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crust, like a capsule, and therefore nearest to Diodia. Swartz. 
_Essential Character. Corolla one-petalled, funnel- 
shaped. Seeds two, two-toothed. 
1. Spermacoce tenuior, or slender button-weed.—Smooth ; 
leaves lanceolate; stamens included; flowers whorled ; seeds 
rough-haired. This plant grows to the height of two feet 
and a half. It is an annual plant.—Native of Carolina and 
the West Indies, where it is very common. 
2. Spermacoce latifolia, or broad-leaved button-weed.— 
Smooth; leaves ovate; stamens standing out; flowers in 
whorls; stipules ciliate. This is an herbaceous plant, rising 
with several tetragonal knotty branching stems the length of 
two or three feet.—Native of Cayenne, growing by path¬ 
ways and in open plains. 
3. Spermacoce ceerulescens, or blue-flowered button- 
weed.—Leaves ovate, acute, somewhat hairy, even; stipules 
equalling the whorled flowers; stamens standing out. This 
differs from the preceding in having the stems lower.— 
Native of Cayenne and Guiana by way sides. 
4. Spermacoce alata, or winged-staked button-weed.— 
Smooth; leaves ovate, the uppermost sessile; flowers termi¬ 
nating in heads; stem four-cornered, winged, creeping. 
—Native of Cayenne and Guiana on the banks of rivers. 
5. Spermacoce hexagona, or hexagon - stalked button- 
weed.—Smooth ; leaves ovate, petioled ; flowers termina¬ 
ting ; stem prostrate, six-cornered.—Native of Guiana, on 
the banks of rivers. 
6. Spermacoce prostrata, or prostrate button-weed.— 
Smooth ; leaves subsessile, elliptic, acute; flowers in whorls; 
stem prostrate.—There are besides in this genus Spermacoce 
radicans,, longifolia, verticillata, sumatrensis, aspera, hirta, 
villosa, hispida, scabra, articularis, stricta, linifolia, procum- 
bens and spinosa. 
Propagation and Culture. —Sow the seeds on a hot-bed, 
and when the plants come up transplant them on to a fresh 
hot-bed to bring them forward, and afterwards treat them in 
the same way with other tender plants from the East and 
West Indies. If they are placed in a stove, they will live 
through the winter, and produce good seeds the following 
year. 
SPERMA'TIC, or Sperma'tical, adj. [ spermatique , 
Fr.] Seminal; consisting of seed.—The primordials of the 
world are not mechanical, but spermatical or vital. More. 
—Metals and sundry meteors rude shapes have no need of 
any particular principle of life, or spermatical form, distinct 
from the rest or motion of the particles of the matter. More. 
—Belonging to the sperm; containing sperm.—Two differ¬ 
ent sexes must concur to their generation: there is in both a 
great apparatus of spermatic vessels, wherein the more spi- 
ritous part of the blood is, by many digestions and circula¬ 
tions, exalted into sperm. Rap. 
To SPE'RMATIZE, v. n. To yield seed. Unused .— 
Aristotle affirming that women do not spermatize, and con¬ 
fer a receptacle rather than essential principles of generation, 
deductively includes both sexes in mankind. Brown. 
SPERMO'LOGIST, s. [o'lcepp.oXoyoi;, Gr.] One who 
gathers or treats of seeds. Unused. 
SPERNAL, a parish of England, in Warwickshire; 3 
miles north of Alcester. 
SPERONI, or Sperone, a distinguished Italian writer of 
the 16th century, was the son of Bernardino Speroni, a noble 
of Padua, in which city he was born in the year 1500. He 
studied under the famous Pomponazzo, in Bologna. He 
took his degrees in medicine and philosophy, and was ap¬ 
pointed, at an early age, reader in logic and professor of phi¬ 
losophy, in the university; but being greatly attached to his 
former preceptor Pomponazzo, he returned to Bologna, which 
he did not quit till the death of that eminent man. When 
residing as an envoy at Venice, his speeches before the senate 
were so much admired, that it has been affirmed, that the 
judges and advocates belonging to other courts would leave 
their own places to hear his pleadings. He died at the great 
age of 88, and was interred with every kind of funeral honour. 
As a writer, his style is spoken of with singular approba¬ 
tion. One of his most celebrated compositions was a tra- 
S P E 
gedy, entitled “ Canace and Macareus,” which is regarded 
as one of the best productions of that class which the age 
exhibited. 
To SPERSE, v. a. [sparsus, Lat.] To disperse; to scat¬ 
ter. Not now in use. See To Sparse. 
The wrathful wind, 
Which blows cold storms, burst out of Scythian mew 
That spers'd those clouds. Spenser. 
SPESSART, a great forest of the west of Germany, 
partly in Franconia, partly in the circle of the Upper Rhine. 
It extends over a lofty mountain ridge, comprising 200,000 
acres, and consists chiefly of oak, beech and similar trees. 
It now belongs to Bavaria. 
To SPET, v. a. [ppaecan. Sax.] To eject from the 
mouth; to throw out. This is the old form of spit. 
Mysterious dame. 
That ne’er art call’d, but when the dragon womb, 
Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, 
And makes one blot of all the air. Milton. 
SPET, s. Spittle; matter ejected from the mouth. Ob¬ 
solete. 
The speckled toad— 
Defies his foe with a fell spet. Lovelace. 
SPETCHLEY, a parish of England, in Worcestershire; 
3 miles east-south-east of Worcester. 
SPETISBURY, a parish of England, in Dorsetshire; 3 
miles south-east of Blandford Forum. 
SPEUSIPPUS, an Athenian philosopher, son of Euryme- 
don, by a sister of Plato, succeeded his uncle in his school, 
over which he presided during eight years, commencing from 
the death of that illustrious philosopher, in the year B. C. 348. 
He placed the statues of the Graces in the school built by 
Plato in the academy, and closely adhered to the doctrines 
of his master. His manners, however, were not conform¬ 
able to his philosophy: he was vindictive, and a lover of 
pleasure. He was likewise avaricious, and, contrary to the 
practice of Plato, exacted a gratuity from his disciples. He 
was admitted to the friendship of Dion while he resided at 
Athens; and it was by his instigation that Dion, invited by 
the malcontents of Syracuse, undertook his expedition against 
Dionysius (see Dion, in Vit. Corn. Nep.) Becoming para¬ 
lytic in his limbs, he was conveyed to and from the academy 
in a carriage of some kind. Upon one of these occasions, he 
met Diogenes, and saluted him; but the cynic, instead of 
returning the civility, upbraided him for enduring to live 
under such an infirmity. To which Speusippus replied, 
“ that he did not live in his limbs, but in his mind.” At 
length, overcome by his maladies, and wearied of life, he 
took poison, and put an end to his existence, having first 
constituted Xenocrates his successor in the academy. He 
was author of several philosophical treatises, which have pe¬ 
rished ; though it is said that they were held in such estima¬ 
tion by Aristotle, that he gave three talents for them. 
To SPEW, ». a. [speiwan, Goth., ppipan, Saxon, 
speuwen, Germ., spouwen, Teut.] To vomit; to eject from 
the stomach. 
A swordfish small him from the rest did sunder, 
That in his throat him pricking softly under 
His wide abyss, him forced forth to spew. 
That all the sea did roar like heaven’s thunder, 
And all the waves were stain’d with filthy hue. Spenser. 
To eject; to cast forth. 
When earth with slime and mud is cover’d o’er, 
Or hollow places spew their watery store. Dry den. 
To eject with loathing.—Contentious suits ought to be 
spewed out, as the surfeit of courts. Bacon. 
To SPEW, v. n. To vomit; to ease the stomach. 
He could have haul’d in 
The drunkards, and the noises of the inn ; 
But better ’twas that they should sleep or spew, 
Than in the scene to offend or him or you. B. Jonson. 
SPE'WER, s. [ppipepe, Saxon.] One who spews. 
SPEWING, 
