340 STIPE. 
dark green, and grow in dense tufts on the 
culms; its sheaths are striated and very long; 
its stipules are oblong and obtuse; its flowers 
grow in simple, erect panicles, six or seven in 
each panicle, and bloom in July and August; 
and its awns are nearly a foot long, and have 
a beautiful feather - like appearance, and ad- 
here to the seeds, and serve as sails to waft 
them on the breeze over a wide extent of 
country. ‘“ When a seed with its feathered ar- 
row alights on the ground, it enters the soil 
vertically, and, in a few hours, the base and sul- 
cated part of the awn becomes twisted and the 
feathered portion becomes horizontal ; in conse- 
quence of which it is blown round by the autumn 
winds like a vane, and every turn screws it far- 
ther down into the earth,—for the hollows and 
ridges which, when it remained upon the plain 
were only longitudinal sulci, have now given rise 
to the hollows and elevations, in a word, to the 
threads of a screw. Thus it is moved down, and 
whatever is gained is prevented from being un- 
done by a reverse motion of the vane, in conse- 
quence of the stiff hairs upon the glume, which 
act as barbs.” The feathered awns distinguish 
the plant in general appearance from all other 
grasses, and render it worthy of a place on the 
flower-border, and are sometimes worn by ladies 
instead of feathers. The seeds abound in some 
of the pastures of Hungary, and, when carried 
about by the wind, make a lodgment on the 
back of a sheep, and work their way through the 
wool and skin and flesh into the intestines, and 
excite throughout the system a powerful morbi- 
fic action, which the veterinarians of the country 
call stipe noxa, and which shows itself in rest- 
lessness, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite, and 
terminates in fever, inflammation, and death. 
The plant, however, does not readily grow in 
Britain from seeds, and requires to be propa- 
gated in gardens by parting and planting the 
roots. It is of small value for agricultural pur- 
poses; and when raised on a heathy soil in the 
Woburn experiments, it yielded per acre 9,528 
lbs. of produce at the time of flowering, 3,454 
Ibs. of dry produce, and 409 Ibs. of nutritive 
matter. 
STIPE. The stalk of a fern or the stem of a 
fungus. 
STIPULE. An appendage of the base of a 
leaf-stalk. It commonly resembles a miniature 
leaf, with a subulate termination; but has a less 
firm texture than a leaf. 
STITCHWORT, — botanically Stellaria. <A 
genus of herbaceous plants, of the carnation 
tribe. A number of species which formerly be- 
longed to it are now assigned to other genera; 
but eight species still belonging to it grow wild 
in Britain, nearly 20 have been introduced from 
other countries, and a good many more are 
known. All are white-flowered; most have a 
height of between 6 and 20 inches; nearly all pre- 
sent a weedy appearance; and some are annuals, 
STOAT. 
some biennials, and some annual-stemmed per- 
ennials, 
The common stitchwort, or common chick weed, 
or mediate chickweed, Stellaria media, is one of 
the most vivacious, generally diffused, perennially 
blooming weeds of our cultivated lands, and even 
of the most contrasted soils and situations of a 
waste nature; and it particularly abounds in the 
neglected nooks and borders of gardens. Its root 
is annual, small, and tapering ; its stems have sel- 
dom a height of more than a few inches in the 
garden, but sometimes attain a height of twenty 
in the woods; its foliage is small, pale green, and 
profuse, and spreads out in all directions; and its 
flowers are small, stellate, and white, and bloom 
from March till December. The herbage is re- 
fused by goats, disrelished by sheep, eaten by 
cows and horses, and greedily devoured by hogs ; 
and it is said to be nutritive, and suitable for 
being boiled and eaten in the manner of spinach, 
—and has the reputation, when boiled in vinegar 
and salt, of possessing virtue to cleanse eruptions 
of the hands and limbs. The leaves and tender 
stalks, and especially the seeds, are eaten by 
poultry and wild birds. The flowers serve, in 
some degree, as a natural barometer; for when 
rain is approaching, they remain closed,—and in 
dry weather, they are regularly open from about 
nine o’clock in the morning till noon. 
The forked stitchwort, S. dichotoma, is an an- 
nual weed of the cultivated grounds of Britain, 
and has a height of about 20 inches, and blooms 
throughout the greater part of the year.—The 
grove and the Holostea stitchworts, S. nemorum | 
and SS. holostea, are perennial-rooted indigens of 
the moist woods of Britain, and have a height of 
about a foot, and bloom from April till June.— 
The marsh or glaucous stitchwort, S. glauca, is a 
perennial-rooted indigen of the wet meadows of | 
Britain, and has a height of 8 or 10 inches, and 
blooms from May till August.—The grass-leaved 
stitchwort, S. graminea, is a perennial-rooted 
weed of the hedge-banks of Britain, and has a 
height of about a foot, and blooms from April 
till June.—The scape-bearing stitchwort, S. sea- | 
pigera, is a perennial-rooted indigen of the brook- | 
banks of some parts of Scotland, and has a curi- 
ous appearance and a height of only 2 or 3 inches, 
and blooms in June and July.—The cerastium- 
like stitchwort, S. cerastoides, is a perennial-rooted 
indigen of some of the lofty mountains of Scot- 
land, and has also a curious appearance and a 
height of 5 or 6 inches, and blooms in June and 
July. 
STOAT,—scientifically Mustela Erminea. A 
small quadruped of the weasel genus and digiti- 
grade family of Carnivora. It closely resembles 
the weasel in structure, habits, agility, and mis-_ 
chievous pursuit and destruction of hares, game, 
and poultry, and does not differ much from it in 
size, and is often confounded with it in name. 
Its height is about two inches; its tail is 5} 
inches long, very hairy, and tipped at the point 
