SPORE 



5508 



SPRING 



cas, though in Florida, where it was formerly 

 abundant, it has been exterminated by plume 

 hunters. The neck and the upper back of this 

 bird are white and the rest of the plumage a 

 rosy pink, becoming carmine on the wing 

 coverts. It nests in colonies, returning year 

 after year to the same locality. The nest is a 

 platform of sticks', placed in low trees or 

 shrubs. The eggs are five to seven in number, 

 spotted and blotched with olive-brown. 



SPORE, spohr, a minute body borne by 

 lower plants, such as algae, ferns, mosses and 

 lichens, which has the same function as a seed 

 in higher plants that of reproduction. Spore- 

 producing plants, which are known as crypto- 

 gams, are of two kinds, those containing green 

 coloring matter used in the manufacture of 

 plant food (see CHLOROPHYLL), and those which 

 must draw nourishment from other plants. It 

 is the latter smut on corn, cotton wilt, wheat 

 rust, apple blight and the like that are of spe- 

 cial concern to the agriculturist, though there 

 are some plants of this class that are harmless. 

 A typical spore is a mass of protoplasm con- 

 sisting of a single cell and having a nucleus and 

 a cell wall. Many spores reproduce by cell di- 

 vision, but the process in higher forms of cryp- 

 togams is similar to that among the lower or- 

 ders of seed-bearing plants. 



SPOTTSYLVANIA, spot sil va ' ni a, COURT 

 HOUSE, BATTLE OF, a series of battles of the 

 War of Secession, fought in May, 1864, near 

 Spottsylvania Court House, Va., about fifty 

 miles from Richmond, between the Union army 

 under Meade and the Confederate army of 

 Northern Virginia under Lee. It was from the 

 battle field of Spottsylvania that General Grant 

 sent his famous message to General Halleck at 

 Washington: "I propose to fight it out on this 

 line if it takes all summer." After the cam- 

 paign in the Wilderness, Grant began a move- 

 ment toward Richmond. Lee, to check this 

 plan, massed his army at Spottsylvania Court 

 House before the Federal troops reached the 

 place. There was intermittent fighting from 

 May 7 to May 12, but the Confederates main- 

 tained their position. Both sides lost over 

 7,000 men. See WAR OF SECESSION. 



SPRAIN, sprayn, a form of joint injury in 

 which the tough, fibrous bands, or ligaments, 

 which hold the joint in place, are torn or 

 twisted. In a strain the ligaments are simply 

 overstretched, and the injury is relieved by 

 rubbing and rest. Sprains may occur at any 

 joint but are most frequent at the ankle, owing 

 to its bearing the weight of the body. Torn 



ligaments must be supported until they have 

 healed. This was formerly accomplished by put- 

 ting on a plaster cast,' thus making it impossi- 

 ble to move the joint. A more modern remedy 

 is the use of strips of adhesive plaster, which, 

 if applied to the joint as soon as the accident 

 occurs, or before swelling begins, form an arti- 

 ficial ligament. If no adhesive plaster is at 

 hand, cold water should be used to keep down 

 the swelling, and the joint be kept at rest until 

 the plaster is procured. S.C.B. 



SPRAT, a sea fish, one of the smallest spe- 

 cies of the herring family, growing only about 

 six inches long. It is often taken for young 

 herring, but can be distinguished from the lat- 

 ter by the sharply-notched edge on the abdo- 

 men. Sprats live in shoals along the European 

 Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. They are 

 caught in immense numbers with bag nets or 

 seines, and make a cheap, wholesome food, be- 

 ing eaten fresh, smoked or pickled in brine. 



SPREE, spra, a river of Germany which is 

 an important route for the commerce entering 

 and leaving the city of Berlin. The Spree rises 

 in the kingdom of Saxony, on the boundary 

 between that state and Bohemia, and winds its 

 way in a northwesterly direction for 226 miles, 

 emptying into the Havel River at Spandau, 

 nine miles northwest of Berlin. Two canals 

 connect it with the Oder River, and it has been 

 deepened below Berlin to permit large vessels 

 to enter that city. Berlin is traversed by sev- 

 eral arms of the Spree, which divides and sub- 

 divides in its middle course to form a marshy 

 depression known as the Spreewald. 



SPRING. During a rainstorm a part of the 

 water soaks into the ground and filters down- 

 ward until it reaches a layer of rock or clay 



THE ORIGIN OF A SPRING 



through which it cannot pass. This layer mey 

 come to the surface farther down the slope, 

 and if the water finds a channel along which it 

 can flow it comes to the surface as a spring. 

 Springs are most numerous in mountainous and 

 hill regions. Sometimes they flow from crev- 

 ices in the rock high up on the side of a cliff, 

 but they are more frequently found at or near 

 the foot of a cliff or some other slope. Some 



