480 



THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 



SPONGE-TREE. A name applied to Acacia Far- 

 nesiana. 



SPOONFLOWER. See Labisia. 



SPOONWORT. A popular name for CocUearia. 



SPORADIC. Widely dispersed or scattered. 



SPORANGIUM and SPORANGE (from spora, 

 B eed, 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 Marattiece they may be partly 

 joined to one another, and among Ophioglosseas 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 Algae. For a 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. 



SFORIDIUM. The same as, or a diminutive of, 

 Spore (which see). 



SPORIFEROUS. Spore-bearing. 



SFOROBOIiUS (from sporos, a seed, and bolus, a 

 casting; the seeds are loose and easily scattered). STNS. 

 Agrosticula, Cryptostachys, Triachyrum, Vilfa. Including 

 Agrostis (in part). OBD. Graminecs. 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 

 Eussian Asia. Spikelets small, one, or rarely two, 

 flowered ; glumes three, membranous ; panicle spike-formed 

 or sometimes elongated and very slender. Leaves flat or 



Sporobolus continued. 



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. 



SFRAGUEA (named in honour of Isaac Sprague, an 

 American botanical draughtsman). OED. Portulacece. 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. umbellate, (umbelled). fl. densely imbricate-spicate ; sepals 

 two, whitish, persistent, large, scarious ; petals four, rosy-lake, 

 just protruding ; anthers purple ; umbel terminal, compound, 

 many-rayed. July. I., radical ones rosulate, spathulate, slightly 

 fleshy ; cauline ones smaller, alternate. California, 1858. (B. M. 

 5143.) 



SPRAT. 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 Linnaeus received 8. formosissima). 

 OBD. Amaryllidece. 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. I. appearing after 

 the flowers, IJin. 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 ; scape 

 fistular. June. I. 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 published, 

 in 1793, a celebrated work on the fertilisation of flowers). 

 STNS. Poiretia (of Cavanilles), Ponceletia. ORD. Epacridece. 

 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" (Bentbam). 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 should be treated 

 like those of Epacris. 

 B. Anderson! (Anderson's). A synonym of Andersonia spren- 



(jelwides. 



S. iacarnata (fleshy).* /. pink; sepals coloured; corolla 

 equalling the calyx, the petals almost free, the very short claws 

 valvate and slightly cohering. May. 1. Jin. to in. long, taperiiis 

 to a spreading or recurved point; floral ones similar, but 

 smaller, h. 2ft. 1793. (L. B. C. 262 ; B. M. 1719.) 



