S P H 



Ihaped, black, clothed with Tcattered fpreading biiftles.— - 

 Found by Tode on oak branches, ftripped of their bark, in 

 September. Each individual is about half a line long, ereft, 

 ovate, tapering into a (hort thick mouth ; the outfide befet 

 with fpreading bridles, which well mark the fpecies. 



S. herbarum. Fiat Common Sphxria. Perf. n. 153. 

 (S. complanata; Tode Mecklenb. v. 2. 21. t. 11. f. 88. ) 

 — Simple, fcattered, orbicular, more or lefs depred'ed, 



fmooth, brown, with a nipple-fliaped mouth Copious on 



the dried llalks of various herbaceous plants. Each fpeci- 

 men is about the iize of the fmalleft pin's head. See S. Sa- 

 turnus, Sowerb. Fung. t. 218. 



S. moriformis. Mulberry-fhaped Spha-ria. Perf. n. 168. 

 Tode Mecklenb. v. 2. 22. t. 11. f. 90, 91. — Simple, fcat- 

 tered, elliptical or roundifh, clofed, tuberculated, black. — 

 Said to be not un frequent on dead branches, efpecially of 

 firs. This, like all the following, belongs to a tribe cf 

 fpecies dellitute of a beak, or any perceptible orifice. Its 

 fize is about equal to muftard-feed. The whole furface is 

 tuberculated. The Ihape elliptical, or globular. Perhaps 

 this may be S. c/a-viformis, Sowerb. Fung. t. 337. 



S. comata. Tufted Sphxria. Perf. n. 170. Tode 

 Mecklenb. v. 2. 15. t. 10. f. 81. — Simple, crowded, glo- 

 bofe, crowned with a converging tuft of capillary fibres, 

 twice its own length. — Obferved by Tode on the dead Hems 

 and ftalks of plants after rain. This is a very remarkable 

 fpecies, on account of the denfe tuft of fibres, invariably 

 found to crown the fummit of each fpeciraen, and which, 

 therefore, has no appearance of being of an extraneous or 

 parafitical nature. Indeed there are inftanccs of briftles or 

 hairs, either generally or partially clothing fome other 

 fpecies. The general colour is black, but a brown variety 

 has been noticed, though rarely, on rotten wood of willows. 



S. cjUmlrica. Cyhndrical Ball-bearing Sphxria. Perf. 

 n. 180. Tode Mecklenb. v. 2. 42. t. 15. f. 1 14. — Simple, 

 fcattered, cylindrical, black, bearing a globe of white feeds. 

 — Found by Tode on rotten willows, protruding from the 

 wood in the form of minute, fcattered, black points, hardly 

 villble to a cafual obferver, each crowned by a little white 

 ball oi feeds, which betrays fome analogy to that of 5. Pe- 

 ziza ; infomuch that one might almoll think fuch a cha- 

 rafter, if well afcertained in fome other fpecies, might form 

 a generic diftinftion. We know, however, too little of the 

 different changes, which the friidlification of many of the 

 reft undergo, to draw a line between them, and thefe pow- 

 dery balls, being doubtlefs liquid in an early Hate, come 

 under the efl'ential definition of Spharia. The charafter of 

 Ntemafpora of authors, confifting in the permanently gela- 

 tinous nature of what its capfules difcharge, feems to keep 

 that genus fufficiently diilintl from the prcfcnt. 



SPHjERISTERIUM, o-^aifirtpiov, in ytntiquity, the fe- 

 venth part of the ancient gyranafium ; being that in which 

 the youth praftifed tennis-playing. 



The fphxrifterium, or tennis-court, was between the 

 place named paUJlra, and that where they ran races, which 

 was between the porticoes and the outer wall, though 

 Vitruvius does not make mention of it in the defcription he 

 gives of the ancient gymnafium. 



The exercife here performed was called o-iaifiriit>;, fphie- 

 rijlica, and ■j^cufofj.axtoi; fphnromachia, which fome will have 

 to have differed from the modern tennis ; but it is not 

 known in what the difference confiiled. 



The Milefians were particularly averfe from this exercife ; 

 and the Athenians were as remarkably fond of it. Thefe 

 latter frequently gave the freedom of their city to the 

 fphariftic, or mailers in this art, by way of compliment. 



SPH.£ROBOLUS, in Botany, fo named by Tode, 

 12 



S P H 



from a-i^M^ct, a globe, and /So^o«, a cajl, or throw ; becaufe thrf 

 feeds are forcibly ejefted, in the form of a little round ball. 

 — Tode Mecklenb. v. i. 43. Perf. Syn. 115. (Carpo- 

 bolus ; Mich. Gen. 221. t. loi- Willd. Berol. 414.) — 

 Clafs and order, Cryptogamia Fungi. Nat. Ord. Fungi, 

 angiocarpi. 



Eff. Ch. Receptacle nearly globofe, at length fplitting 

 iiito rays, and difcharging elaitically the globofe feed-veffel. 



I. S.Jlel/attis. Starry Projeaile Puff-ball. Perf. n. i. 

 (Lycoperdon Carpobolus ; Linn. Sp. PI. 1654. Hudf. 

 644. Sowerb. Fung. t. 22.) — Found in various parts of 

 Europe, in autumn, upon rotten wood or branches of trees, 

 heaps of faw-duft, or in the tan-pits of hot-houfes. In an 

 early ftate each plant confills of a pale yellow globe, larger 

 than a muttard-feed. Several fuch grow crowded together 

 in patches, bound down, as it were, with a fine cottony 

 web. After a while, each plant burfts into feveral ftarry 

 rays, and, by a momentary explolion, projefts, to the dillance 

 of fix or eight inches, a whitifh globular mafs of powdery 

 feeds from its internal cavity. Sometimes this ball o{ feeds 

 remains flicking to the points of the rays. When fallen to 

 a diltance, the fliin of the ball is found empty, the feeds 

 having flown out in its paflage through a hole at the bafe, 

 which is ufually bordered by an inner layer of the outer 

 itarry cafe, or volva, torn away by the ball. 



W^e do not perceive the neceffity of changing the original 

 generic name, given by Micheli, whofe figures and defcrip- 

 tion of this curious little fungus long excited the curiofity 

 of botanifts, before the plant was known to be fo frequent 

 as it is. Mr. Sowerby gives the belt reprefentation of it. 

 Tode defcribes a fecond fpecies, which can fcarcely belong 

 to the fame genus, and which is figured under the name 

 of Peziza marginata, in Sowerby's Fungi, t. 1 6, and under 

 that of Patellaria excavata, in Hoffmann's Plantae Lichenofx, 

 t. 23. t. 3. Albertini and Schweiniz mention this produc- 

 tion with doubt, in their learned work on the Nifkian 

 Fungi, p. 346. n. 1034 ; but it feems not as yet well under- 

 ftood. 



SPH^ROCARPUS, fo named by Micheli, from 

 uZm^a, a globe, and xapTof, fruit, in allufion to its fpherical 

 feed-vefl'el. — Mich. Gen. 4. Sm. Engl. Bot. v. 5. 299. 

 Relh. 441. Mart. Mill. Diet. v. 4. — Clafs and order, 

 Cryptogamia Alge'^ or perhaps Hepaticit'^ Nat. Ord. 

 Hepatiae ? 



Efl'. Ch. Calyx inferior, of one leaf, inflated, entire. 

 Seeds very numerous, colleAed into a globe, at the bottom 

 of the calyx. 



I. S. terrefiris. Reticulated Sphasrocarpus. Engl. Bot. 

 t. 299. (S. terreftris, minima ; Mich. Gen. 4. t. 3. Dill. 

 Mufc. 536. t. 78. f. 17. Targionia Sphasrocarpus ; Dickf. 

 Crypt, fafc. 1. 8. With. v. 3. 814.)— Micheli firlt ob- 

 ferved this lingular little plant in gardens about Florence, 

 in the ,winter and fpring, growing in patches on the ground. 

 The Rev. H. Bryant, Mr. Crowe, and Mr. Woodward, 

 found it, fince the publication of Hudfon's 2d edition, 

 chiefly in the clover and turnip fields of Norfolk, efpecially 

 on ftrong land, covering the earth copioufly in the winter 

 months, in patches of a pale glaucous green. The whole 

 habit is delicate and membranous. Fronds fimple, roundifli 

 or ovate, crowded, wavy, each attached by a fibrous, pro- 

 bably annual, root. The difk of each frond is nearly covered 

 by an affemblageof pear-fhaped, reticulated, pellucid, bottle- 

 like calyces, each a line long, contrafted at the mouth, and 

 lodging a little ball of green feeds at the bottom of its 

 cavity, clothed with a fine fkin. This plant feems to us 

 effentially dillindl in genus from Targionia, (fee that 

 article,) and more allied to Blajxa and Jungfrmannia. 



SpHiEKO 



