478 
S P I 
S P I 
Descending careless from his couch, the fall 
Lux’d his joint neck and spinal marrow bruis’d. Philips. 
SPINALONGA, a small sea-port and citadel on the north¬ 
east coast of the island of Candia. It was formerly a 
bishop’s see; 30 miles east of Candia. 
SPINARZA, or Chf.rvesta Piccgla a small town of 
Albania, on the river Spinarza, which falls into the Adriatic. 
SPI'NDLE, s. [ppinbl, ppinbel, Sax.] The pin by which 
the thread is formed, and on which it is conglomerated.— 
Bodies fibrous by moisture incorporate with other thread, 
especially if there be a little wreathing; as appeareth by the 
twisting of thread and twirling about of spindles. Bacon. 
Do you take me for a Roman matron, 
Bred tamely to the spindle and the loom ? A. Philips. 
A long slender stalk.—The spindles must be tied up, and, 
as they grow in height, rods set by them, lest by their bend¬ 
ing they should break. Mortimer. —Any thing slender.— 
Repose yourself, if those spindle legs of yours will carry you 
io the next chair. Dry den . 
To SPFNDLE, v. n. To shoot into a long small stalk.— 
Another ill accident in drought is the spindling of the corn, 
.which with us is rare, but in hotter countries common ; inso¬ 
much as the word calamity was first derived from calamus, 
when the corn could not get out of the stalk. Bacon. 
SPINDLELEGGED, or SpTndleshanked, ad/. Hav¬ 
ing small legs.—Many great families are insensibly fallen off 
from the athletic constitution of their progenitors, and are 
dwindled away into a pale, sickly, spindle-legged genera¬ 
tion of valetudinarians. Tatler. 
SPINDLESTONE, a township of England, in Northum¬ 
berland; 2j miles east-by-south of Belford. 
SPINDLETREE, s. Prickwood, a plant.—There is a 
shrub called the spindle-tree, commonly growing in our 
.hedges, which bears a very hard wood. Evelyn. 
SPINE, s. [spina. Lat.] The back bones. 
There are who think the marrow of a man. 
Which in the spine, while he was a living ran; 
When dead, the pith corrupted, will become 
A snake, and hiss within the hollow tomb. Dryden. 
SPINE, s. [e spine, Fr., spina, Lat.] A thorn.—Roses, 
their sharp spines being gone. Bcaum. and FI. 
SPINEDA, a small town of Austrian Italy, in the Milan¬ 
ese, district of Cremona. 
SPINEL, s. A sort of mineral.— Spinel ruby is of a 
bright rosy red; it is softer than the rock of balass ruby. 
'Woodward. 
SPINET, s. [ espinctte , Fr.] A small harpsichord with 
single wires. 
When miss delights in her spinnet, 
A fidler may his fortune get. Swift. 
SPINET, s. \spinetum, Lat.] A small wood; a place 
where briars and bushes grow'. In this sense spiney is still 
used in some of our midland counties.—The invention was 
to have a satyr lodged in a little spinet, who advanced his 
head above the top of the w’ood, &c. B. .Tonson. 
SPINI'FEROUS, adj. [spina and fero, Lat.] Bearing 
thorns. 
SPINIFEX [from spina and facio: so named from the 
leaves becoming thorny], in Botany, a genus of the class 
polygamia, order dioecia, natural order of gramina, graminese 
(jiiss .)— Generic Character. Hermaphrodite flowers— 
Calyx: head terminating, composed of several bundles, in- 
volucred. Bundles partial approximating, involucred: in 
each a racliis solitary, awl-shaped, excavated a little above 
the base, flower-bearing, the rest naked, and others similar, 
without flower. Involucre common, two leaved: leaflets 
lanceolate, channelled, subulate-mucronate, unequal: proper 
four-leaved, similar. Glume one-flowered, two-valved: 
valves lanceolate, awl-shaped at the tip, unequal; outer longer, 
inner concealed within an excavation of the rachis. Co¬ 
rolla : glume two valved; valves lanceolate, convoluted; 
inner involving the genitals. Stamina : filaments three, fili¬ 
form. Anthers linear, long, cloven at both ends, probably 
barren. Pistil; germ oblong. Style filiform, longer than 
the glumes. Stigmas two, villose, standing out. Pericarp 
none. Corolla unchanged, growing to the seed. Seed one, 
oblong, smooth. Male flowers—Calyx: head as in the 
hermaphrodite. Bundles involucred, with glumes longer 
dagger-pointed, pungent. Rachis each subtrigonal, flower¬ 
ing almost from top to bottom : flowers from five to seven, 
sessile, alternate, bifarious, parallel, ovate-oblong, awnless. 
Glume two-flowered, two-valved: valves oblong, obtuse, 
striated, channelled, shorter than the corolla, unequal; outer 
shorter: one floscule hermaphrodite, barren. Corolla: glume 
two valved : valves lanceolate, channelled, convolute : inner 
narrower. Nectary of two valves, linear, membranaceous, 
loose, diaphanous, short. Stamina: filaments three, filiform. 
Anthers linear, long, cloven at both ends, standing out. 
Pistil: (in one floscule) germ oblong. Style bifid. Stigmas 
none. Spinifex differs from Lolium in having two valves to 
the calyx, from Triticum in their not being tranverse.— Essen¬ 
tial Character. Hermaphrodite—Calyx, glume two-valved, 
two-flowered: valves parallel to the rachis. Corolla two- 
valved, awnless. Stamina three. Styles two. Male—Calyx 
common with the hermaphrodite. Corolla and stamina similar. 
Spinifex squarrosus.—Culms very large, as thick as the 
finger, glaucous, as is the whole plant, jointed, with heaps of 
leaves at every joint, even, not hollow but full. Leaves 
grassy, convolute; recurved-spreading, rigid, spiny at the 
ends: sheaths widened, striated, with a woolly ligule.— 
Native of the East Indies, China and Cochinchina, on sandy 
coasts 
SPINK, s. A finch; a bird. 
Want sharpens poesy, and grief adorns; 
The spink chaunts sweetness in a hedge of thorns. Harte. 
SPINNER, s. One skilled in spinning.—A practised 
spinner shall spin a pound of wool worth two shillings for 
sixpence. Graunt. —A garden spider with long jointed legs. 
Weaving spiders come not here; 
Hence you long-legg’d spinners, hence. Shakspeare. 
The common spider that spins webs for flies.—Where the 
bee gathereth honey, even there the spinner gathereth ve- 
nome. Latimer. 
SPINNING WHEEL, s. The wheel by which, since 
the disuse of the rock, the thread is drawn. 
My spinning wheel and rake. 
Let Susan keep for her dear sister’s sake. Gay. 
SPI'NNY, adj. Small, slender.—The Italian’s proportion 
it [beauty,] big and plump; the Spaniards, spynie and 
lanke; and amongst us, one would have her white, another 
brown. Florio. —They plow it early in the ear, and then 
there will come some spinny grass that will keep it from 
scalding. Mortimer. 
SPINO, a small town of Austrian Italy, in the Milanese, 
district of Cremona. 
SPINO'SITY, s. [spinosus, Lat.] Crabbedness; thorny 
or briary perplexity.—The spinosity of harsh and dry 
opinions. More. —-Philosophy consisted of nought but dry 
spinosities, lean notions, and endless altercations about 
things of nothing. Glanville. 
SPINOUS, adj. [spinosus, Lat.] Thorny; full of thorns. 
—Our senses are pricked and wounded with this spinous or 
thorny matter. W-Mountague. 
SPiNOZA (Benedict de), noted as the author of a modern 
system of atheistic philosophy, was born in 1692, at Amster¬ 
dam, where his father, a Portuguese jew, was occupied in 
commerce. Being of an enquiring turn of mind, he early 
engaged in the study of theology and philosophy, by which 
he was led into doubts concerning the authority of the Jewish 
religion. These, the rabbins to whom he applied, were un¬ 
able to solve to his satisfaction; and as he was incapable of 
disguise; he made no secret of his state of mind. It is as¬ 
serted that his brethren offered to tolerate him, provided he 
would comply externally with their ritual; and that, through 
regard for his character and abilities, they even promised him 
a pension, for he was in low circumstances; but that he could 
not 
