700 



SOPHORA SPARUS. 



colour, and the primitive form is rhomboidal. The 

 most common secondary forms are exhibited in the 

 sketches beneath. 



Sommite is strongly translucent, and one of its 

 most curious properties is that a few moments' im- 

 mersion in nitric acid will produce a cloudy and 

 waved character throughout. The finest specimens 

 are brought from Monte Somma near Naples. 



SOPHORA (Linnaeus). A genus of very orna- 

 mental plants, natives of Eastern Asia, Siberia, and 

 of the tropical parts of America. The flowers are 

 decandrous, and the form of their fruit associates them 

 with LeguminoscB. S. Japonica, a very handsome 

 species, requires protection from frost when young, 

 but becomes hardy enough when old. Seeds. 



SORGHUM (Willdenow). A genus of tropical 

 cereals, bearing polygamous flowers, and belonging 

 to Grammece. These plants produce the small grain 

 called Indian millet, and for which it is cultivated in 

 most warm countries. In the West Indies it is called 

 Negro Guinea corn. 



SPAR. This name is employed to designate some 

 of the most beautiful mineral productions. Thus, 

 calcareous spar is of an obtuse rhomboid shape, and 

 in its secondary characteristics it forms fine stalactites, 

 of which the Derbyshire caverns furnish magnificent 

 specimens. A beautiful fibrous variety of carbonate of 

 lime, called satin spar, is found in Cumberland ; and 

 another still more beautiful, called Arragonite, is 

 found in Arragon in Spain. 



Flour spar is a mineral found in many parts of the 

 world. In Derbyshire it is called Slue John, and it 

 there varies much in its colour. It is highly phos- 

 phorescent at a red heat. In its ordinary state it is 

 made into ornamental vases, &c. 



SPARAXIS (Ker). A genus of bulbs/natives of 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and belonging to Iridece. 

 The species thrive well in light sandy soil, and with a 

 covering in winter, stand and flower well on a south 

 border, if planted deep. 



SPARGANUM (Linnaeus). A genus of British 

 aquatics, belonging to ^the natural order Typhince, 

 The plants are known as the bur reed. 



SPARROW (Passer domesticus). Though the 

 common house-top sparrow is a bird which every 

 body knows, as it is the only wild bird that inhabits 

 the very heart of the largest cities, yet there is an 

 interest about it which demands a short notice. It is 

 the closest companion of man among all the feathered 

 race. There are others which come to the neigh- 

 bourhood of houses in the evil day, when food fails 

 them in the fields or the woodlands, among which is 

 the common red-breast. But the sparrow is a more 

 close and constant companion, keeping company with 

 man summer and winter, and never being found at 

 any distance from a human habitation. To find a 

 sparrow on the hill, or in the forest, is out of the 

 question, and it is rare to meet with one upon a wide 

 common, or a large field, when distant from the farm- 

 house. Thus, to observe a sparrow, is almost as sure 

 a sign that there is a dwelling near as to observe a cat. 



What should make this particular bird so constant an 

 attendant at houses is a point not very easily settled, 

 but the fact cannot be doubted. It is not for the 

 mere purpose of getting safe footing on the house-tops, 

 and nestling under the eaves, for the sparrow can 

 perch upon trees, and also build its nest there, though 

 it prefers a situation where the nest can be under 

 cover. When it does build in trees its style of build- 



ing is very similar to that of the tree-sparrow ; and 

 yet the latter does not appear to have any propen- 

 sity to collect about houses, but rather the reverse. 

 During the night the sparrows roost in trees, or in 

 any elevated shelter that they can find about build- 

 ings or banks. The race always nestle in holes 

 when they can, and never have a nest quite open at 

 top ; for if there is not a natural covering to throw 

 oft' the rain, they make an artificial one, and they 

 appear to do this jointly for their own shelter and 

 that of their young ; for, if the nest is left undis- 

 turbed, the pair that built it occupy it as a house 

 during winter as well as for a nursery in the warm 

 season. The young are, however, sent abroad to 

 seek winter protection for themselves. 



Sparrows are birds of very ardent temperament, 

 and therefore they consume a very great deal of 

 food. In the spring they are very destructive to 

 gardens, as they not only eat the seeds of vegetables, 

 if these are not deeply covered with earth, but they 

 watch the young plants, and pull them out of the 

 ground, so that, in the course of a single morning, all 

 the young plants in a bed of radishes will be left 

 lying on the surface ; and where small seeds of cab- 

 bages, onions, and other plants are grown, they are 

 equally destructive. But really the advantage and 

 the mischief very nearly balance each other, at least 

 in some of these cases ; for the covering up of the 

 plants with straw or branches, till they have formed 

 their leaves, is worth all the labour that it costs, even 

 if there were no sparrow to be guarded against. But 

 the labours of the sparrows at other times are very 

 valuable, and the number of insects and larvae which 

 they consume is immense quite sufficient to eat'up 

 the whole of the vegetation, were it not for the 

 labour* of these birds. They thus afford another 

 proof of the adaptation of the whole of nature to the 

 use and advantage of man ; and if there is any animal, 

 whether large or small, which thus attaches itself to 

 the human race, it will always be found that that 

 animal consumes something that is more destructive 

 than itself; and the sparrow is one of the cases in 

 which human labour cannot be substituted. 



SPARTINA (Schroeber). A genus of perennial 

 herbs, belonging to Graminees. S. stricta is a native 

 of Britain, and found in salt marshes. 



SPARTIUM(Linna3us). The spartium was once 

 a very numerous genus, now reduced to one only, 

 viz. S. junceum, the Spanish broom. It belongs to 

 LegumimtstE. 



SPARUS, or rather SPARID^ the sea-bream 

 family the fifth of the families into which Cuvier 

 divides the spinous-finned fishes. They have some 

 resemblance to the Perches, and still more to the 

 Scicnoida; ; but they have also characters of their 

 own, on account of which they deserve to be treated 

 as a separate family. The general characters of the 

 family are : no teeth on the palate ; the general 

 form of the body like that of the Sdenoidce ; the 

 body covered with scales of greater or less size, 

 but no scales on the fins ; the muzzle is not turned, 

 and there are no cavernous enlargements in the 

 bones of the head ; they have no toothing, and no 

 spines to the gill-lid, and they have never more than 

 six gill rays. They are divided according to the 

 form of the teeth, and in this way they admit of being 

 formed into three families. The first of these, the 

 Sparidce properly so called, have the teeth in the sides 

 of the jaws, round and flat in the crowns, like a sort 



