Scindapsus (sindapsus)

[NL. (Schott, 1832), so called from the climbing habit; Indies, especially Bengal and Java. They are climbing shrubs clinging by rootlets produced on the branches, and bear taper-pointed leaves, ovate or narrower, with long broadly sheathing petioles. The flowers are borne in dense ma es over a cylindrical spadix inclosed in a boat shaped spathe, and form in fruit a syncarp of closely united juicy berries. Many remarkable plants of other genera have been cultivated under this name, especially those with perforated leaves now cla ed under Monstera . Some species have been called Indian ivy , as S. hedera cea , a vine with abruptly pointed leaves. Several bear ornamental white-mottled leaves, as S. ( Pothos ) argyræa, cultivated from the Philippines under the name silver vine. Several others have often been cultivated under the name Pothos . The fruit of S. officinal is is prescribed in India as a diaphoretic, dried sections of it being sold by the native druggists under the name guj - pippul . scinkt, scinquet, n. See skink3 . scintilla (sin-til a), n. [OF. scintille = Sp. centella = Pg. scintilla , centelha = It. scintilla , L. scintilla , & spark; cf. Gr. σπινθήρ , a spark; perhaps akin to AS. scinan, etc., shine: see shine. Hence ult. (from L. scintilla ) E. scintil late , etc., stencil, tinsel .] 1. A spark; a glimmer; hence, the least particle; a trace; a tittle. Perhaps Philip's eyes and mine exchanged glances in which ever so small a scintilla of mischief might sparkle. Thackeray, Philip, xiv. This single quotation... throws no scintilla of light upon the point in question. Lowell , Study Windows, p. 365. 2. [ cap.] [NL.] In zool.: (a) A genus of bivalve mollusks. Deshayes, 1855. (b) A genus of lepidopterous insects. Guenée, 1879.- Scintilla juris, a of law or right. =