favorite food seems to be frogs and toads, but lizards and many snakes are devoured. The nest is built high up in a tree, and two or three, large, white eggs are deposited. On the ground the bird walks with a stiff military gait, but can run with great swiftness.
Secre′tion (in plants), in its broadest sense, the process by which substances are separated from the protoplasm; also the substances so separated. In this sense the cell-wall and starch-grains are secretions, since they are formed by the protoplasm and separated from it. The term is usually applied, however, to waste products (sometimes distinguished as excretions) or to products which have some special function, e. g., enzymes (q. v.) and nectar. The number and variety of secretions are very great. Some are formed in a special cell or group of cells, constituting a gland, which may be on the surface (e. g., in geranium leaves) or may adjoin an internal space into which the secretion is poured (e. g., resin-glands of pines). In other cases the secretion accumulates in the gland-cells, which finally die, leaving a mass of the secretion occupying their room, e. g., in orange-rind. The methods by which the secretion is put forth from a cell are not known.
Seda′lia, Mo., a thrifty city, is situated in a fine farming district and is a nest of factories. There are car-works, machine-shops, woolen-mills, manufactories of agricultural implements, wagons and furniture. It has fine railroad facilities, several roads converging here. It was founded in 1860, has five colleges and excellent public schools, and is especially an educational city. Population 17,822.
Sedan (sē̇-dăn′), a town and frontier fortress of France, stands on the Meuse, 64 miles northeast of Rheims. The citadel surrendered to the Germans in 1815; but Sedan is chiefly noted for the surrender, Sept. 2, 1870, of Napoleon III and 86,000 men to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War. The Germans, under the command of King William of Prussia, began the battle on September 1. By manœuvers and hard fighting the French under Marshal MacMahon were driven from all sides to the fortress, where, defeated, surrounded and without provisions, they were forced to surrender. The emperor was sent a prisoner to Wilhelmshöhe, and two days later Gambetta proclaimed the republic at Paris. Colbert founded at Sedan cloth-mills, which now employ 10,000 men. Sedan-chairs were named from this town, where they are said to have been invented. Population 19,350.
Sed′don, Richard John, premier and treasurer of New Zealand and minister of labor, defence, education and immigration, was born at Eccleston, Lancashire, England, in 1845, and educated there. He went to New Zealand in 1867. A mechanical engineer by profession, he had an intimate acquaintance with workingmen and their needs, and was continuously in public service after entering its house of representatives in 1879. His death occurred on June 10, 1906.
Sedge, the name of a family of plants, one class of which contains over 200 kinds in North America. They are mostly found in swamps and other wet places, forming often thick tufts. The stems are solid and triangular. Sedges are most common in cold countries. They differ in some important respects from grasses, especially in being worthless as pasture or food plants.
Sedg′wick, Catherine Maria, American novelist and writer, was born at Stockbridge, Mass., Dec. 28, 1789, and died near Roxbury, Mass , July 31, 1867. She was the daughter of Theodore Sedgwick (1747-1813), the Federalist politician and jurist. She herself is noted as one of the earliest of American women of letters, a contributor to the Annuals in vogue early in the literary history of the United States, and a voluminous and entertaining writer of moral tales and miscellanies. Her chief works embrace A New England Tale; Redwood, reprinted in England and appearing in three or four European translations; Hope Leslie; and Linwoods.
Sedgwick, John, was born at Cornwall, Conn., Sept. 13, 1813. A West Point graduate, he served in Florida as second-lieutenant when the Cherokees were removed. He also served through the Mexican War, gaining promotion at Contreras, Churubusco and Chapultepec. His record in the Civil War was brilliant. By the spring of 1862 Sedgwick was in command of a division, and in July of that year was made major-general of volunteers. As commander of the 6th or Sedgwick's corps, as it was called, he made a forced march of 35 miles to Gettysburg, and there commanded the left wing in the battle. Three days after the battle of the Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864, in which he had taken part, he was shot by a sharpshooter while ordering a battery to be brought into position. See MacMahon's Address on Major-General Sedgwick.
Seebeck (zā̇′bĕk), Thomas Johann, a German physicist, born April 9, 1770, at Reval, died on Dec. 10, 1831, at Berlin. Seebeck will be remembered principally for his very important discovery of thermo-electric currents, sometimes called the Seebeck effect. This is the converse of the Peltier effect. (See Electricity.) For an excellent account of these two “effects” see J. J. Thompson's Elements of Electricity and Magnetism, ch. 14.
Seed-Disper′sal is the scattering of plant reproductive bodies, especially seeds and the seed-vessels (see Fruits) containing them, by wind, water, animals and other agencies. The benefit to the plant is in
