Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/66

SPRUCE FIB 40 SPURGEON, CHARLES HADDON toothed scales. It is a native of the N. of Germany and Norway, whence it is often called the Norway spruce. It is commonly planted in Southern Europe, and affords an excellent shelter for game. Its timber is the white deal of commerce. It is not so durable as the Scotch pine, but is prized for masts, spars, scaffold- ing poles, etc. In Norway it takes 70 or 80 years to arrive at maturity. By incision it yields a resin whence turpen- tine and Burgundy pitch are manufac- tured. The white spruce fir (A. alba) has the leaves somewhat graucous, rather pun- gent; the cones narrow, oval, tapering, with even, undivided scales. It is found in North America, where it reaches the height of 40 to 50 feet. The black spruce is A. nigra, from the very cold parts of North America. The leaves are short, the cones ovate oblong, obtuse, with rag- ged, round scales. It grows to 70 or 80 feet high. The timber is very valuable. The black spruce of British Columbia is A. menziesii. The red spruce (A. rubra) is also North American. It is about 50 feet high, and its timber is used for sail yards. SPRY, WILLIAM, an American pub- lic official, born in Windsor, Berkshire, England, in 1864. He came to America in 1875 and was educated in the public schools of Utah. After a short business career in Salt Lake City, he devoted him- self to farming and stock raising, and also became president of a bank in Salt Lake City, as well as director of various other institutions. Beginning with 1894, he has held public office continuously, serving successively as county collector, city councilman, president of the State Board of Land Commissioners, United States marshal for Utah, and from 1909 to 1917 was governor of Utah. SPUR, a metal instrument composed of a shank, neck, and prick or rowel, fastened to the heel of a horseman to goad his horse to greater speed. Its use cannot with certainty be traced fur- ther back than Roman times. Early spurs had no neck, a prick being riveted to the shank. Prick spurs had straight necks in the 11th century and bent ones in the 12th. Rowels first appeared early in the 14th. The spurs of mediaeval knights were gilt and those of esquires silvered. "To win his spurs" meant to gain knighthood. SPURGE, a vast genus (upward of 700 species) of herbs, shrubs, or soft-wooded trees with fleshy branches, abounding in milky juice. An extensive group, abounding in South Africa, have suc- culent, spiny or unarmed, often melon- shaped or cactus-like stems. The flower heads resemble single flowers, consisting of a calyx-like cap-shaped involucre, with 4-5 teeth, alternating with as many large horizontal glands, which enclose 10-15 male and 1 central female flower; the capsule separating when ripe into its three 2-valved constituent carpels. The genus is represented in all climates ex- cepting the Arctic. Eleven non-impor- tant species are natives of Great Britain, and three others are more or less natur- alized. Of the latter the caper spurge {E. Lathyris) has seeds containing a powerfully purgative oil. The most noteworthy medicinal species are E. re- sinifera, furnishing the intensely acrid gum-resin known in commerce as eu- phorbium, used principally as a vesicant in veterinary practice; E. ipecacuanha of North America — called wild ipecac — the root bark of which possesses emetic, expectorant, and cathartic prop- erties; E. corollata, of which the root is officinal in the United States pharma- copoeia as an emetic; and E. neriifolia of India, yielding a juice employed ex- ternally in native medicine, while the root is used as a remedy in snake bites. Various species with brilliant scarlet bracts are grown for ornament. SPURGE LAUREL, the Daphne Lau- reola, a shrub possessing acrid prop- erties, flowering in March and April. SPURGEON, CHARLES HADDON, an English preacher; born in Kelvedon, England, June 19, 1834. In 1850 his sympathies drew him toward the Bap- tists, and, removing to Cambridge in 1851, he began to deliver cottage sermons in the neighborhood. At the age of 18 he had charge of a small Baptist con- gregation in the village of Waterbeach. In 1854 he entered on the pastorate of the New Park Street Chapel, London, where his preaching proved so attractive that in two years' time the building had to be greatly enlarged. His hearers continuing to increase, the Surrey Music Hall was for some time engaged for his use; and finally his followers built for him his well-known "Tabernacle" in Newington Butts, opened in 1861. The evangelistic and philanthropic agencies in connection with this immense chapel comprise the Stockwell Orphanage, a pastor's college, where hundreds of young men are trained for the ministry; the Golden Lane Mission, etc. Spur- geon preached in the Tabernacle every Sunday to thousands of hearers. His sermons were published weekly from 1854, and yearly volumes were issued from 1856. ' They had an enormous cir-