330 STARLING 
globules of starch are developed in such quantity, 
that it is actually impossible that each of these 
should be united directly to the inner wall of the 
cell.” 
The starch of commerce is extensively used in 
medicine, in the stiffening of linens, and in vari- 
ous arts. The best of British manufacture from 
wheat exists in small columnar masses, and is in- 
sipid, inodorous, white, soft, friable, and easily 
broken into powder. The wheat used in mak- 
ing it is either entire or coarsely bruised; and is 
steeped in cold water till it swells and yields 
by pressure a milky juice; and it is then sub- 
| jected to pressure in coarse bags placed in vats 
filled with water. When all the milky juice 
is expressed, the bags are removed, the fecula 
gradually subsides to the bottom, and the super- 
natant liquid soon ferments, and suffers a re- 
solution of the principles dissolved in it into 
alcohol and acetic acid. The whole, after fer- 
mentation, is poured into tubs called frames ; 
and, after the fecula subsides in these, the super- 
natant liquid is poured off,—the upper part of 
the sediment, being dirty and discoloured, is 
scraped off,—and the rest of the sediment, con- 
stituting the main bulk and purest portion of 
the fecula, is repeatedly well washed, pressed in 
cloths, and dried by a gentle heat; and during 
the process of drying, it so contracts as to form 
itself into the somewhat regular, small, six-sided 
columns in which it is sold in the shops.—As 
aliment to the sick and the feeble, or as food to 
the healthy and the strong, it is far less suitable 
in this separated and comparatively pure state, 
than in the modified forms of arrow-root, tapioca, 
sago, and gruel; but as a demulcent in the way 
of enema, it serves admirably in its separated 
form, for either man or beast; and it is used, in 
both human and veterinary medicine, for allevi- 
ating the acrid action of bile in bilious diarrhcea 
and dysentery, and for sheathing the rectum in 
cases of abrasion and inflammation of the gut. 
STARLING. A genus of passerinous birds, 
intermediate in character between the sparrow 
group and the crow group. The common species, 
Sturnus vulgaris, is a plentiful native of Britain, 
and abounds throughout a large portion of Con- 
tinental Europe. It flies in large and crowded 
flocks; and feeds on larve, insects, worms, and 
molluscs; and is of service to cattle by relieving 
them from the attacks of insects. It is a beau- 
tiful bird in both shape and plumage; and can 
be easily tamed; and may be taught to sing, 
and even to speak; and is a great favourite with 
most kinds of bird-fanciers, The total length of 
the adult male is 84 inches; the plumage is 
nearly black, with reflections of green and violet, 
and with spottings of white or fawn-colour; and 
the legs are dark reddish brown. The young 
male, however, has brown grey plumage. The 
nest is built in church-steeples, under the eaves 
of houses, in crevices and holes of lofty walls, in 
rents and openings of ruinous towers, in cracks 
STATICE. 
and fissures of sea-cliffs, and sometimes in pigeon- 
houses and in hollow trees; and it consists of 
straw, roots, and dry grass. The eggs amount 
to four or five, and are each one inch two lines 
long, ten lines broad, and of an uniform, delicate, 
pale blue colour. 
STAR OF BETHLEHEM. See Ornirnoganum. 
STAR OF THE EARTH. See Prantain. 
STAR-THISTLE,—botanically Centaurea Cal- 
citrapa. An ornamental, annual, indigenous 
plant of the gravelly soils of England. It hasa 
height of about a foot, and carries pink flowers 
in July and August. It constitutes the type of 
a subgenus of the centaureas; and is distin- 
guished from all the other species, except those 
of this subgenus, by the spinosely pinnate struc- 
ture of its calyx. One frame perennial-rooted 
species, with white flowers, one hardy biennial 
species with purple flowers, and five hardy an- 
nual species with yellow flowers, all belonging 
to the subgenus, and therefore sharing the name 
of star-thistles, have been introduced to the gar- 
dens of Britain from Southern Europe, Northern 
Africa, and the Levant. 
STARWORT. See Astnr. 
STARWORT (Water). See CaLnitRIcHE. 
STATICE. A genus of ornamental plants, of 
the plumbago tribe. Four species grow wild in 
Britain; about sixty have been introduced from 
other countries; and a number more are known. | 
About twenty species which formerly ranked as 
statices, comprising sea-pink and the other kinds 
called thrifts, now constitute the genus armeria. 
The indigenous statices are popularly called sea 
lavenders; a few of the introduced species are 
either annuals, biennials, or evergreen under- 
shrubs; and most of the others are evergreen 
herbs, either quite hardy or requiring only the 
protection of a frame, and principally carrying 
blue flowers, in summer, at the height of from 6 
to 15 inches. 
The common sea-lavender, or marsh wild beet, 
Statice limonium, is an abundant, evergreen, her- 
baceous indigen of the muddy sea-shores and 
marshy estuaries and river-mouths of England. 
Its root is woody, thick, tough, reddish, and astrin- 
gent, and sends out many strong fibres, which 
strike deep into the ground; its leaves rise from 
the root-crown, and are ovate-lanceolate, smooth, 
leathery, glaucous, and from two to five inches 
long; its stem is naked, and rises upwards of a 
foot high, and divides into many branches, which 
again divide into smaller branches toward the 
top; and its flowers grow in slender spikes on 
the extremities of the sub-branches, and are 
ranged above one another on one side of the 
stalk, and come out of narrow covers like sheaths, 
and have a fine blue colour, and bloom from 
May till August, and are succeeded by oblong 
seeds.—The netted sea-lavender, Statice reticulata, 
is an evergreen herbaceous indigen of similar 
situations to the preceding, but is far less abun- 
dant, and occurs chiefly on the eastern shores. 
