| Pe I 
VEL Dee 
them with the traders of more civilized nations, 
The swan is with propriety termed ‘ the peaceful 
monarch of the lake.’ Conscious of his superior 
strength, he suffers not even the eagle to molest 
him, His vigorous wing is as a shield against 
all attacks; and the blows from it are said to be 
so powerful as to stun or kill the fiercest of his 
foes. The wolf or the fox may surprise him in 
the dark; but in the day their efforts are fruit- 
less. His food, like that of the tame swan, con- 
sists of the grasses and weeds, and the seeds and 
roots of plants which grow on the margins of the 
water,—of the myriads of insects which skim over, 
float upon, or are found beneath its surface,—of 
frogs, and, it is said, occasionally (but this wants 
confirmation) of the inhabitants within its bo- 
som. Swans are certainly detrimental to fish 
from their dung, when the water upon which 
they are kept is shallow, and no stream runs 
into, to freshen it; and they are with some rea- 
son believed to destroy the spawn of trout, by 
stirring up the gravel, and of other fishes by 
rooting up the weeds on which many kinds de- 
posit their ova; but of their directly preying on 
the spawn, or the small fry lately excluded from 
it, there is no positive evidence.” 
SWANWORT. See Cycnocugs. 
SWARD. The surface of grass land. It widely 
varies in thickness, texture, and luxuriance ac- 
cording to soil, situation, management, and the 
kinds of the herbage; but, in a general view, the 
sward of Britain is finer and greener and more 
velvety than that of any other European country, 
not even excepting Ireland, and may be regarded 
as a grand and beautiful characteristic of British 
landscape, and as owing its superiority, not alone 
to the peculiar nature of our climate, but in some 
degree also to the comparatively enlightened and 
assiduous attention which Britons give to lawns 
and pasturage. See the article Grass Lanps. 
SWARM. See Buz. 
SWARTH. See Swarts. 
SWARTZIA. A genus of ornamental, ever- 
green, exotic shrubs, constituting, with the genus 
baphia, the small non-papilionaceous suborder of 
curvembrious leguminosz. See the article Lrau- 
MINos&. ‘Three species, all about 6 feet high, all 
loving a soil of peaty loam and propagable from 
cuttings, two of them white-flowered and the 
other yellow-flowered, have been introduced to 
British gardens from the West Indies; and about 
a dozen more are known. 
SWATH, or Swartn. A layer of mown grass 
or other mown crop deposited by the scythe. 
See the article Mowrna. 
SWEALING. The singeing of hair, or burn- 
ing of it off, as is done in the case of hogs. 
SWEAT. See Persprrarion. 
SWEDE, or Swepisu Turnip. See Turnip. 
SWEET ACORN. See Acorn and Oax. 
SWEET BAY. See Lauran. 
SWEET BREAD. See Panornas. 
SWEET BRIAR. See Briar (Sweet). 
SWEET WILLIAM. 391 
SWEET FLAG. See Acorvus. | 
SWEET GALE. See Canpieserry Myre. 
SWEET GRASS. See Grycmrra. 
SWEET GUM. See Liquipampar. 
SWEETIA. A genus of ornamental, twining, 
evergreen, purple-flowered, tropical plants, of the 
kidney-bean division of the leguminous order. 
Three species, the woody, the long-leaved, and 
the thread-shaped, varying in height from 3 to 
6 feet, have been introduced to British collections 
from South America and the West Indies; and 
they love a soil of sandy peat, and are propagated 
from cuttings. 
SWEET LEAF. See Symexocos. 
SWEET MARJORAM. See Marsoram. 
SWEET MAUDLIN. See Mrrroit. 
SWEET PEA. See Latuyrus. 
SWEET POTATO. See Barraras. 
SWEET-SCENTED VERNAL GRASS. 
ANTHOXANTHUM. 
SWEET SULTAN. See Centaurea. 
SWEET WILLIAM, —botanically Dianthus 
Barbatus. A well-known, hardy, ornamental, 
evergreen, herbaceous plant, of the pink genus 
and carnation family. It was introduced to Bri- 
tain from Germany in 1573, and has long been 
one of the most. generally diffused and univer- 
sally admired beauties of the British parterre. 
It is often so carelessly and exhaustingly culti- 
vated in the flower-plots of the poor and the 
ignorant as to have a decumbent habit and a 
slender and sickly appearance; but, in its proper 
character, and with ordinarily good treatment, 
and when not in extreme old age, it has a bold 
stem, and stands firmly erect, and has a height 
of from 12 to 20 inches, and shows a great pro- 
fusion of the most brilliantly tinted flowers. It 
comprises multitudes of varieties, which differ 
from one another in the height of the stem, the 
breadth and form and colour of the leaves, the 
nature or aggregation of the inflorescence, the 
form and singleness or doubleness of the flowers, 
and especially the ground-colour and variegations 
and markings of the petals; and it commonly 
brings out very many of these varieties, or ex- 
hibits great and beauteous sportiveness of char- 
acter, from a single sowing of even one specimen 
of seeds. The narrow-leaved kinds were formerly 
called Sweet Johns, and only the broad-leaved 
kinds Sweet Williams; but the two groups were 
soon found to be interchangeable with one ano- 
ther from sowings, and the distinction between 
them was abandoned. Some of the single flowers 
have very rich colours, and often vary from one 
another in the same bunch; and some are most 
lusciously variegated or exquisitely traced and 
marked with minute tintings; while others, po- 
pularly called painted ladies, have a soft red 
centre and a delicately white border. Very fine 
kinds may, in some degree, be perpetuated as 
well as endlessly diversified and sometimes im- 
proved, by completely clearing them from the vi- 
cinity of all inferior sorts, so that they may be im- 
See 
