SEPS disaffected, and in Bombay none at all ; while the native forces from the Punjaub assisted in repressing the rebellion. Upon the subsequent transfer of the army to the crown, a reorgani- zation became necessary. This was effected in 1861, by a reduction of its numbers one half, the abolition of promotion by seniority, and the permanent appointment of seven effec- tive officers to each regiment. The troops are nominally on the footing of irregulars. There are 137 battalions of infantry, 40 regiments of cavalry, and a few batteries of artillery. The number of men in 1873 was 128,447, of whom 103,343 were infantry. SEPS (Daud.), a genus of saurian reptiles of the skink family, divided by modern authors into several subgenera. In the group the feet are very short, and have three or four toes, with claws ; the apex of the tongue is notched, the eyes lizard-like with transparent lower lid ; teeth numerous and conical ; body snake- like, and the scales smooth and imbricated; no femoral pores. The four-toed seps (tetra- dactylus Decresiensis, Peron) has the nostrils in the nasal scute, and a conical tail about as long as, and hardly distinct from, the body ; the color above is brownish spotted with black, the sides grayish with dark dots, and whitish below ; it is about 5 in. long, the an- terior limbs one fourth and the posterior five eighths of an inch; it is found in Australia and the neighboring islands. The three-toed seps (hemiergis Decresiensis, Dum. and Bibr.) is distinguished from the last chiefly by the number of the toes, of which the central is the longest ; the color and habitat are the same ; the length is about 4 in., the anterior limb j in., and the posterior about half as long. The common seps (seps tridactylus, Merr.) has a SEQUOIA 771 Seps tridactylus. more elongated body* and shorter limbs, and the nostrils are between the nasal and rostral scutes; the feet are three-toed. The color is bronze above, usually with four longitudinal darker stripes, and greenish white below ; the number of stripes and the black and white markings vary ; the length is 16 in., the ante- rior limbs f in. and the posterior in. It is viviparous, and is found in southern Europe and northern Africa; the food consists of worms, small land mollusks, spiders, and in- sects. An allied species (heteromeles M<turi- tanicus, Dum. and Bibr.) of N. Africa has only two toes on the fore feet ; it is grayish white dotted with black above, and whitish below ; the length is 4J^ in., the anterior limbs in. and the posterior J in. SEPTEMBER (Lat. septem, seven), the ninth month of the year, but the seventh with the early Romans, their year beginning with March, as the legal year did in England until the change of style in 1752. The name is still retained in most European languages, like those of the three succeeding months, not- withstanding their present inaccuracy. The Anglo-Saxons called it Gerstmonath, or barley month ; and in Switzerland it is still called Herbstmonat, harvest month. It has 30 days. SEPTIMUS SEVEBIS. See SEVERUB. SEPTUAGINT. See BIBLE, vol. 5i., p. 613. SEPULVEDA, Juan Ginez de, a Spanish histo- rian, born at Pozoblanco, near Cordova, in 1490, died in 1574. He assisted Cardinal Ca- ietan at Naples in the revision of the Greek Testament, in 1529 went to Rome, and in 1536 was appointed chaplain and historiographer to Charles V. He wrote a work justifying the wars and acts of the Spaniards in America, which was never printed. He also wrete his- tories of Charles V. and Philip II. (whose education he had superintended), and a narra- tive of the Spanish conquests in Mexico. His works have been published by the royal acad- emy of history at Madrid (4 vols. 4to, 1780). SKQl AY. See SEINE. SEQUATCHIE, a S. county of Tennessee, in- tersected by the Sequatchie river, a tributary of the Tennessee ; area, about 250 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 2,335, of whom 175 were colored. The surface is very hilly and the soil mod- erately productive. The chief productions in 1870 were 12,472 bushels of wheat, 13,010 of Indian corn, 6,905 of oats, 9,353 Ibs. of tobacco, and 5,904 of wool. Iron and other valuable minerals abound. Capital, Dunlap. SEQt'IN (Ital. eecchino, from zccca, the mint), an old Italian and Turkish gold coin. It was first struck at Venice about the end of the 13th century, and afterward in all the other Italian cities, and by the Levant trade intro- duced into Turkey. The Tuscan sequin is worth $2-313 ; the Turkish varies according to the date of coinage. SEQUOIA, the botanical name of a genus of large coniferous evergreen trees, consisting of but two specis, both of which are natives of our Pacific coast. The name was imposed by Endlicher, who left its derivation unexplained, but it has since been maintained that it was given in honor of the Cherokee Sequoyah or George Guess. (See GUESS.) The species first made known was the redwood of the Cah- fornians, S. sempercirens, which was discov- ered by Menzies in 1796, and from imperfect
