480 
nesiana. 
SPOONFLOWER. See Labisia. 
SPOONWORT. 
SPORADIC. Widely dispersed or scattered. 
SPORANGIUM and SPORANGE (from spora, 
seed, and aggeion, a vessel; the latter word is sounded 
as if spelt angeion). Terms used to denote the small 
vessels or cases in which the spores of Ferns are pro- 
duced, on the backs of the fronds, in the familiar, little, 
dark masses called sori. The Sporangia may be exposed 
on the surface of the fronds from their origin (e.g., 
in Polypodies), but are usually protected, more or 
less completely, under a membrane or indusium. Each 
Sporangium is supported on a rather slender stalk in 
most Ferns; but in a few they are attached without a 
stalk. In the Tribe Marattiee they may be partly 
joined to one another, and among Ophioglossew they are 
sunk in the substance of the modified fertile frond. 
In most Ferns, they are formed of a single layer of 
cells, which are thin-walled, with the exception of a 
single row of thicker-walled cells, known as the annulus, 
which runs over the top of the Sporangium, or around 
it horizontally, or forms a cap on the top. Whatever 
its position, the annulus, by its resistance to pressure, 
causes the ripe Sporangium to split in a definite place. 
The spores in the other Orders of Vascular Cryptogams 
also are contained in Sporangia; and the same term is 
employed for corresponding structures among the Cellular 
Cryptogams; but for the peculiarities of their structure 
in these groups the reader must refer to works on 
Systematic Botany, as these peculiarities are of no 
special interest in gardening. 
SPORE (from spora, seed). The name given to 
those bodies in Cryptogams that reproduce the species, 
and from which young plants grow. Some Spores re- 
semble the seeds of Phanerogams, or flowering plants, 
in being produced sexually; but they differ in the Spore 
never inclosing an embryo or young plant, as the seed 
does. The Spore, in fact, corresponds to the embryo 
: itself, rather than to the entire seed. But, in addition 
to these sexual Spores,*most Cryptogams produce others 
asexually from single cells, by a process of budding, or 
of cell division. These asexual Spores may very closely 
resemble the sexual in appearance; but they are often 
very different, and frequently a plant bears two or three 
varied forms of asexual Spores, produced, it may be, 
under different conditions as regards food, temperature, 
and environments. They often receive special names, 
e.g., Conidia, Sporidia, Stylospores, Zoospores, and so 
forth among Fungi; and Stylospores, Tetraspores, &c., 
among Algæ. Fora fuller account of the forms assumed 
by Spores among Fungi, see Mushrooms, Oidium, 
Peronospora, Pleospora and Puccinia; and for a de- 
scription of the life-cycle of the higher Cryptogams, 
and of the part played by Spores in the cycle, see 
Mosses and Prothallus. ; 
SPORIDIUM. The same as, or a diminutive of, 
Spore (which see). 
SPORIFEROUS. Spore-bearing. 
SPOROBOLUS (from sporos, a seed, and bolus, a 
casting; the seeds are loose and easily scattered). Sywns. 
Agrosticula, Cryptostachys, Triachyrum, Vilfa, Including 
Agrostis (in part). ORD. Graminee. A rather large 
genus | (about eighty species) of greenhouse or hardy, 
annual or perennial grasses, of variable habit, broadly 
dispersed over the temperate and warmer regions of the 
globe, being numerous in America, and few in Europe and 
Russian Asia, Spikelets small, one, or rarely two, 
flowered ; glumes three, membranous ; panicle spike-formed 
or sometimes elongated and very slender. Leaves flat or 
A popular name for Cochlearia. 
convolute-terete. A few of the species have been intro- 
duced, but none are of much value from a garden 
standpoint. 
SPORT. A bud-variation or seed-variation. 
SPRAGUEA (named in honour of Isaac Sprague, an 
American botanical draughtsman). ORD. Portulacee. A 
monotypic genus. The species is a half-hardy, dwarf 
perennial herb, of novel character. It is well adapted 
for planting on the rockwork, or in the edges of flower 
borders; any ordinary soil will prove suitable. Propa- 
gated by cuttings; or by seeds, sown in a cold frame, 
in spring. 
S. umbellata (umbelled). /l. densely imbricate-spicate ; sepals 
two, whitish, persistent, large, scarious; petals four, rosy-lake, 
just protruding; anthers purple; umbel terminal, compound, 
many-rayed. July. l, radical ones rosulate, spathulate, slightly 
ome fy cauline ones smaller, alternate. California, 1858. (B. M. 
5143.) 
SPRAY. A floral head-dress, worn on the side of 
the head, either composed of various flowers or of one 
branch or shoot, when specially suited for the purpose. 
The water from a syringe, when broken into very fine 
particles, is often called Spray. 
SPREAD EAGLE. A common name for Oncidium 
carthaginense. 
SPREKELIA (so called after J. H. Sprekelsen, of 
Hamburg, who wrote on liliaceous plants, and died in 
1764; from him Linneus received S. formosissima). 
ORD. Amaryllidee. A genus of two species of green- 
house or half-hardy, tunicated-bulbous plants, requiring 
culture similar to Amaryllis (which see). 
S. Cybister (Cybister). Tumbler Sprekelia. fl. reflexed ; peri- 
anth red below, somewhat greenish above, the segments 
broad below, pale-striped within, long-narrowed above; fila- 
ments very long, reddish towards the base; peduncles above 
lin. long; scape strong, sub-terete, upwards of 2ft. high, 
sanguineous below, four-flowered. April. Z. appearing after 
the flowers, lłin. broad, reddish in the centre towards the 
base, Bolivia, 1840. A very remarkable plant. (B. M. 3872.) 
S. formosissima (very beautiful).* Jacobea Lily. fl. crimson 
or white, large and showy, pedicellate, in a spathe-like bract; 
perianth very declinate, without any tube, the segments scarcely 
unequal; stamens affixed at the base of the segments ; oe 
fistular. June. JU. late in appearing, loriform-linear. h. 2ft. 
Mexico, 1658, (S. B. F. G., ser. ii. 144.) Syns. S. glauca (B. R. 
1841, 16), Amaryllis formosissima (B. M. 47). 
S. glauca (glaucous). A synonym of S. formosissima. 
SPRENGELIA (named in honour of Christian Conrad 
Sprengel, of Brandenburgh, 1750-1816, who publisiféd, 
in 1793, a celebrated work on the fertilisation of flowers). 
Syns. Poiretia (of Cavanilles), Ponceletia. ORD. Epacridee. 
A small genus (three species) of elegant little, erect or 
prostrate, glabrous, greenhouse shrubs, confined to extra- 
tropical East and South Australia. Flowers solitary and 
terminal, many-bracted; calyx of five sepals; corolla as 
long as, or scarcely exceeding, the calyx; lobes five, 
spreading, imbricated; stamens short, hypogynous. 
“Leaves with a shortly sheathing, often membranous 
base, completely covering the branches, very concave 
and stem-clasping immediately above the base, acute 
or acuminate, with a spreading point, finely veined or 
almost veinless, the upper ones passing into floral leaves 
or bracts, the sheathing bases of the stem leaves de- 
ciduous with them, leaving the denuded stem without 
scars” (Bentham). Two of the species have been in- 
troduced. These are best raised from seeds when they 
can be obtained, and grown on in firmly pressed, well- 
drained pots of sandy peat. Cuttings shonld be treated 
like those of Epacris. 
S. Andersoni (Anderson’s). A synonym of Andersonia spren- 
, elioides, 
S. incarnata (fleshy).* f. pink; se coloured; corolla 
A ag the petals almost ag 
equalling the | free, the very short claws 
valvate and slightly cohering. May. J. lin. to żin. long, tapering 
to a spreading ox recurved point; floral ones similar, but 
smaller. h. 2ft. 1793. (L. B. C. 262; B. M. 1719.) 
