top of the stems, and are large, 
of a bright scarlet colour, two inches or more in 
length, and somewhat similar to the flowers of 
the tubular scarlet salvias, and continue a long 
time in bloom. This plant requires a moderate 
rich loamy soil, in well-drained, moderately- 
sized pots; and must be allowed as entire repose 
as possible during winter. 
SIPHONIA. A small genus of ornamental, 
tropical, evergreen shrubs, of the spurge family. 
The caoutchouc species, S. cahuchu, was intro- 
duced to the botanical collections of Britain, 
about 25 years ago, from Guiana. It hasa height 
of about 6 feet, and thrives best in a soil of sandy 
loam, and may be propagated from cuttings. It 
yields some of the caoutchouc of commerce. 
SISKIN,—scientifically Carduelis Spinus. A 
British song-bird of the finch group of Passerine. 
It is sometimes called the aberdivine; and is 
somewhat liable to be confounded with some of 
the most nearly allied species of Fringillide. Its 
total length is 42 inches; its bill is somewhat 
like that of the goldfinch; its body is olive brown 
above and yellow below; and its wings and tail 
are streaked with black. It arrives in Britain, 
from the north, in flocks, either alone, or more 
frequently in company with linnets and redpoles, 
in autumn, and remains in this country till 
April. It feeds on the seeds of the larch, the 
birch, and the alder. 
SISON. See Honeyworr. 
SISYMBRIUM. See Hrpen-Musrarp. 
SISYRINCHIUM. A genus of ornamental, 
exotic, herbaceous, evergreen plants, of the iris 
order. Upwards of 20 species have been intro- 
duced to Britain, from various parts of North 
America, between California and Brazil; and 
some suit the open border, some the frame, some 
the greenhouse, and some the stove. All are 
more or less beautiful; and the majority have a 
height somewhat between 3 and 25 inches, and 
carry either white, blue, or yellow flowers, and 
are most readily propagated by division. Three of 
the finest are the large-flowered, S. grandiflorum, 
hardy, about a hand high, carrying dark purple 
flowers in May and June; Cumming’s, S. Cum- 
mingii, a frame plant, about a foot high, carrying 
cream-coloured flowers from June till August; 
