SEEDING 326 SEGOVIA alone, as in the wallflower and the Dean, or of the embryo inclosed in albumen or perisperm, as in the morning-glory. When the nourishing matter, called al- bumen, is present, the seed is said to be albuminous; when it is absent, to be ex- albuminous. The duration of the vitality of seeds is a much discussed question. Few seeds germinate after three or four years. See Albumen: Embryo: Ovary: Placenta. SEEDING, sowing either in drills or broadcast, an operation formerly conduct- ed altogether by hand. Machines are now in use adapted to sowing the finest grass seeds or the most bulky grains and seeds. SEEGER, ALAN, an American poet, born in New York in 1888. He was edu- cated at Harvard University and began writing while still an undergraduate stu- dent, although little of his work became known then. He went to Paris in 1912. At the outbreak of the World War he enlisted in the Foreign Legion. He con- tinued to write while serving in the French army and some of his poems, sent to friends in America, gradually found their way into print. The best known of his poems, perhaps, was "I Have a Ren- dezvous with Death." He died during an engagement at Belloi-en-Santerre, on July 3, 1916. The comparatively small num- ber of his writings which he left were published after his death in two volumes, "Poems" (1917), and "Letters and Di- ary" (1917). SEELY, JOHN EDWARD BER- NARD, a British public official, born 1868. He was educated at Harrow, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar, Inner Temple, in 1897. He joined the army and commanded as colonel the Hampshire Carabineers, serv- ing with the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa in 1900-1. He represented in par- liament the Isle of Wight, 1900-6, the Abercromby Division of Liverpool, 1906- 10, and since 1910 the Ilkeston Division of Derby. He was Under-Secretary for the colonies 1908-1910; Secretary of State for War 1912-1914, and in 1919 Under-Secretary of State for Air and President of the Air Council. SEELYE, LATJRENTJS CLARK, an American educator; born in Bethel, Conn., Sept. 20, 1837; was graduated at Union College in 1857; studied in the Universi- ties of Berlin and Heidelberg; became pastor of the North Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass., in 1863; and Professor of Rhetoric and English Lit- erature in Amherst College in 1865. He was chosen president of Smith College in 1873 and president emeritus in 1910. SEER, a weight in India, formerly varying in different parts of the country, but by an act of the Anglo-Indian Gov- ernment (Oct. 31, 1871), the seer was adopted as the primary standard of weight, and made equivalent to a kilo- gramme. SEGESTA, in antiquity a city of Sicily; situated near the coast, 27 miles W. S. W. of Palermo. It was an ally of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, became a dependent of Carthage about 400 B. c, and passed under Roman supremacy at the time of the first Punic War. There still remain the ruins of a Greek theater and a Greek temple, the latter being one of the most complete examples extant of Greek architecture. Near the ancient site of Segesta is now the modern town of Catalafimi. SEGMENT, in comparative anatomy, one of the divisions or rings in the body of an insect, an annelid, a decapod, crus- tacean, etc. In geometry, a segment is a part cut off from any figure by a line or plane. The segment of a circle is a part of the area of a circle included be- tween a chord and the arc which it sub- tends. An angle in a segment is the angle contained by any two straight lines drawn from any point in the arc and terminat- ing in the extremities of the chord. Sim- ilar segments of circles are those which contain equal angles, or whose arcs con- tain the same number of degrees. A spherical segment is a portion of a sphere bounded by a secant line and a zone of the surface. If a circular segment be revolved about a radius drawn perpendic- ular to the chord of the segment, the vol- ume generated is a spherical segment. SEGNO (sa'nyo), in music, a sign or mark used in notation in connection with repetition. Al segno (to the sign), a di- rection to return to the sign; dal segno (from the sign), a direction to repeat from the sign. SEGOVIA, an old city of Spain; at the N. foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama ; 32 miles N. N. W. of Madrid. It occupies a rocky eminence 3,300 feet above sea- level, is surrounded by ruinous walls with round towers, and consists of narrow un- even streets, with old, quaint, and stately houses, and numerous parish churches and convents. The fortress or castle is perched on the W. extremity of the rocky height, and was originally Moorish, but has been gradually restored since its de- struction by fire in 1862; its towers and windows command magnificent views. The cathedral (1521-1577) is one of the finest specimens of late Gothic in Spain. The grand aqueduct, built in the time of Trajan, is a very fine example of Roman
