Swertia (swertia)

[NL. (Linnæus, 1737), named after Emanuel Sweert ( Swert, Sweerts ), an herbalist, who published a "Florilegium" in 1612.] A genus of gamopetalous plants, of the order Gentian aceæ and tribe Swertieæ. It is characterized by a wheel-shaped corolla with five or more nectaries and four or five dextrorsely twisted lobes, a very short style, and a two-valved capsule with its sutures not intruded. There are about 55 species, natives of Europe, Africa, and Asia, especially of mountain regions. They are erect herbs, with or without branches; the annual species IMG:content-2629.png:[blocks in formation] (* sopnus ), sleep, = Gr. ὕπνος = Lith. sapnas = Skt. svapna, sleep, And as I lay and lened and loked in the wateres, I slombred in a slepyng it sweyued so merye. Thanne gan I to meten a me rue i louse sweuene . Piers Plowman (B), Prol., L 11. Swevenes engendren of replecciouns, And ofte of fume and of complecciouns, Whan humours ben to abundant in a wight. Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale, 1. 103. bear opposite, the perennial radical leaves; their flowers sweveningt, n. [ME.; as if verbal n. of sweven.] are blue or rarely yellow, borne in a crowded or loose pan A dream. sweven ing Many men sayen that in swevenynges Ther nis but fables and lesynges. Rom. of the Rose , 1. 1. swich1t, a. A Middle English variant of such . swich2t, n. An obsolete spelling of switch . swidder (swid'er). Same as swither1, swither3. Swietenia (swe-te'ni-ä), n. [NL. (Linnæus, 1762), named after Gerard van Swieten (17001772), an Austrian physician.] A genus of polypetalous plants, of the order Meliaceæ, type of the tribe Swietenieæ. It is characterized by flowers with five petals, a ten-toothed urn-shaped stamen tube, annular disk, and numerous pendulous ovules, ripen ing into broadly winged seeds with fleshy albumen. There are 3 species, natives of Central America, Mexico, and the Antilles. The chief of these, S. Mahagoni, a large tree furnishing the mahogany of commerce, extends in a reduced form (50 feet high or under) to the Florida keys. It bears smooth abruptly pinnate leaves composed of obliquely ovate tapering opposite leaflets. The small flowers are borne in axillary and subterminal panicles, and are followed by five-celled septicidal capsules. See mahogany. Swietenieæ (swē-te-ni'ē-ē), n. pl. [NL. (Adrien de Ju ieu, 1831),