SPIELHAGEN 



SPINACH 



635 



Spielhagen, FRIEDRICH, German novelist, was 

 born at Magdeburg on 24th February 1829, but 

 passed all his youth at Stralsund. From the 

 gymnasium there he proceeded in 1847 to the uni- 

 versities successively of Bonn, Berlin, and Greifs- 

 wald, afterwards settling at Leipzig in 1854 as a 

 docent, at Hanover in 1859, and at Berlin in 1862, 

 in the last two places till 1884 as a newspaper 

 editor. His works, of which eight have been 

 translated into English, are some thirty in number, 

 in upwards of fifty vols., and include (besides 

 poems, books of travel, translations, and novel- 

 ettes ) Problemattsche Naturen ( 1860 ), Durch Nacht 

 zum Licht (1861), Die von Hohenstein (1863), In 

 Reih und Glied ( 1866 ), Hammer undAmboss ( 1868 ), 

 Sturmflut (1876), Uhlenhans (1884), Was will das 

 werden? ( 1886), &c. Mostly 'novels with a purpose,' 

 dealing with burning questions of the day, these 

 have a vigour and interest, in spite of their some- 

 times portentous length, that too often are missing 

 in modern German fiction. A complete edition of 

 his works has been published since 1875. 



See his autobiographical Erinnerunyen ( 1889 et *eq.), 

 and Karpeles' Fnedrich Spielhagen (Leip. 1889). 



Spigelia, a genus of plants of the natural order 

 Logamaceie, having a calyx glandular inside, a 

 long slender valvate corolla, long filaments, and a 

 capsule of two cocci, splitting around at the base. 

 S. marilandica, often called Worm Grass and 

 Carolina Pink, is a native of the southern United 

 States, a perennial plant with a simple quadran- 

 gular stem. The root (Pink Root) is purgative, 

 narcotic, and poisonous, but is a powerful vermi- 

 fuge, and is very commonly employed in the United 

 States. S. anthelmia, an annual, native of tropical 

 America, with very small purplish flowers, in spike- 

 like racemes, possesses similar properties. The 

 efficacy of both is, however, impaired by keeping ; 

 and they are apt to produce unpleasant symptoms 

 when used as medicines. Other species are also 

 known as poisons. 



Spike, in Botany, that kind of inflorescence in 

 which sessile flowers, or flowers having very short 

 stalks, are arranged around an axis, as in the 

 greater plantain, common vervain, common lav- 

 ender, ami some species of sedge. In rye, wheat, 

 barley, darnel, and many other grasses there is 

 a sort of compound spike i.e. the flowers or 

 fruits are arranged together in spikelets upon 

 short stalks, which again surround the top of the 

 culm in the form of a spike. The catkin, the 

 spadix, and the cone may be regarded as varieties 

 of the spike. 



Spikenard, or NARD ( Gr. Nardos), a perfume 

 highly prized by the ancients, and used both in 

 baths and at feasts. It was brought from India, 

 and was very costly. The plant which produces it 

 is the Nardostachys Jatamansi, a small plant of 

 the natural order Valerianaceze, a native of the 

 Himalaya Mountains of the north of India, and 

 found at least as far south as the Deccan. The 

 ixlonr is not, however, generally agreeable to 

 Europeans. Spikenard is popularly believed to 

 have the power of promoting the growth and black- 

 ness of the hair, and to be an antidote for poisons. 

 It is now more used medicinally than as a per- 

 fume. The aromatic hairy tap-root, which is 

 from 3 to 12 inches long, sends up many stems 

 with little spikes of purple flowers, which have four 

 stamens. The name spikenard was given by the 

 ancients to many perfumes used as substitutes for 

 the true or Indian spikenard, some of which were 

 derived from the roots of plants of the same 

 natural order, the kind called Gallic or Celtic 

 spikenard from those of Valeriana celtica and V. 

 laliiinca, which are still used in the East for per- 

 fuming oaths, and that called Cretan spikenard 



from those of V. tuberosa, and V. Phu. All of 

 these grow on the Alps and other mountains of the 

 south of Europe, ami the peasantry of Styria and 

 Carinthia collect them from rocks on the borders 

 of perpetual snow. They are tied in bundles, and 

 sold at a very low price to merchants, who sell them 

 at a great profit in Turkey and Egypt, from which 

 a proportion is transmitted even to India. 



Spiking is the operation of quickly rendering 

 a muzzle-loading gun useless, resorted to by troops 

 compelled to abandon their own pieces or unable 

 to remove those of the enemy which they have 

 captured. The process consists in driving a cast- 

 iron spike into the vent or touch-hole and then 

 breaking it off' short with a hammer. A spiking 

 party of artillerymen always accompanied a storm- 

 ing party. To render a spiked gun again service- 

 able it was generally necessary to drill a fresh 

 vent. Breech-loading guns are best rendered tem- 

 porarily unserviceable by removing part of the 

 breech mechanism. 



Spilsby. a market-town of Lincolnshire, 19 

 miles by rail NE. of Boston, stands on the edge 

 of the Wolds. The church contains interesting 

 monuments of the Willoughby family ( 1348-1610 ), 

 and the market-place has a bronze statue of Sir 

 John Franklin, a native of the town. Pop. 1482. 



Spinach, or SPINAGE (Spinacia), a genus of 

 herbaceous plants of the natural order Chenopodi- 

 aceee ; dioecious, the male flowers consisting of a 

 four-parted perianth, and four stamens ; the female, 

 of a two to three cleft perianth, and an ovary with 

 four styles ; the perianth hardening around the fruit 

 aa it ripens ; the fruit an achenium. Common 

 Spinach, or Garden Spinach (S. oleracea), is in 



Common Garden Spinach ( Spinacia oleracea ). 



general cultivation for the sake of its young leaves, 

 which are a favourite and wholesome vegetable, 

 prepared either by boiling or by frying with a little 

 butter. Two very distinct vaneties are cultivated 

 Prickly Spinach, which has the leaves somewhat 

 triangular and arrow-headed, and the fruit rough 

 with prickle-like projections ; and Smooth Spinach, 

 or Round Spinach (S. glabra of some botanists), 

 with the leaves more round and blunt, and the 

 fruit smooth. Spinach is an annual. Its stem 

 rises to the height of from 2 to 4 feet ; the male 

 flowers are in long spikes, the female in clusters 

 close to the stem. After the stem begins to be 

 developed the leaves become bitter and unfit for 

 use. This bitterness appears also at an earlier 

 period in dry weather or in poor soil ; and the 

 more luxuriantly spinach grows the better it is. 

 It is sown in spring, and is ready for use in a 

 very short time ; or it is sown in autumn, thinned 

 out, and used early in spring. The smooth spinach 



