SKOVES. 
and was introduced to Britain about the middle 
of the 16th century. The root comprises several 
fleshy or tuberous fibres, as large as a man’s little 
finger, which join together in one head; the 
stalk is about a foot high; the lower leaves are 
pinnate, each comprising two or three pairs of 
oblong leaflets, and a terminating odd one; the 
flowers growin an umbel on the top of the stem, 
and are white, and bloom in July and August; 
and the seeds are striated like those of parsley, 
and ripen in autumn. This plant is raised either 
from seeds sown in drills in spring, with a subse- 
quent thinning out of the plantlets to. distances 
of 6 inches, or from side offsets of the old roots, 
planted in spring and in autumn. The roots 
were formerly mentioned in old dispensatories as 
medicinal; and were long esteemed wholesome, 
nourishing, and agreeably culinary, and were 
boiled and eaten whole in summer, autumn, and 
winter; but they are now used scarcely ever for 
medicine, and very seldom even for food; for 
they are flatulent and very sweet and unpleasant 
to many palates. 
SKOVES. Bundles of corn or unbound sheaves. 
SKULL. See Heap. 
SKULLCAP,—botanically Scutellaria. A genus 
of ornamental herbaceous plants, of the labiate 
order. ‘wo species grow wild in Britain, about 
30 have been introduced from other countries, 
and a good many more are known. All the in- 
troduced species, except two evergreens from 
Australia and Havannah, are hardy, annual- 
stemmed perennials; most have a height of 
between 6 and 25 inches; the majority have 
blue-coloured flowers; and seven produce their 
flowers solitarily from the axils, two spicately and 
racemosely from the axils, two compoundly and 
racemosely from the summit, and the rest simply 
and racemosely from the summit. The name 
scutellaria signifies ‘a little saucer,’ and alludes to 
the form of the calyx. . 
The common or small-capped skullcap, S. galeri- 
culata, inhabits the ditches, the reedy river mar- 
gins, and other watery situations in many parts 
Its root is creeping ; its herbage has 
is more or less downy ; its stem is erect, leafy or 
branched, and from 10to 20 inches high ; its leaves 
stand on very short footstalks, and are heart- 
shaped at the base, lanceolate, crenate, rugged, 
somewhat wrinkled, and upwards of an inch long; 
and its flowers are axillary, solitary, almost ses- 
sile, drooping, about an inch long, scentless, varie- 
gatedly blue throughout with streaks of white on 
the lip, and bloom from June till September. — 
The lesser skullcap, S. mnor, inhabits moist 
hedges, and similar situations in Britain. Its 
stem is more branched than that of the common 
Species, but only about 6 inches high; its leaves 
are broader than those of the common species, 
and almost of a hastate form; and its flowers 
grow in the same manner as those of the common 
SLATE. 229 
colour almost inclining to blue, and bloom in 
July and August. 
Some of the most handsome of the introduced 
species are S. hastifolia, 6 inches high, with axil- 
lary, solitary, purple flowers, from Germany,—S. 
lateriflora, a foot high, with racemose, axillary, 
blue flowers, from North America,—S. alpina, 9 
or 10 inches high, with simply racemose, ter- 
minal, blue and white flowers, from Hungary, 
but comprising blood-red-flowered and varie- 
gated-flowered varieties from other countries,— 
S. altessima, 12 or 15 inches high, with simply 
racemose, terminal, dark purple flowers from the 
Levant,—S. peregrina, 2 feet high, with simply 
racemose, terminal, violet flowers, from Italy,— 
and S. pilosa, a foot high, with compoundly race- 
mose, terminal, blue flowers, from North America. 
These species and many others are well suited to 
adorn the front of the open border; and they 
thrive in any common garden soil or in a peaty 
loam, and may be propagated either from seeds 
or by division. 
SKY-LARK. See Lark. 
SLAB. The outside plank of a log or boll of 
timber when sawn into boards; also a flat thin 
piece of marble or of other compact stone. 
SLATE. A thin slab of any kind of rock of a 
compact texture and laminated structure, which 
splits into desirable thicknesses for the purpose 
of covering roofs. All the stratified rocks, 
whether primitive or transition, secondary or 
tertiary, which admit of being split, are com- 
prehensively called slate rocks,—and they may 
be very variously classified according to the 
several theories of science and the several designs 
of economy ; but the argillaceous schists, or those 
commerce, such as the blue clay schists of Wales 
and of the Western Highlands and Islands of 
Scotland, take the name of slate rocks par excel- 
lence. 
The transition slate-rocks form the substrata 
and even the soil of a large portion of the well- 
farmed districts of Scotland, as well as of some 
most interesting parts of Ireland and of Wales ; 
and they demand some special study on the part 
of farmers, on account of the difference of their 
constitution from that of the other prevailing 
rocks of the arable surfaces of Britain, and on 
account too of wide differences of constitution 
among themselves. They need to be well under- 
stood, especially, in reference to the paucity and 
the very variable proportions of their lime. Pro- 
fessor Johnston, speaking of specimens that were 
gathered from the great greywacke formation of 
the south of Scotland, and subjected to analytical 
examination in his laboratory, says :—‘‘ Many of 
them were traversed by white hair-like streaks 
of carbonate of lime, and nearly all of them exhi- 
bited a slight effervescence when treated with 
acid, showing that they contained traces of lime 
in the state of carbonate. The results of the ana- 
of Britain. 
a deep green colour, often tinged with violet, and 
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| species, but are smaller, and have a delicate pink 
! 
lyses of seven varieties were as follows :— 
r 
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rocks which furnish the best roofing slates of 
ae ran 
