tai it ann mc an 
SPORADIC DISEASES. 
314 
tire plumage, except a band of buff feathers at 
the bottom of the neck in front, is white; its 
occiput is surmounted by a crest or plume; and 
its bill, legs, toes, and claws are black. It feeds 
in a very similar way to storks, herons, and bit- 
terns ; and it occurs throughout the eastern con- 
tinent, and builds there on high trees. 
SPORADIC DISEASES. Diseases which occur 
only in particular subjects, or affect only particu- 
lar constitutions or ages. Strangles, for example, 
is a sporadic disease of young horses; and dis- 
temper is a sporadic disease of young dogs. Spo- 
radic diseases are contradistinguished, on the one 
hand, from specific diseases which attack only 
certain species or genera of animals, and, on the 
other, from epidemics and endemics which attack 
individuals of all ages and constitutions; and 
they form a very extensive class of diseases. 
SPORE, or Sporute. A microscopic, repro- 
ductive granule in cryptogamic plants, analogous 
in nature and function to the seed of a pheno- 
gamous plant. The spores of minute cryptogams, 
and even those of some of the comparatively 
large musci and fungi, are produced in prodigious 
numbers, and multiply with amazing rapidity ; 
and being at the same time so light and minute 
as to float on every breeze and mingle invisibly 
with the common air, they become everywhere dif- 
fused throughout the atmosphere, and are always 
ready to sit down and grow wherever they can 
find a suitable nidus. The globules or pouches 
in which those of many species are contained, and 
which bear the name of sporidia, are themselves 
quite or almost microscopic; and yet a single 
sporidium of a dust fungus, such as that of smut, 
has been calculated to contain no fewer than ten 
millions of spores. See the articles AcoryiEp- 
onous PLANTS, CELLULARES, Cryprogamous Pants, 
Funer, Mintprw, Smut, and Mounp. 
SPORIDIUM. See Spors. 
SPOROBOLUS. A genus of exotic grasses of 
the agrostis tribe. Three annual species, a bien- 
nial, and a perennial have been introduced to 
Britain from Australia and the two Indies; and 
they vary in height from 6 to 30 inches, and thrive 
in any common soil, and are all propagable from 
seeds ; but they are more curious than useful. 
SPRAIN. See Srrarn. 
SPRAT. See Fis and Rusu. 
SPRENGELIA. A small genus of ornamental 
exotic plants, of the epacris order. The flesh- 
coloured species, S. incarnaia, is a small ever- 
green shrub of 2 or 23 feet in height ; and carries 
flesh-coloured flowers from April till June; and 
was introduced to the greenhouses of Britain 
about 55 years ago from Australia. 
SPRING. The season which intervenes be- 
tween winter and summer. It is the season of 
revival to dormant animals and sleeping plants, 
—of germination to seeds and arousal to roots 
and stems,—of upstarting to grasses and ex-folia- 
tion to trees,—of begun glee and singing to the 
songsters of the grove,—of transition from gloom 
SPRING. 
and snow-storms to cheeriness and warmth and 
sunshine,—of the outburst of hope and activity 
from the outhouses of the farmery to the fields of 
the farm,—and of the commencement and large 
performance of the busiest and most significant 
processes of cultivation. But we have sufficiently 
indicated its phenomena and its peculiar occupa- 
tions in the article CALENDAR ; and we shall here 
do no more than quote from “Mudie’s Spring” 
a description of the prognostics, characteristics, 
and sequences of a spring snow-storm, embodying 
the most intensely interesting group of meteoro- 
logical events which can challenge the farmer’s 
attention from beginning to end of the year :-— 
“ On an evening, after a day of unwonted tran- 
quillity, dense clouds appear like great snowy 
mountains in the western part of the horizon, 
while the few clouds which lie in streaks across 
the setting sun, are intensely deep in their sha- 
dows, and equally bright in their lights. As the 
evening closes in, the clouds disappear, the stars 
are unusually brilliant, and there is not a breath 
of air stirring. The old experienced farmer goes 
out to take his wonted nocturnal survey of the 
heavens, from which long observation on the same 
spot has enabled him to form a tolerably correct 
judgment of what will be the state of the weather 
inthe morning. Two or three meteors,—brilliant, 
but of short duration,—shoot along a quadrant of 
the sky, as if they were so many bright lights of 
the firmament dropping from their orbits. He 
returns and directs his men to prepare for what 
may happen, as there will certainly be a change 
of the weather. The air is perfectly tranquil 
when the family retire to their early pillows, to 
find that repose which healthful labour sweetens 
and never misses,— 
‘ Till rest, delicious, chase each transient pain, 
And new-born vigour swell in every vein.’ 
But just at the turn of the night, the south gives 
way, the north triumphs, and the whirlwind, her- 
ald of victory, lays hold of the four corners of the 
house, and shakes it with the shaking of an 
earthquake. But the house, like its inhabi- 
tants, is made for the storm, and to stand secure 
and harmless; while the wind thunders in the 
fields around, every gust roaring louder than an- 
other amongst the leafless branches of the stately 
trees. In a little its sound is muffled, without 
being lessened, and the snow is heard battering 
at the windows for an entrance,—but battering 
in vain. Morning dawns; but every lea and eddy 
is wreathed up; the snow still darkens the air, 
and reeks along the curling wreaths as if each 
were a furnace. For two days and two nights, 
the storm rages with unabated violence ; but on 
the third day, the wind has veered more easterly, 
blows rather feebly, and though the snow falls as 
thickly, it falls uniformly over the whole surface. 
This continues for two or three days more; and 
on the coming of the last of these days, the sun, 
which has not been visible for nearly a week, 
