SOJA. 
and that the animals be turned out into the open 
air during a few hours in the cool of the evening 
in summer, and in the middle of the day when 
the season advances. 
SOILS (Anatysis or). See Sor. 
SOJA. An annual, tropical, culinary plant, 
of the vetch division of the leguminous order. 
It is a native of India, and was introduced nearly 
60 years ago to British collections. It has a 
twining stem of about three feet in height, and 
carries violet-coloured flowers. It was formerly 
included in the genus Dolichos, but it now con- 
stitutes a genus of itself, and takes the specific 
name of hispid. 
SOLANDRA. A genus of tropical, ornamen- 
tal, ligneous plants of the nightshade order. 
Two climbing species of between 15 and 25 feet in 
height, and three evergreen shrubs of from 3 to- 
14 feet in height, have been introduced to the 
hothouse collections of Britain ; and they love a 
rich soil, and are propagated from cuttings. 
SOLANIA. A vegetable alkali, found in the 
woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, and in 
other plants of the solanum genus. It occurs in 
combination with malic acid, and is precipitated 
from the expressed and filtered juice of the ripe 
berries by means of ammonia. It is naturally 
impure and of a grey colour; but may readily 
be purified by solution in hot alcohol,—and is 
left by the slow evaporation of the solution in 
the form of a white pearly powder. It is insolu- 
ble in cold water, and soluble only in at least 
8,000 times its weight of hot water. It has a 
bitter taste, and forms neutral salts by combina- 
tion with acids. 
SOLANUM. See NiaursHape. 
SOLDANELLA. A genus of low-growing, 
hardy, ornamental, evergreen, herbaceous plants, 
of the primrose family. Hight or nine species 
and well-marked varieties have been introduced 
to Britain from Switzerland and Germany, and are 
fine spring-blooming beauties of the open flower 
border. They have a height of only from two to 
six or seven inches, and for the most part carry 
either blue or purple flowers, and are propagated 
by division of the roots. The oldest known species, 
the alpine, Soldanella alpina, introduced from 
Switzerland about the middle of the 17th cen- 
tury, may be taken as a specimen of the whole. 
Its root is fibrous ; its leaves stand on long foot- 
stalks, and are almost kidney-shaped, and have 
a dark green colour, and measure about three- 
fourths of an inch over each way; its floral 
footstalk rises from among the leaves, and is 
naked, and has a height of about 4 inches ; its 
flowers are two in number, and appear at the 
top of the footstalk, and are small, open, and bell- 
shaped, with the rim cut into many fine segments 
like a fringe, and have commonly a blue or pur- 
ple colour, but sometimes a snow-white one, and 
bloom in April; and its capsule is oval, and con- 
tains very small acute-pointed seeds, and ripens 
in July. It requires a shaded situation. 
SOLOMON’S SEAL. 271 
SOLDER. An alloy for cementing together 
two surfaces or edges of metal. Fine solder used 
by tinsmiths, and much employed for tinning 
copper, consists of two parts of tin and one of 
lead, and fuses at about 360° Fahrenheit ; coarse 
solder, used by glaziers, contains one-fourth of 
tin, and fuses at about 500° Fahrenheit ; and 
hard solder, used by braziers, and requiring the 
copper at the time of application to be heated to 
near its point of fusion, is a mixture of zinc and 
brass. 
SOLE. See Provex and Foor. 
SOLEA. An ornamental, hardy, perennial- 
rooted herbaceous plant, of the violet family. It 
is a native of North America, and was introduced 
about 60 years ago to Britain. It has a height 
of about a foot, and carries herbaceous-coloured 
flowers in June and July. It was formerly rank- 
ed as a true violet ; but it now constitutes a 
genus of itself, and is specifically called the self- 
coloured. 
SOLIDAGO. See GorpEn-Rop. 
SOLLYA. A genus of ornamental, exotic 
plants, of the pittosporum family. The various- 
leaved and the narrow-leaved species, both ever- 
green, blue-flowered, summer-blooming twiners, 
of between 4 and 10 feet in height, were intro- 
duced to Britain in 1823 and 1830 from Aus- 
tralia ; and they require greenhouse treatment, 
and love a soil of peaty loam, and are propagated 
from cuttings. Several other species have sub- 
sequently been introduced. 
SOLOMON’S SEAL,—botanically Polygona- 
tum. A genus of ornamental, perennial-rooted, 
herbaceous plants, of the smilax order. The 
common or angular or many-kneed species, Poly- 
gonatum vulgare, called by the old botanists Con- 
vallaria polygonatwm, is a native of the rocky 
mountainous woods of some parts of England, 
and often has a place in gardens. Its root is 
creeping and fleshy, its stems are angular and 
from 12 to 30 inches high ; its leaves are alter- 
nate, clasping, broadly elliptical, acute, ribbed, 
and plaited ; its flowers come out on axillary 
drooping footstalks, and are generally solitary 
but sometimes binary, and are pendulous and 
conical, and have white and green colours, and 
emit a powerful odour similar to that of haw- 
thorn or heliotrope, and bloom in May and June; 
and its fruit are dark blue berries, of a spherical 
form, about the size of those of ivy, each enclos- 
ing three seeds. The roots abound in a starchy 
jelly, and yield starch by grating and washing, 
and are said to have been used in the north of 
Europe for making bread. A variety with 
double flowers and a very sweet odour occurs in 
gardens.—The many-flowered species, Polygona- 
tum multiflorum, called by the old botanists Con- 
vallaria multiflora, is a native of the woods and 
thickets of various parts of Britain. Its stem is 
smooth, cylindrical, and about 2 or 24 feet high ; 
its leaves have a lighter green colour than those 
of the common species ; and its flowers number 
