Leaves, simple, membranaceous, with pellucid dots. Peduncles solitary, 1-flowered. Flowers red, yellow, or white. Sepals and petals 9 to 12, gradually increasing in size inwards, innermost only coloured. Stamens united in a globular mass. Carpels numerous, indehiscent, when ripe loosely spicate. Species 6, one from North America, the rest from tropical and eastern Asia. Name from to cut, and avnp, a male, in allusion to the split anthers.

1. S. coccinea. - A tender North American climbing or trailing plant with oblong acuminate petiolate leaves and scarlet flowers, rarely seen in cultivation, and requiring protection even in the South-west of England.

2. S. Chinensis, syn. Maximowiczia Chinensis. - A hand-some hardy climbing species, growing 20 feet high. Leaves oval, bright green. Flowers bright rosy carmine, succeeded by scarlet berries, which are persistent during a great part of the winter.

North China.