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SPIDER IN HIS WEB. The Fennel-flower or 
Love in a Mist, Nigella damascena (Hatch Beau- 
champ). See SPIDER’s WEB. (1). 
SPIDER PLANT. The pot plant, Saxifraga 
sarmentosa, known also as MOTHER OF THOUSANDS, 
AARON’S BEARD, STRAWBERRY PLANT, and by 
many other popular names. The young plants 
as they hang on their runners over the sides of 
the flower-pot have a sufficient resemblance to 
spiders on their web to suggest this homely name. 
SPIDER’Ss WEB. (1) The Fennel-flower of 
Love-in-a-Mist, Nigella damascena (Winfrith,. 
Dorset). See SPIDER IN HIS WEB. 
(2) A lady at Barrington gives me this as the 
local name for a plant “like a _ thistle-bush, 
bearing yellow flowers, something like Golden 
Chain.”’ Is it possible she means the Common 
Furze? Dr. Watson knows no other plant 
found in the neighbourhood of Barrington to 
which her description applies. 
SPIDERWORT. (1) Anyspecies of Tradescantia. 
(2) The Fennel-flower, Nigella damascena 
(Ilton). See SPIDER’S WEB (1). 
SpIkE. Lavender, Lavandula Spica. 
SPIKENARD. (1) Mr. F. W. Mathews, of 
Bradford-on-Tone, gives me this as a local name 
for the Common Centaury, Centaurium wumbel- 
latum. 
(2) Sweet Vernal-grass, Anthoxanthum odor- 
atum (N.W. Wilts). 
(3) Lavender, Lavandula Spica (N.W. Wilts 
occasionally). 
Spiky FLOWERS. A number of school-children 
at Paulton give me this as a local name for the 
Bittereress, Cardamine hirsuta. 
SPINE.—Turf grass taken up in slabs for re™ 
laying. 
SPINNING JENNY. The Maple, Acer campestre 
(a school-boy at Bradford-on-Tone), presumably 
from the way in which its winged seeds spin in 
their flight through the air. 
SpotTtED Doc. Early Purple Orchis, Orchis 
mascula (Hatch Beauchamp). 
SPRING CALLER. The Crocus (Miss Ella Ford, 
Melplash). 
SPRING FLOWER. (1) A fairly general name 
throughout the district for the Polyanthus. 
(2) A correspondent at Chettle (Dorset) gives 
this as a local name for the Herb Robert, Geranium. 
Robertianum. 
SPRING MESSENGER. The Lesser Celandine 
Ranunculus Ficaria (Shaftesbu.y district). 
Spups. Avnamefrequently applied to Potatoes , 
possibly first introduced b 7 Irish harvesters. 
