Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/279

 SPIDER MONKEY SPINACH 267 very active, and ferocious-looking ; it is often caught in nets, and from the wharves and bridges of New England ; it is not used for food. The M. squinado (Latr.), or corwich, is reddish, and 4 to 6 in. long; the body is covered with spines and hairs ; it is found along the coasts of W. Europe and in the Med- iterranean, making its appearance in Great Britain about May and remaining till Septem- ber, greatly annoying the fishermen by fright- ening away fish and larger crabs and lobsters from the nets by its constant movements ; it is eaten by the poorer classes ; the young when first hatched are very unlike their parents ; as many as 80,000 eggs have been found on a single female. The ancients believed it to be endowed with reason, and represented it sus- pended from the neck of Diana of Ephesus as an emblem of wisdom; it is also figured on their medals. Lithodes arctica (Latr.) is also called spider crab ; the body is spiny, and the long beak bifurcated ; the hands small and un- equal, the limbs long and hairy, and the fifth pair imperfect ; it is reddish yellow, spreading about 20 in., and a hideous-looking species ; it is found on the coast of Norway. SPIDER MONKEY, or Coaita. See MONKEY. SPIEGEL, Friedrich, a German orientalist, born at Kitzingen, near Wurzburg, July 11, 1820. After studying at Erlangen, Leipsic, and Bonn, and spending several years in travel, he be- came in 1849 professor of oriental languages at Erlangen. Besides editing several Persian works, he has published Einleitung in die 'iditionellen Schriften der Parsen (2 vols., Leipsic, 1856-'60); Die altpersischen Keilin- schriften (Leipsic, 1862) ; Eranische Alter- thumskunde (2 vols., Leipsic, 187l-'3) ; and several grammars and minor treatises bearing on Iranian antiquities, religion, language, liter- ire, and ethnology. SPIELIIAGEN, Friedrich, a German novelist, >orn in Magdeburg, Feb. 24, 1829. He studied Berlin, Bonn, and Greifswald, and devoted limself to literature. His works are : Clara Vere (1857); Avf der Dune (1858); ProUe- tische Naturen (1860, English translation '^Problematic Characters," by Prof. Schele de New York, 1869), and its continuation, rch Nacht zum Licht (1861 ; English trans- ition, "Through Night to Light," by the ame, New York, 1869); In der zwolften Stunde (1862); Die von Hohenstein (1863; i translation, " The Hohensteins," by same, 1870) ; Eoschen vom Hofe (1864) ; In Eeih und Olied (1866) ; Unter den Tannen (1867); Hammer und Amboss (1869; English ranslation, "Hammer and Anvil," by William land Browne, 1873); Die Pioniere (1871); [lie Zeit voran (1872) ; Was die Schwalbe sang (1873 ; English translation, " What the Swallow ig,"1873); Ultimo (1874); and Liebe fur ebe (1875), a drama, which has been played Leipsic. He has translated Curtis's "Ho- idji" (Hanover, 1857), Emerson's "English raits" (1858), American poems by various authors (Leipsic, 1859; 3d ed., 1871), Roscoe's "Lorenzo de' Medici" (1859), and several of Michelet's works. A collected edition of his works has been published at Berlin (10 vols., 1872-'3). SPIESS, Heinrich, a German painter, born in Munich, May 10, 1832, died there, Aug. 8, 1875. He was the son of an engraver, com- pleted his studies under Kaulbach, whom he assisted in his cartoon of "The Crusaders," and executed a celebrated copy of his "Angel carrying a Dead Child to Heaven." In 1855 he was employed by Kaulbach in decorating the Wartburg, and he was one of the school of artists known as " young Munich," led by Faltz. In 1856 he obtained a prize for his " Jacob Wrestling with the Angel," and in 1861-'2 he painted for the museum of Munich the great frescoes relating to the pilgrimage of Duke Henry the Lion to Jerusalem, and to his quelling the disturbances at St. Peter's at the coronation of the emperor Frederick I. SPIKE. See NAIL. SPIKENARD. The ancients, under the name of nard (Heb. nerd ; Gr. vapdos ; Lat. nardus), made use of several roots having properties similar to valerian ; one having its flowers (or leaves) in spikes was called spikenard (nardus spicatus), and, according to Boyle, was the plant now known to botanists as nardostachys Jatamansi, which belongs to the valerian fam- ily and is found in Bengal; it is now quite out of use except in the East. There were also a leafy nard, a rooting nard, and others designated by the names of the countries pro- ducing them. The plant called spikenard in this country is aralia racemosa. Other species of aralia are mentioned under GINSENG and SARSAPAEILLA. This has a herbaceous, widely branched stem, 3 to 5 ft. high, from a perennial root; the large decompound leaves ternately or quinately divided with heart-ovate leaflets; the flowers, in umbels, which are united to form large panicles, are polygamous or perfect, greenish white, and succeeded by small dark purple berries. The plant is found from Can- ada southward, and is sometimes seen in gar- dens of medicinal plants ; both root and ber- ries have a warm, aromatic taste, and a tincture of them made with spirits is in some parts of the country a popular domestic stimulant. The root appears to be a stimulant diaphoretic, and was held in high esteem by the Indians. SPINACH, a plant of the chenopodiacea or goosefoot family, spinacia oleracea, .the leaves of which are used as food. According to some authors, the botanical and common names are derived from the Latin spina, a thorn, as some varieties have prickly seeds ; others say that it is called in various languages by names equiv- alent to Hispanica, Spanish. Spinach was not known to the ancients, and it was a novelty in Europe in the 16th century. It is probably a native of western Asia. The plant is culti- vated both as an annual and a biennial ; it has petioled, ovate or triangular, succulent leaves ;