Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/91

 SKYE April. The plant is an endogen, and its perfect flowers have font petals each, with as many opposite stamens, and a simple pistil with a one-ovuled ovary, which has a four-angled style. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus fcetidus). ?hese flowers are crowded in a dense globular cluster upon a short stem or spadix, and the cluster is surrounded by a peculiar, shell-formed hood or spathe, with an incurved point and of the shape shown in the engraving ; this hood is sometimes of a dark lurid purple color, but is more frequently striped and spotted with yellow and purple, and sometimes varied with blotches of green and red. The hoods may be found long before the leaves appear, as these seem to require warm weather for their lux- uriant growth ; but they grow very rapidly when they start, and are heart-shaped, on short petioles and 1 to 2 ft. long ; they form large clusters, which disappear very suddenly after midsummer, the spathe around the flowers hav- ing decayed much earlier. The fruit is a large oval fleshy mass, consisting of the purplish and green, berry-like seeds immersed in the en- larged spadix. All parts of the plant have a strong and strikingly skunk-like odor, which has been likened to a combination of garlic and asafoetida; the seeds are odorless when whole, but very strong when bruised. The root has been used as a stimulant and expec- torant, but it rapidly deteriorates when dried. The leaves are sometimes used to dress blisters to keep up the discharge. SKIE, the largest island of the inner Heb- rides, off the W. coast of Scotland, forming part of Inverness-shire, from the mainland of which it is separated by the narrow strait of Loch Alsh ; area, 535 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 17,330. The surface is mountainous. In the centre of the island the Cuchullin or Coolin hills and other summits rise to the height of 2,000 and 3,000 ft. above the sea. The shores, especially in the north, are very bold and pic- SLAKDER 83 turesque, and are indented by many inlets or lochs. In the northeast are basaltic columns equal to those at Staffa, and caves, some of which abound with stalactites of great beauty. Soapstone, manganese, jet, and some coal are found, but none of them are productively worked. White and variegated marble is quar- ried. The climate is variable ; on the higher portions the snow lies long, and when it melts there are heavy rains. The soil is poor and the productions scanty. The greater part of it is in pasture, and devoted to the rearing of cattle and sheep. Large plantations of trees have lately been made. Red deer and game are abundant. The well known Skye terrier is raised here. The fisheries, especially in the sounds between the island and the mainland, furnish employment and subsistence to a large proportion of the inhabitants. The manufac- ture of kelp, once extensive, is now nearly ex- tinct; there are no other manufactures, and very little trade. The people are of Gaelic origin ; they are peaceable and moral, but in- dolent and generally poor. The island con- tains many Danish antiquities. The greater part of the land belongs to Lord Macdonald and the Macleod family. Skye was the home of Flora Macjdonald, who died here in 1790. The principal port is Portree, which has an excellent harbor. SKYLARK. See LAEK. SLAJVDEK, in law, defamatory words falsely and maliciously spoken, and injurious either in fact or in legal presumption. It is action- able slander: 1, to speak of one thus falsely and maliciously words importing his guiltiness of an offence involving moral turpitude or pun- ishable by law; 2, to charge him with having such an infectious, or perhaps disgusting dis- ease as, if known, would probably cause his ex- clusion from society ; 3, to use in regard to one in office, OP of a person in reference to his pro- fession, trade, or business, such language as has a natural tendency to cause him damage or loss, either because the language implies the lack of some requisite qualification for the occupation or profession, or because it implies insolven- cy or some positive misconduct or dishonest practice in the business or calling ; 4, to speak words which, though not naturally or presump- tively productive of loss, have nevertheless caused actual damage to the person slandered. Of these four classes of slanderous words, the first, second, and third include those that are actionable per se, or of themselves ; that is to say, if the plaintiff proves that the words were spoken, he recovers damages without proving any particular loss. An action lies for words of the fourth class only when the plaintiff can prove express and special damage. Of the form of slander which imputes guiltiness of crime, it is to be observed that the immediate ground on which the law founds the action is that injury to the party's reputation and his conse- quent degradation in society which is the natu- ral and immediate incident of criminal guilt.