Sensitive Plant
an herb belonging to the pea family. It is an erect, hairy plant, a native of Brazil. The leaves are long, petioled, and have numerous pairs of leaflets arranged pinnately. Purplish flowers are clustered in heads. The fruit is a spiny, pointed pod. The plant has a peculiar property of being sensitive to the touch. At the slightest touch the leaflets droop, closing together in pairs. At a second or more decided touch, the petiole bends downward, depressing the leaf toward the stalk. If left undisturbed, the petiole rises and the leaflets spread again. A blow on one leaf may cause several leaves to droop and close. The plant is tropical. It is cultivated in conservatories, and as a house plant for amusement, rather than for ornamental purposes. The partridge pea and other related plants native to the United States are sensitive likewise to a considerable degree. See Senna
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Separatist
a small sect calling themselves Separatists Protestant or Separatists, and holding aloof from the Church of England, believing it not sufficient to maintain its Protestant character.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Separator
in dairying, a machine for separating the milk from the cream. The Babcock separator is constructed on the principle of centrifugal force. The milk enters a revolving drum. The skimmed milk, being heavier than the cream, is thrown outward by the whirling drum and escapes by a set of tubes. The cream, being lighter, remains nearer the center and escapes by a second set of tubes. To obtain the best results, the milk should be at the point of animal heat, and the machine should be operated steadily without jarring or shaking. Under the ordinary method of setting milk in pans, cans, and crocks, it is considered that from an eighth to a fourth of the cream fails to rise. Practically no butter-fat remains in the skimmed milk of the separator.
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Sepia
. See Cuttlefish
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Sepia
in zoölogy, the typical and only recent genus of Sepidæ; body oblong (varying in length from 3 to 28 inches), with lateral fins as long as it self; arms with four rows of suckers; mantle supported by tubercles fitting into sockets on neck and funnel; shell broad and thick in front, laminated, and terminating in a permanent mucro. Woodward puts the species at 30, universally distributed. In palæontology; fossil species 10, from the Jurassic to the Eocene Tertiary. Several species have been based on mucrones from the London Clay. In comparative anatomy: the black secretion of the cuttlefish. In chemistry and art: a dark brown pigment prepared from the black secretion of the cuttlefish, S. officinalis.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Septaria
ovate flattened nodules of argillaceous limestone or ironstone, internally divided into numerous angular fragments by reticulating fissures which radiate from the center to the circumsubstance, as carbonate of lime or sulphate of barytes, that has been infiltrated subsequent to their formation. The radiating figure and the striking contrast between the dark body of argillaceous limestone or ironstone and the more or less transparent sparry veins when the nodule is cut and polished have caused them to be manufactured into small tables and similar objects. Calcareous septarian nodules are extensively employed in the manufacture of what is known commercially as Roman cement, because of its properties being the same as a famous hydraulic cement made of ferruginous volcanic ash brought from Rome. Such septaria occur in layers in clay deposits, and are quarried layers 1 for economical purposes in the clays of the London basin. The septarian nodules of the Carboniferous strata consist generally of clay ironstone, and are sometimes employed in the manufacture of iron. SEPTEMBER (from the Latin septem, seven), the ninth month of our year, but the seventh of the old Roman year, which began in March. It has always contained 30 days.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
September
the seventh month of the old Roman year, the ninth month of the revised calendar. "Thirty days hath September." The Romans celebrated feasts in honor of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva in September. Charlemagne called it the "Harvest Month." The first Monday in September is observed very generally as " Labor Day ."
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
September Massacres
in French history, September, 1792, is noted for a series of murders perpetrated by the frantic mobs of Paris. Danton, fearing, it is said, that the opposition of the royal forces might result in the liberation of many royalists confined in prison, turned the places of confinement over to self-constituted committees or mobs of extreme revolutionists. These tribunals summoned great numbers of prisoners into their presence, held a brief mock inquiry, then dispatched them into the courtyard to be shot, sabred, and disposed of by infuriated executioners. Hundreds of helpless prisoners were butchered in the massacres of September. See Danton ; French Revolution
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Septembrists
in French history, the name given to the agents in the massacre which took place in Paris on Sept. 2, 1792, during the French Revolution. SEPTICÆMIA, or SEPTÆMIA, in pathology, a state of the blood without secondary abscesses, a kind of pyæmia with intense fever, and great constitutional disturbance from blood poisoning. The antiseptic researches of Lister and of Pasteur have done much to counteract septicæmia.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Septuagesima
the third Sunday before Lent, so called because it is about 70 days before Easter.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Sequence
a series of things following in a certain order or succession; specifically, a set of cards immediately following each other in the same suit, as an ace, two, three and four. In music, the recurrence of a harmonic progression or melodic figure at a different pitch or in a different key to that in which it was first given. A tonal or diatonic sequence is when no modulation takes place. A chromatic or real sequence takes place when the recurrence of a phrase at an exact interval causes a change of key. In the Roman ritual, a rhythm sometimes sung between the Epistle and the Gospel. At first it was merely a prolongaper tion of the last note of the Alleluia, but afterward appropriate words were substituted. When the Roman Missal was revised in the 16th century, only four of the existing sequences were retained: Victinæ Paschali, for Easter; Veni, Sancte Spiritus, for Pentecost; Lauda, Sion, for Corpus Christi; and the Dies Iræ, for Masses of the Dead. The Stabat Mater, for the Feast of the Seven Dolors, is of . later date
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia