S PI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



SPI 



515 



these are full grown; besides, by leaving it thin at first, it 

 will not be apt to run up to seed, so soon as it would if the 

 plants were close. The sowings here directed, are those 

 practised by the kitchen-gardeners near London; but as 

 Spinach is much used in soups for great tables, there should 

 be some seeds sown every three weeks during the summer 

 season, to supply the kitchen; but these late sowings should 

 be on moist strong ground, or, if the season turn out hot and 

 dry, it will run to seed before the plants obtain strength, 

 especially if the plants be close together. In order to secure 

 seeds of either of these kinds, you should sow an open rich 

 spot of ground with the sort you intend, in February, after 

 the danger of being injured by frost is over; and when the 

 plants are come up, they should be hoed out to six or eight 

 inches' distance, observing to cut down the weeds at the same 

 time ; and when the plants have grown about three weeks or 

 a month longer, they should be hoed a second time, and left 

 at least a foot asunder. Take care to keep them free from 

 weeds, which force them up weak, and greatly injure the 

 plants. When the plants have run up to flower, two sorts 

 will be readily distinguished. The male will produce spikes 

 of stamineous flowers, which contain the farina, and are ab- 

 solutely necessary to impregnate the embryos of the female 

 plants, in order to render the seeds prolific. These male 

 plants are, by the gardeners, commonly called She-Spinach, 

 and are often, Vy the ignorant, pulled up as soon as they are 

 distinguished from the female, in order, as they pretend, to 

 give room for the r.eed being spread ; but wherever the male 

 plants are entirely removed before the farina is shed over 

 the female plants, the seeds which the latter produce will not 

 grow, and hence it is absolutely necessary to leave a few of 

 the male plants in every part of the ground; for a small 

 number, properly selected, will be sufficient to impregnate 

 the females, as the farina, when ripe, spreads to a considerable 

 distance, whenever the plants are shaken by the wind. When 

 the seeds are ripe, which may be known by their changing 

 colour, and beginning to scatter, the plants should be drawn 

 up, and spread abroad for a few days to dry; observing to 

 turn them every other day, to dry the seeds equally on both 

 sides, and also to guard them from birds, which would soon 

 devour them. When the plants are dried, thresh out the 

 seeds, free them from dirt, and lay them up where mice, who 

 are extremely fond of them, cannot penetrate. 



2. Spinacia Fera ; Wild Spinach, or Spinage. Fruits 

 peduucled. Root annual, whitish; stem about two feet 

 high, smooth, erect, branched ; leaves deltoid, ovate, some- 

 times sinuate, obtuse, petioled. Native of Siberia, in damp, 

 unfrequented places. 



Spindle Tree. See Euonymus. 



Spinifex; a genus of the class Polygamia, order Dicccia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Hermaphrodite Flowers. Calix : 

 head terminating, composed of several bundles, involucred ; 

 bundles partial, approximating, involucred, in each a rachis, 

 solitary, awl-shaped, excavated a little above the base, flower- 

 bearing, the rest naked, and others similar without flowers; 

 involucre common two-leaved ; leaflets lanceolate, channelled, 

 subulate, mucronate, unequal; proper four-leaved, similar ; 

 glume one-flowered, two-valved ; valves lanceolate, awl- 

 shaped at the top, unequal ; outer longer, inner concealed 

 within an excavation of the rachis. Corolla : glume two- 

 valved; valves lanceolate, convoluted; inner involving the 

 organs of fructification. Stamina: filamenta three, filiform ; 

 antherse linear, long, cloven at both ends. Pistil : germen 

 oblong; styles two, filiform, longer than the glumes; stigmas 

 villose, standing out. Pericarp: none; the calix unchanged, 

 growing to the seed. Seed : one, oblong, smooth. Male 

 voi.. ii. 1 17, 



Flowers. Calix: head as in the hermaphrodite; bundles 

 involucred, with glumes longer, dagger-pointed, pungent; 

 rachis, each subtrigonal, flowering almost from top to bottom; 

 flowers from five to seven, sessile, alternate, bifarious, paral- 

 lel, ovate, oblong, awnless; glume two-flowered, two-valved; 

 valves oblong, obtuse, striated, channelled, shorter than the 

 corolla, unequal, outer shorter ; one floscule hermaphrodite, 

 barren. Corolla: glume two-valved; valves lanceolate, chan- 

 nelled, convolute, inner narrower ; nectary of two valves, 

 linear, membranaceous, loose, diaphanous, short. Stamina: 

 filamenta three, filiform ; antheree linear, long, cloven at both 

 ends, standing out. Pistil : (in one floscule) germen ob- 

 long; style bifid ; stigmas none. Observe. This genus dif- 

 fers from Lolium,m having two valves to the calix; and from 

 Triticum, in their not being transverse. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Hermaphrodite. Calix: glume two-valved, two- 

 flowered; valves parallel to the rachis. Corolla: two-valved, 

 awnless. Stamina: three. Styles: two. Male. Calix: 

 common with the hermaphrodite. Corolla and Stamina : 

 similar. The species are, 



1. Spinifex Squarrosus. Leaves grassy, convolute, recur- 

 ved, spreading, rigid, spiny at the end ; sheaths widened, 

 striated, with a woody ligule ; culms very large, as thick as 

 the finger, glaucous, as is the whole plant, jointed, with heaps 

 of leaves at every joint, even, not hollow but full. Each 

 spike nearly a finger's length, with a three-sided rachis, end- 

 ing in a spine, and five alternate, lateral, sessile, remote 

 flowers. Native of the East Indies, China, and Cochin-china, 

 on the sandy coasts. 



2. Spinifex Longifolius; 3. S. Fragilis ; 4. S. Sericeus ; 

 and, 5. S. Hirsutns, all natives of New Holland. 



Spircea; a genus of the class Icosandria, order Pentagynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, five- 

 cleft, flat at the base; with acute segments, permanent. Co- 

 rolla: petals five, inserted into the calix, oblong, rounded. 

 Stamina : filamenta more than twenty, filiform, shorter than 

 the corolla, inserted into the calix ; antherse roundish. Pis- 

 til: germina five or more; styles as many, filiform, length of 

 the stamina; stigmas headed. Pericarp: capsules oblong, 

 acuminate, compressed, two-valved. Seeds: few, acuminate, 

 small, fastened to the internal suture. Observe. The thir- 

 teenth species is trigynous; the fifteenth differs from the rest 

 in being dioecious; the sixteenth has mimerous capsules in a 

 ring; and the seventeenth has numerous capsules contorted, 

 as in Helicteres. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five- 

 cleft. Petals: five. Capsule : many-seeded. The shrubby 

 sorts may all be propagated by suckers, which are plentifully 

 sent forth from the stems of the old plants in general ; also 

 by laying down the tender branches, which, when rooted, 

 should be transplanted out in rows at three feet distance, 

 and two feet asunder. In this nursery they may remain 

 two years, observing to keep the ground free from weeds, 

 and in the spring to dig it up between the rows, that the 

 roots may the more easily extend themselves ; but the 

 suckers, if they put out any, should be taken off. After- 

 wards, they may be transplanted where they are to remain 

 among other flowering shrubs, observing to place them 

 among the shrubs of equal growth. For layers, the branches 

 must be laid down in autumn, and in one year they will take, 

 root. These shrubs require no other pruning, but to cut out 

 all the dead branches and such as grow irregularly, and to 

 take off the suckers every year, otherwise the suckers will 

 starve the plants. The ground between them should be dug 

 every spring, and every third year rotten dung should be 

 added ; the first will assist their root, and the last will make 



them flower strong. The species are, 



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