a 
STREPTOPUS. 
annuals, —the former from Arkansa, with a 
height of 20 inches and rose-coloured flowers, 
and the latter from Texas, with a height of 3 
feet and bluish purple flowers. 
STREPTOPUS. A genus of ornamental, exo- 
tic, perennial-rooted, herbaceous plants, of the 
smilax family. Five species, all between 10 and 
24 inches high, mostly hardly, and blooming in 
May or June, have been introduced to Britain 
from North America, Hungary, and Nepaul; 
and all love a light soil, and are propagated from 
suckers. 
STRICKLE. The whetstone carried on the 
extremity of the shaft of a scythe. 
STRINGHALT. A sudden or very high lift- 
ing of the hind legs of a horse at his starting, as 
if he were affected with a spasm. The disease, 
or habit, or whatever it be, is not indicated by 
swelling, tenderness, or any other unhealthy ap- 
pearance, and has been variously supposed to 
have its seat in the fetlock, in the hock, and in 
the spine; and when it is so great as to amount 
to lameness, it may sometimes be reduced by 
means of blistering or the cautery. 
STROBILANTHES. A genus of ornamental 
exotic plants, of the acanthaceous order. The 
sessile species, S. sessz/’s, was introduced from 
India to Britain about 10 years ago. Its root is 
perennial; its stems are herbaceous, numerous, 
simple, erect, quadrangular, very hairy, and 
about 18 inches high ; its leaves are opposite, sub- 
sessile, and ovate-heart-shaped ; and its flowers 
come out in the axils of the bracts, and are 
sessile and solitary, and expand in succession 
from below upwards, several at a time, and have 
a pubescent, lilac-coloured, funnel-shaped co- 
rolla. 
STROBUS. See Prine. 
STRONTIA, or Srrontitzs. The oxide of 
strontium. It was first obtained from strontian- 
ite, or native of carbonate of strontia, a mineral 
found at Strontian in the west of Scotland ; and 
it may be prepared, in a pure state, from either 
that mineral or the nitrate of strontia. It is an 
alkaline earth; and resembles baryta in appear- 
ance, infusibility, and other properties. Stron- 
tium, the base of it, is a heavy metal similar to 
barium, and decomposes water, with evolution of 
hydrogen and fixation of oxygen. Strontia, when 
mixed with water, slakes, causes intense heat, 
and forms a white, solid hydrate, consisting of one 
equivalent of strontia and nine equivalents of 
water, and possessing the properties of solubility 
in boiling water, insolubility in alcohol, fusibility 
with a red heat, infusibility with the strongest 
heat of a wind furnace, and resolvability from 
hot saturated solution in water into transparent, 
thin, quadrangular, tubular crystals. The solu- 
tion of strontia has a caustic taste and an alka- 
line reaction; and isa delicate test of the pre- 
sence of carbonic acid in atmospheric air and 
other gaseous mixtures. The salts of strontia 
are most conveniently prepared from the carbo- 
STUARTIA. 363 
nate, and are not poisonous; and the soluble ones 
are precipitated by alkaline carbonates. Two of 
the most important compounds of strontium, next 
to strontia or the oxide, are the chloride and the 
sulphuret. 
STROPHANTHUS. A genus of ornamental, 
tropical, evergreen shrubs, of the dog’s-bane fa- 
mily. Three species have been introduced to 
Britain from respectively India, China, and Wes- 
tern Africa; and two of these—the forked, with 
rose-coloured flowers, and the spreading, with 
yellow flowers—are about 3 feet high, and bloom 
throughout the greater part of the year, and Jove 
a soil of rich mould, and are propagated from 
cuttings. 
STRUMARIA. A genus of ornamental, green- 
house, bulbous-rooted plants, of the amaryllis 
order. ‘Ten species have been introduced to 
Britain from the Cape of Good Hope; and all 
love a soil of sandy loam, and are propagated 
from offsets,—most have a height of between 3 
and 8 inches,—the majority have pink flowers, 
and the rest have either white or yellow flowers, 
—and most bloom in April or the early months 
of summer, and two or three do not bloom till 
late in autumn. The name strumaria is formed 
from a word signifying ‘tubercle,’ and alludes to 
the conformation of the base of the style. 
STRUTHIOLA. A genus of ornamental Cape- 
of-Good-Hope, evergreen, small shrubs, of the 
thymelza family. Nearly twenty species have 
been introduced to Britain; and all love a light 
soil of sandy peat, and are propagated from cut- 
tings,—and most have a height of about two feet, 
and carry either white or yellow flowers from 
about the end of spring till about the beginning 
of autumn. Five of the handsomest are the stri- 
ated, the shining, the side-flowered, the long- 
flowered, and the smooth,—all with yellow flowers, 
The name struthiola alludes to the beak-like form 
of the seeds. 
STRYCHNOS. A genus of corolliflorous, tro- 
pical, evergreen, small trees, constituting the type 
of the natural order Strychnew. This order is 
nearly allied to the dog’s-bane family, and con- 
sists principally of tropical, poisonous, ligneous 
plants. About a dozen species of it, belonging 
to three genera, have been introduced to British 
collections; and six of these—all more or less 
poisonous, and several of them medicinal—be- 
long to the genus strychnos. The best known 
species, and one which may serve as a good spe- 
cimen of the whole, is noticed in the article Nux 
VomiIca. 
STUARTIA. A small genus of ornamental, 
hardy, deciduous shrubs, of the ternstrcemia fa- 
mily. The common or Virginian species, S. Vir- 
ginica, called by Linneus S. malachodendron, was 
introduced to Britain from Virginia in 1742. Its 
height, as grown in British shrubberies and plea- 
sure-grounds, is commonly about 8 or 10 feet; 
its branches come out irregularly from the main 
stem, and are covered with a brown bark; its 
