SPA 



SPA 



The second sort should be about a foot long 

 k» the plate, and seven or eight inches broad. 



The Small Spade, which is about eight or 

 nine inches long: in the plate, and five wide, is 

 convenient in pointing up or slight digging, and 

 m fresh loosening the surface between close- 

 placet! small plants, in beds and borders, &c. 

 where neither of the two former spades can be 

 readily introduced: it is also useful in planting 

 and potting many sorts of small plants, taking 

 lap small roots, and other light purposes. 



And a very Small narrow Spade, having the 

 plate about seven inches long, by three and a half 

 or four wide, is also very useful in small com- 

 partments of-heds, borders, &c. containing some 

 particular close-placed, small plants of flowers, 

 and others, both in occasionally slightly digging, 

 or loosening the earth between them with greater 

 care and effect, than a larger sized spade ; also 

 sometimes in similar compartments in occasion- 

 ally trimming round the bottom part of some 

 straggling fibrous -rooted plants; and it is also 

 often useful in taking up and transplanting small 

 plants, and taking off root off-sets and slips, in 

 particular sorts, in which a larger spade would 

 not be so convenient. And a "Semicircular, or 

 Scooped Spade, is another sort, of a smallish 

 size, having the plate made hollow like a scoop- 

 ed garden-trowel, which is very useful in taking 

 up small plants with balls of earth, to preserve 

 the ball more firmly about the roots. 



Proper Garden Spades have the plate wholly 

 of iron, not above a quarter of an inch thick up- 

 ward, growing gradually thinner from the middle 

 downward ; the tree or handle being generally of 

 ash, about two feet long, and an inch and half 

 thick, with a firm open handle at top, formed 

 out of the solid wood, just big enough to admit 

 of taking readv hold. 



SPARTIUM, a genus containing plants of the 

 deciduous and evergreen kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Diadelphia 

 Decandria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 PopilionavetS or Leguminoscp. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianth, cordate-tubular: at the upper 

 edge very short, below towards the tip marked 

 with five toothlets, coloured, small: the corolla 

 papilionaceous, five-celled : standard obcordate, 

 the whole reflexed, very large : wings ovate, 

 oblong, shorter than the standard, annexed to 

 the filaments: keel two-petalled, lanceolate, 

 oblong, longer than the wings, (the carinal 

 margin connected by hairs,) inserted into the 

 filaments: the stamina have ten connate fila- 

 ments, adhering to the germ, unequal, gradu- 

 ally longer; the uppermost very short; the 

 lower nine-cleft : anthers oblongish : the pistil- 



lum is an oblong germ, hirsute: style awl- 

 shaped, rising: stigma growing to the upper 

 side of the top, oblong, villose: the pericarpium 

 is a cylindric legume, long, obtuse, one-celled, 

 two-valved: the seeds many, globe-kidney 

 form. 



The species cultivated arc: 1. S. scuparii/m, 

 Common Broom; 2. S. jienceum, Spanish 

 Broom; 3. S. radiation. Starry Broom; 4. .S. 

 nionaspermum, White-flowered Single-seeded 

 Broom; 5. S. spluerocarpum, Yellow -flowered 

 Single-seeded Broom; C. S. Scorpius, Scorpion 

 Broom; 7. S. angidaliim, Angular-branched 

 Broom; 8. S. spinosum, Pricklv Broom. 



Tbe first grows from three to six feet high or 

 more, very much branched ; the branches up- 

 right, rushy, evergreen, angular, flexible, leafy, 

 smooth except the very young ones which are 

 downy; the leaves ternate, small, ovate, acute, 

 downy and edged with soft hairs bending in- 

 wards; the leaf- stalks are also slightly hairy, 

 and flattened : the flowers axillary, solitary or 

 two together, rarely three, nodding, on round 

 smooth peduncles, furnished on each side with 

 a very minute stipule, of a fine yellow colour. 

 It is a native of Europe, flowering in May and 

 June. 



There are several varieties, some of which 

 merit a place among flowering shrubs ; as that 

 with a purple calyx, and the flowers strongly 

 tinged with orange, as well as that which is 

 verv hoary. 



The second species has the branches smooth, 

 flexible, eight or ten feet high ; the lower ones 

 have small smooth leaves, at the end of the 

 shoots of the same year; the flowers are disposed 

 in a loose spike, are large, yellow, have a strong 

 agreeable odour, appear in July, and in cool 

 seasons continue in succession till September. 

 It is a native of all tbe Southern countries of 

 Europe. 



There is a variety with double flowers. 



The third has low stems, with opposite four- 

 cornered branches : the leaves opposite, sub- 

 sessile : leaflets sessile, thin, subpubescent : the 

 petioles extremely short, but permanent, three- 

 cornered, gibbous, very blunt, thicker than tire 

 branchlet to be supported: the flowers termi- 

 nating, in threes, sessile. In its natural state 

 it is a low shrub ; when cultivated it becomes 

 much larger, though rarely exceeding two feet 

 and a half in height, but the branches spread 

 very much and form a large bush ; they arc an- 

 gular and pliable, and always come out by pairs 

 opposite : the leaves narrow and awl-shaped, 

 placed round the stalk, spreading out like the 

 points of a star: the flowers in small spikes at 

 the end of the branches, bright yellow, but not 



