SPI 
Isihite stripes along each side ; at the extre- 
mity of the body, or top of the last joint, is 
a horn or process pointing backwards. This 
beautiful cateipillar is often found in the 
months of July and August feeding on the 
privet, the lilac, the poplar, and some other 
trees, and generally changes to a chrysalis 
in August or September, retiring for that 
purpose to a considerable depth beneath 
the surface of the ground, and, after casting 
its skin, continuing during the whole winter 
in a dormant state, the sphinx emerging 
from it in the succeeding June. 
S. ocellata, is perhaps still more beauti- 
ful : it is rather a smaller insect than the 
preceding, and has the upper wings and 
body brown ; the former finely clouded with 
different shades, while the lower wings are 
of a bright rose-colour, each marked with a 
large ocellated black spot, with a blue 
interior circle and a black centre. This 
insect proceeds from a green caterpillar, of 
a rough or shagreen-like surface, marked 
on each side by seven oblique yellowish- 
white streaks, and furnished, like the pre- 
ceding, with a horn at the tail. It is prin- 
cipally found on- the willow; retires under 
ground, in order to undergo its change into 
the chrysalis State, in the month of August 
or September; and in the following June 
appears the complete insect. 
SPICA, in botany, a term applied to a 
particular mode of flowering, in which the 
flowers are ranged alternately upon both 
sides of a simple common flower stalk. The 
flowers in the spica are seated immediately 
upon the stalk, without any partial foot- 
stalk, in which it differs from a racemus, or 
cluster. A spica is said to be single rowed 
when the flowers are all turned towards 
one side; and to be double rowed when 
they look to both sides, or stand two ways. 
SPIDER. See Aranea. 
SPIELMANNIA, in botany, so named 
in honour of James Reinbold Spielmann, a 
genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia class 
and order. Natural order of Personatae. 
Vitices, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 
five-cleft; corolla bearded at the throat, 
with a five-cleft almost equal border; drupe 
with a two-celled, two-seeded nut. There 
is only one species, eiz, S. Africana, silex 
leaved Spielmannia, or lantana, a native of 
the Cape of Good Hope. 
SPIGELIA, in botany, so named in 
memory of Adrian Spigelius, a genus of the 
Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Stellatae. Gentianae, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character; corolla funneb 
VOL. VI, 
SPI 
shaped ; capsule twin, two-celled, many- 
seeded. There are two species, viz. S. an- 
thelmia, annual worm-grass; and S. mari- 
landjca, perennial worm-grass. 
SPIKING up the ordnance, a sea phrase, 
used for fastening a quoin with spikes to 
the deck close to the breech of the car- 
riages of great guns, that they may keep 
close and firm to the ship’s sides, and not 
get loose when tlie ship rolls, and by that 
means endanger the breaking out of a butt 
head of a plank. 
SPILANTHUS, in botany, a genus of 
the Syngenesia Polygamia .Squalis class 
and order. Natural order of Compositae 
Oppositifoliae. Corymbiferae, Jussieu. Es- 
sential character : calyx almost equal ; down 
two-toothed ; receptacle conical, chaffy. 
There are nine species. I’liis genus is made 
up chiefly of those species of bidens and 
verbe^iua which do not properly belong to 
those genera ; they are natives of the East 
and West Indies. 
SPINA, in botany, a thorn, a species of 
offensive weapon, protruded from the wood , 
of the plant, and which is therefore of a 
stronger and harder nature than prickles, 
which are detached portions of the bark. 
Thorns, which are an expansion of the lig- 
neous body, are compared to the horns of 
animals, which adhere to the bones of the 
skull, and are protruded from them. 
SPINACIA, in botany, spinach, a genus 
of the Dioecia Pentandria class and order. ' 
Natural order of Holoraceas. Atriplices, 
Jussieu. Essential character : male, calyx 
five-parted ; corolla none : female, calyx 
four-cleft ; corolla none ; styles four ; seed 
fine, within the hardened calyx. There are 
two species ; viz. S. oleracea, garden spi- 
nach ; and S. fera, wiid spinach. There are 
also two varieties. 
SPINDLE, in the sea language, is the 
smallest part of the ship’s capstan, which is 
between the two decks. The spindle of the 
jeer-capstan has wl\elps to heave the viol. 
The axis of the wheel of a watch or clock, 
is also called the spindle. Among miners, 
the spindle is a piece of wood fastened into 
either stow blade. 
SPINELLE, in mineralogy, a species of 
the flint genus; its principal colour is red, 
from which it passes on the one side into 
blue, and even into green, on the other into 
yellow and brown. Its colours are mostly 
deep, and they have always a shade of black. 
Sometimes it is enveloped in an opaline 
crust; sometimes it exhibits an opalescent 
iridescence. It occurs in grains, which, 
P 
