Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

S E
M t 134 ] S E M
Parijhes.
Brought over,
Selkirk,
Yarrow,
Population in
1755-
J395
J793
, 1180
4368
43r4
Population in
i7$o—17^8.
I384
1700
I23O
43*4
Decreafe, 54
SELL, or Sill, in building, is of two kinds, viz.
Ground Sell, denoting the lowed; piece of timber in a
wooden building, and that on which the whole fuper-
ftru&ure is railed ; and fell of a window or of a door,
which is the bottom piece in the frame of them on which
they reft.
SELLA turcica, is a deep impreffion between the
clinoid procefs of the fphenoid bone. See Anatomy
Index.
SELTZER WATER, is a mineral water which fprings
up at Lower Seltzer, a village in the deflorate of Triers,
about 10 miles from Frankfort on the Mayne, and 36
from Coblentz.
Seltzer water is brought to this country in ftone bot¬
tles, which are clofely corked and fealed, and contain
about 3 pints each \ and when they are well fecured,
it keeps unchanged for a confiderable time.
Seltzer water, according to the analyfis of Bergman,
contains in an Englifti wine pint,
gru
Carbonate of lime, 3
of magnefia, 5
—— of foda, 4
Muriate of foda, 17.5
29-5
The fame quantity of water alfo yields 17 cubic inches
of a gafeous fubftance, which is found to be almoft en¬
tirely pure carbonic acid gas.
This water has been long in high repute, on account
of its medical virtues, and we have no doubt that it
may be ufed with conftderable benefit in many of thofe
complaints v'hich arife from a deranged ftate of the fto-
mach and bowels. The ufual dofe of this water is from
half a pint to a pint \ but in moft cafes it may be drunk
freely. From its agreeable tafte, and its exhilarating
effefls on the fpirits, it is extenfively employed at table
as a common drink in Germany and Holland. In this
country alfo, both the real and artificial Seltzer water is
largely ufed for the fame purpofe. Seltzer water may
be artificially imitated, by adding the ingredients dilut¬
ed by analyfis, and in the fame proportion.
SEM, or Shem, the fon of Noah, memorable for his
filial piety in concealing the folly and difgrace of his
father, for which he received a remarkable benediftion,
about 2476 B. C. He lived to the age of 600 years.
Ras SEM. See RAS Sem and PETRIFIED City.
SEMECARPUS, a genus of plants belonging to
the pentandria clafs. See Botany Index.
SEMEN, Seed. See Botany Index.
With refpe£t to number, plants are either furnilhed
with one feed, as fea-pink and biftort ; two, as wood-
roof and the umbelliferous plants ; three, as fpurge j
four, as the lip-flowers' of Tournefort and rough-leafed
I
plants of Ray j or many, as ranunculus, anemone, and
poppy.
The form of feeds is likewife extremely various, being
either large or fmall, round, oval, heart-fhaped, kidney-
fhaped, angular, prickly, rough, hairy, wrinkled, fleek
or Ihining, black, white, or brown. Moft feeds have
only one cell or internal cavity ; thofe of lefler burdock,
valerian, lamb’s lettuce, cornelian, cherry, and febeften,
have two.
With refpedl to fubftance, feeds are either foft, mem¬
branaceous, or of a hard bony fubftance ; as in grom-
well, tamarind, and all the nuciferous plants.
In point of magnitude, feeds are either very large, as
in the cocoa-nut; or very fmall, as in campanula, am-
mannia, rampions, and throat-wort.
With refpedt to fituation, they are either difperfed
promifcuoufly through the pulp (femina nidulantia), as
in water-lily j affixed to a future or joining of the valves
of the feed-veflel, as in the crofs-lhaped and pea-bloom
flowers; or placed upon a placenta or receptacle within
the feed-veflel, as in tobacco and thorn-apple.
Seeds are faid to be naked (femina nuda') which are
not contained in a cover or vefiel: fuch are thofe of the
lip and compound flowers, the umbelliferous and rough-
leaved plants. Covered feeds {femina tecla') are con¬
tained in fome veffel, whether of the capfule, pod, ber¬
ry, apple, or cherry kind.
A Ample feed is fuch as bears neither crown, wing,
nor downy pappus ; the varieties in feeds, arifing from
thefe circumftances, are particularly enumerated under
their refpedlive heads.
In affimilating the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
Linnaeus denominates feeds the eggs of plants. The
fecundity of plants is frequently marvellous ; from a
Angle plant or ftalk of Indian Turkey wheat, are pro¬
duced, in one fummer, 2000 feeds 5 of elecampane,
3000 ; of fun-flower, 4000 } of poppy, 32,000 } of a
fpike of cat’s tail, 10,000 and upwards : a Angle fruit,
or feed-veflel, of tobacco, contains I ooo feeds j that of
white poppy, 8000. Mr Ray relates, from experiments
made by himfelf, that 1012 tobacco feeds are equal in
weight to one grain $ and that the weight of the whole
quantum of feeds in a fingle tobacco plant, is fuch as
muft, according to the above proportion, determine their
number to be 360,000. The fame author eftimates the
annual produce of a fingle ftalk of fpleenwort to be up¬
wards of one million of feeds.
The diffemination of plants refpedls the different me¬
thods or vehicles by which nature has contrived to dif-
perfe their feeds for the purpofe of increafe. Thefe by
naturalifts are generally reckoned four.
1. Rivers and running waters. 2. The wind. 3. Ani¬
mals. 4. An elaftic fpring, peculiar to the feeds them-
felves.
1. The feeds which are carried along by rivers and
torrents are frequently conveyed many hundreds of
leagues from their native foil, and caft upon a very dif¬
ferent climate, to which, however, by degrees they ren¬
der tbemfelves familiar.
2. Thofe which are carried by the wind, are either
winged, as in fir-tree, trumpet-flower, tulip tree, birch,
arbor-vitse, meadow rue, and jeffamine, and fome um¬
belliferous plants j furniffied with a pappus, or downy
crown, as in valerian, poplar, reed, fucculeht-fwallow-
wort, cotton-tree, and many of the compound flowers j
placed
Semen.