<hw>Spinetail</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian bird, <i>Orthonyx spinicauda</i>; called also <i>Pheasant's Mother</i> (q.v.), <i>Log-runner</i> (q.v.). The name is used elsewhere for different birds. See <i>Orthonyx</i>.

<hw>Spinifex</hw>, <i>n</i>. a grass known in India, China, and the Pacific, but especially common on Australasian shores. The word means, literally, <i>thorn-making</i>, but it is not classical Latin. "The aggregated flowers form large clusters, and their radiating heads, becoming detached at maturity, are carried by the wind along the sand, propelled by their elastic spines and dropping their seeds as they roll." (Mueller.) This peculiarity gains for the <i>Hairy Spinifex</i> (<i>Spinifex hirsutus</i>, Labill.) the additional name of <i>Spiny Rolling Grass</i>. See also quotation, 1877. This chief species (<i>S. hirsutus</i>) is present on the shores of nearly all Australasia, and has various synonyms—<i>S. sericeus</i>, Raoul.; <i>S. inermis</i>, Banks and Sol.; <i>Ixalum inerme</i>, Forst.; <i>S. fragilis</i>, R.B., etc. It is a "coarse, rambling, much-branched, rigid, spinous, silky or woolly, perennial grass, with habitats near the sea on sandhills, or saline soils more inland." (Buchanan.)

The <i>Desert Spinifex</i> of the early explorers, and of many subsequent writers, is not a true <i>Spinifex</i>, but a <i>Fescue</i>; it is properly called <i>Porcupine Grass</i> (q.v.), and is a species of <i>Triodia</i>. The quotations, 1846, 1887, 1890, and 1893, involve this error.

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. c. vi. p. 209:

"In the valley was a little sandy soil, nourishing the
Spinifex."

1877. Baron von Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 125:

"The Desert Spinifex of our colonists is a Fescue, but a true <i>Spinifex</i> occupies our sand-shores; . . . the heads are so buoyant as to float lightly on the water, and while their uppermost spiny rays act as sails, they are carried across narrow inlets, to continue the process of embarking."

1887. J. Bonwick, `Romance of Wool Trade,' p. 239:

"Though grasses are sadly conspicuous by their absence, saline plants, so nutritious for stock, occur amidst the real deserts of Spinifex."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 43: