S P A 
ing in a slight degree to adamantine. Spe- 
cific gravity nearly 4. • Its constituent parts 
are, according to Klaproth, 
Alumina 84.0 
Silica fi.3 
Oxide of Iron 7.5 
100.0 
It is found in China, and supposed to oc- 
cur in granite. It is used in cutting and 
polishing hard minerals. It is reckoned to 
belong to the flint genus. 
Spar, fel, or Feldspar, is a species of 
the clay genus, divided by Werner into 
four sub-species, viz. the compact and 
the common felspar, adularia and labrador 
stone. 
Compact felspar is of a grey colour, pass- 
ing to the white, blue, green, and red. It 
occurs massive, disseminated in rolled 
pieces, and in crystals ; internally its lustre 
is sometimes glistening, sometimes glimmOr- 
ing. It is fusible, without addition, before 
the blow-pipe. It is found in Germany, 
and many parts of this country, particu- 
larly in .Scotland, at the Pentland hills, and 
Salisbury craigs, near Edinburgh. It is one 
«f the constituent parts of primitive, tran- 
sition, and floetz green stone slate, and is 
also imbedded in crystals in antique por- 
phyry. 
The common felspar is one of the most 
abundant of fossils, and forms a constituent 
part of granite and gneiss; it occurs also in 
sienite, in greenstone, and in imbedded 
crystals in poiphyry, basalt, and porphyry- 
slate. Its specific gravity is from 2.4 to 
2.7. It melts before the blow pipe, with- 
out addition, into a white glass. A speci- 
men, analyzed by Kirwan, was found to 
consist of 
Silica 67,0 
Alumina 14.0 
Barytes 11.0 
Magnesia 8.0 
1 00.0 
Adularia is of a greenish white : is found 
massive, in rolled pieces, and crystalized. 
Specific gravity from 2..5 to 2.6. It melts, 
without addition, before the blow-pipe into 
a whitish glas.s. It is found in veins and 
cavities, in gneiss and mica slate, and is 
accompanied with quartz, mica, common 
SPA 
felspar, and tourmaline. It consists, ac- 
coi'diug to the analysis of Vauquelin, of 
Silica 64 
Alumina 20 
Lime 1... 2 
Potash ' 14 
too 
It is found in the mountain of St. Go- 
thard in Switzerland, and j)articHlarly in the 
summit named Adula, hence its name. See 
Labrador stone. 
Spar, fluor. See Fluoric add. 
Spar, keavy. See Barytes. See also 
Rhomb spar, &c. 
Spars, in ship building, large round 
pieces of timber, fit for making top masts. 
SPARG.4lNIUiVI, in botany, bur-reed, 
a genus of the Monoecia Triandria class and 
order. Natural order of Calamaria. Ty- 
ph®, Jussieu. Essential charaeter : male 
and female ; ament roundish ; calyx three- 
leaved ; corolla none : female, stigma bifid ; 
drupe juiceless, one-seeded. Tliere are 
three species. 
SP.4RGEL stone, or Spargelstein j 
called also Asparagus stone, which see. 
SPARRMANNIA, in botany, so named 
in memory of Anders, or Andrew Sparr- 
man, a Swede, a genus of the Polyandria 
Monogynia class and order. Natural order 
of Columnifer®. Filiace®, Jussieu. Essen- 
tial character : calyx four-leaved ; corolla 
of four reflexed petals ; nectary several, 
torulose ; capsule angular, five-celled, echi- 
nate. There is only one species, viz. S. Afri- 
cana, a native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
SPARROW, in ornithology, a species of 
the fringiila. See Fringilla. 
SPARITUM, in botany, faoom, a genus 
of the Diadelphia Decandria class and or- 
der. Natural order of Papilionace®, or . 
Leguminos®. Essential character : calyx 
produced downwards; filaments adhering 
to the germ; stigma longitudinal, villose 
above. There are twenty-seven species. 
The S. scoparium, or common broom, is 
used for a variety of purposes. It has been 
of great benefit sometimes in dropsical com- 
plaints. The manner in which Dr. Cullen 
administered it was this^. he ordered half 
an ounce of fresh broom tops to be boiled 
in a pound of water till one half of the wa- 
ter was evaporated. He tircn gave two 
table-spoonsfuil of the decoction every 
hour till it operated both by stool and 
urine. By repeating these doses eveiy 
day, or every second day, he says sonic 
