I 9 
338 STEM. 
more curious than beautiful; and a number more 
are known. 
STELL. See SHeep-Srent. 
STELLARIA. See Sritcuworr. 
STEM. The part of a plant which rises from 
the root, and sustains the foliage, flowers, and 
fruit. In some plants, it is awanting; in others, 
it is identical with the mere flower-stalk ; and in 
others, it bears only part of the foliage, the rest 
being radical; but in all the more perfect ones, 
or indeed in the great majority of all sorts of 
_ pheenogams, it comprises a great mass of impor- 
tant organism intermediate between the root and 
the inflorescence. It is ligneous in trees and 
shrubs, and constitutes their trunk or boll; and 
it is herbaceous in herbs,—annual in some per- 
ennial-rooted ones, and perennial in others. It 
is cylindrical in some plants, compressed in 
others, and quadrangular in others; solid in 
some, tubular in others, and jointed or knotted 
in others; naked in some, and leafy in others; 
simple in some, and compound or branched in 
others; robust in some, and slender in others; 
upright in some, nodding in others, and decum- 
bent in others; rigid in some, and flexuose in 
others; self-supported in some, climbing in oth- 
ers, twining in others, and creeping in others. 
STEMODIA. A genus of tropical plants, of 
the figwort family. Two perennial species and 
five or six annual ones—chiefly with blue, red, 
or white flowers—have been introduced to Bri- 
tish collections; and about as many more are 
known; but they do not possess any particular 
interest. . 
STENOCHILUS. A genus of ornamental, 
Australian, evergreen shrubs, of the myoporum 
family. Three species, the smooth-leaved, the 
long-leaved, and the spotted, all red-flowered 
and less than five feet in height, have been in- 
troduced to Britain; and the first has the re- 
commendation of a capacity to bloom throughout 
most of the year; and all love a somewhat peaty 
soil, and are propagated from cuttings. The 
name stenochilus alludes to the narrowness of 
the flower-lip. 
STENORHYNCHUS. A genus of ornamental 
tropical plants, of the orchis family. Two spe- 
cies, the showy and the orchis-like—the former 
scarlet-flowered and blooming from April till 
June, and the latter carmine - flowered and 
blooming in May—have been introduced to the 
hothouses of Britain; and both are terrestrial- 
rooted, evergreen and very beautiful, and love a 
soil of sandy peat, and are propagated by divi- 
sion of the plant. The name signifies ‘narrow 
beak,’ and alludes to the pointed form of the 
stigma. 
STERCORARY. A collection of putrescent 
manure in a position of security from injury by 
the weather. A good ordinary kind of it, re- 
commended ages ago by judicious and reflecting 
agriculturists, is simply a dung-pit instead of a 
dunghill, either dug in a bed of clay or chalk, 
STEVIA. 
or well-paved in both the bottom and the sides, 
—protected by a shed from rain, and by the na- 
ture of the ground from the influx of springs or 
of surface water,—filled up progressively with 
the cleanings and drainings of the farm-yard, 
both solid and liquid,—and augmented or modi- 
fied at frequent and proper intervals with layers 
of mould or other mineral manure of a kind 
suited to fix the gases of the putrescent sub- 
stances, and to render the whole contents of the 
pit peculiarly adapted to the soil and crop to 
which it is intended to be applied. See the ar- 
ticles Manure, Liquip Manure, and Farm-Yarp 
MANURE. 
STERCULIA. A genus of ornamental, exotic, 
evergreen ligneous plants, of the byttneria tribe. | 
About twenty species, varying in natural height 
from 6 to 35 feet, have been introduced to Bri- 
tish gardens; and a number more are known. 
The name sterculia is formed from a word signi- 
fying ‘ ordure,’ and alludes to the excessively dis- 
gusting fetor of some of the oldest known species. 
A bark used in India for some medicinal pur- 
poses, and popularly called ‘ stink-bark,’ and pos- 
sessing a smell very similar to ordure, has been 
thought, though perhaps erroneously, to be the 
produce of Sterculia fetida,—a species 8 feet high, 
with palmate leaves, introduced to British col- 
lections toward the end of the 17th century. 
The seeds of one or two species, though evolved 
out of a very fetid inflorescence, are eaten by 
the Hindoo peasantry, and occasion the carpels 
which contain them to be popularly called hill 
cocoa-nuts. The carpel of Sterculia alata—a 
very stately tree—is a very curious fruit,—an 
orbicularly pear-shaped follicle, about 4 inches 
long and about as much across, somewhat com- 
pressed, with walls half an inch thick, containing 
large and rayedly-disposed seeds. The majority 
of the introduced species have ovate or oblong 
leaves, either entire or three lobed; and most of 
the remainder have cordate five-lobed leaves ;— 
and all love a soil of peaty loam, and are propa- 
gated from cuttings. 
STERIGMA. A genus of interesting herba- 
ceous plants of the cruciferous order. The woolly 
and the twisted species, both curious, yellow- 
flowered, hardy biennials, of about a foot in 
height, blooming from April till July, were in- 
troduced to Britain about 30 years ago from 
Astracan and Iberia, They are nearly allied to 
wallflowers. 
STERNBERGIA. A genus of bulbous-rooted, 
ornamental, exotic plants, of the amaryllis order. 
Four species —all yellow - flowered, autumnal 
bloomers of from 3 to 8 inches in height, loving 
a soil of rich mould, and propagable from offsets 
—have been introduced to Britain from the 
north of Africa and the south and east of Kurope. 
STEVIA. A genus of ornamental exotic plants, 
of the eupatorium division of the composite order. 
Upwards of 30 species have been introduced to 
Britain, principally from Mexico and New Spain. 
