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A saddle girth made of leather, canvas, woven horsehair, or woven grass. [Western U.S.]

That stratum of the surface of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass, or any portion of that surface; turf; sward. She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. Collins.

l.), the posterior part of the dorsal fin of fishes when supported by soft rays. -- Soft grass. (Bot.) See Velvet grass. -- Soft money, paper money, as distinguished from coin, or hard money. [Colloq. U.S.] -- Soft mute. (Phonetics) See Media. -- Soft palate. See the Note under Palate. -- Soft ray (Zoöl.), a fin ra…

To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an inclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (such food having the effect of purging them), to purge by feeding on green food; as, to soil a horse.

A genus of grasses, properly limited to two species, Sorghum Halepense, the Arabian millet, or Johnson grass (see Johnson grass), and S. vulgare, the Indian millet (see Indian millet, under Indian).

n. -- Spanish cress (Bot.), a cruciferous plant (lepidium Cadamines), a species of peppergrass. -- Spanish curiew (Zoöl.), the long-billed curlew. [U.S.] -- Spanish daggers (Bot.) See Spanish bayonet. -- Spanish elm (Bot.), a large West Indian tree (Cordia Gerascanthus) furnishing hard and useful timber. -- Spanish…

the blades or fiber of the Lygeum Spartum and Stipa (or Macrochloa) tenacissima, kinds of grass used in Spain and other countries for making ropes, mats, baskets, nets, and mattresses. Loudon.

A shoot, as of grass; a spire.

The phrase "flowering plants" is less distinctive than "seed plants," since the conifers, grasses, sedges, oaks, etc., do not produce flowers in the popular sense. For this reason the terms Anthrophyta, Phænogamia, and Panerogamia have been superseded as names of the phylum by Spermatophyta.

ower cluster in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis. Spike grass (Bot.), either of two tall perennial American grasses (Uniola paniculata, and U. latifolia) having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets. -- Spike rush. (Bot.) See under Rush. -- Spike shell (Zoöl.), any pteropod of t…

small or secondary spike; especially, one of the ultimate parts of the in florescence of grasses. See Illust. of Quaking grass.

Any of several Australian grasses of the genus Tricuspis, which often form dense, almost impassable growth, their leaves being stiff and sharp-pointed.

Like a spine in shape; slender. "Spiny grasshoppers sit chirping." Chapman.

A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat. An oak cometh up a little spire. Chaucer.

Shooting up in a spire or spires. "The spiring grass." Dryton.

variety tubulufera), having very fine fibers, native of Florida, and the West Indies. -- Grass sponge, any one of several varieties of coarse commercial sponges having the surface irregularly tufted, as Spongia graminea, and S. equina, variety cerebriformis, of Florida and the West Indies. -- Horse sponge, a coarse c…

Scurvy grass.

ing fly (Zoöl.), a caddice fly; -- so called because it appears in the spring. -- Spring grass (Bot.), a vernal grass. See under Vernal. -- Spring gun, a firearm disharged by a spring, when this is trodden upon or is otherwise moved. -- Spring hook (Locomotive Engines), one of the hooks which fix the driving-wheel s…

Fig.: A sudden outbreak; as, a spurt of jealousy. Spurt grass (Bot.), a rush fit for basket work. Dr. Prior.

One of the little hypogynous scales found in the flowers of grasses; a lodicule.