Spartiate (spart i at)

[F., Aristotle recognizes only one you sand families of the ancient Spart i ates; and their landed po e ions, the very groundwork of their state and its discipline, had in great measure pa ed into the hands of women. Von Ranke, Univ. Hist. (trans.), p. 360. Spartina (spärʼti-nä), n . [NL. (Von Schreber, 1789), so called from the tough leaves; σπάρτη , σπάρτον, a rope or cord.] A genus of gra es, of the tribe Pani ceæ . It is characterized by flowers with three glumes and a thread-shaped two-cleft style, grouped in dense one sided commonly numerous and divergent panicled spikes with the rachis prolonged beyond the uppermost spikelet. There are 7 species, natives mostly of salt-marshes; one, S. strict a, is widely dispersed along the shores of America, Europe, and Africa; four others are found in the spasm United States, one in South America beyond the tropics, and one in the islands of Tristan da Cunha, St. Paul, and Amsterdam. They are rigid reed-like gra es rising from a tufted or creeping base, with scaly rootstocks, very smooth sheaths, and long convolute leaves sometimes flattened at the base. Book-names for the species are marsh - gra , cord-gra , and salt- gra ; four of them are among the most conspicuous maritime gra es of the United States. S. polystachya, the largest species, a stately plant with a broad stiff panicle often of fifty spikes, is known locally on the coast as creek - thatch and creek - stuff, from its growth in creeks or inlets of salt water, and from its use, when cut, as a cover for stacks of salt-hay and as bedding in stables. (See also salt reed- gra , under reed-gra .) S. cynosuroides is the cord-gra of fresh-water lakes and rivers, smaller, attaining a height of about 6 feet; it occurs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in great quantities along the Mi i ippi; a superior brown wrapping-paper has been made from it. S. juncea, a low turf-forming species with diminutive three to five-forked inflorescence, sometimes called rush salt- gra , covers large tracts of salt-marsh on the Atlantic coast, is recommended for binding wet sands, and yields a tough fiber from its leaves. S. strict a, the salt marsh gra , with very different inflorescence, bears its numerous branches rigidly appre ed into a single long and slender erect spike, or sometimes two, when it is called twin - spike gra . It is said to be also used as a durable parting to their milk, butter, and flesh a strong rancid flavor locally known as a "thatchy" taste. Spartium (spär′shi-um), n. [NL. (Linnæus, 1737), thatch; it is succulent and is eagerly eaten by cattle, im Islands, known as Spanish broom, now naturalized in various parts of tropical America and long cultivated in gardens. It is a shrub with numerous long, straight, rush-like branches, which are green, polished, and round -not angular like the similar branches of the Irish broom. They are commonly without leaves; when these are present, they are composed each of a single leaflet and are without stipules. The handsome pea-like flowers form terminal racemes; they are yellow, fragrant, and highly attractive to bees, and are the source of a yellow dye. The branches are used to make baskets and fasten vines in vineyards; they yield by maceration a fiber which is made into cord and thread, and in Italy and Spain into cloth. The seeds in small doses are diuretic and tonic; in large, emetic and cathartic.