SAO PAULO 



SAPPAN WOOD 



159 



resort of Paray-le-Monial, and the once famous 

 abbey-town of Clnny are all in this department. 



Sao Paulo, capital of the Brazilian state of 

 the same name, stands on a wide plain bounded by 

 low hills, 4 miles from the Rio Tiete and 310 by 

 rail \V. by S. of Rio de Janeiro. It has houses of 

 one story, a handsome public garden, and tram- 

 ways running out to the beautiful suburbs. The 

 principal buildings are the old Jesuit college, now 

 the government palace, the bishop's palace, and a 

 celebrated law-school. Sao Paulo is the head- 

 quarters of the coffee trade, and four railways con- 

 nect it with the great coffee districts in the interior. 

 There are cotton-weaving and printing works, and 

 manufactories of tobacco, cigars, spirits, matches, 

 gloves, and hate. Pop. 64,950. including 12,000 

 It ilians and 1500 Germans; the latter have a 

 school, a club-house, and a newspaper of their 

 own. The state (area, 112,330 sq. m. ; pop. in 1895, 

 1,750,000), the most promising in the republic, 

 stretches from the ocean to the river Parana, and 

 consists of a strip of coast-land (8 to 80 miles broad ) 

 and an elevated region, the latter occupying all 

 the interior, and risinj from 1600 feet : all this part 

 is healthy, and the climate pleasant. The princi- 

 pal ranges are the Senas da Mantiqueira and do 

 Mar. The rivers are numerous, and many of them 

 of importance ; regular steamboat service is main- 

 tained over a distance of 400 miles. The state 

 possesses also 1133 miles of railway. Its mineral 

 wealth includes magnetic iron, gold, marble, and 

 precious stones. There is some cattle-rearing and 

 a few manufactures ; but the chief industry is 

 agriculture. The principal crop is coffee ; next 

 follow sugar, cotton, tobacco, manioc, mai/o, and 

 vines. The exports of the state by either Rio de 

 Janeiro or its own chief port, Santos amount to 

 some 40 per cent, of the total for the republic. 



Sap. See VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



Sap, in Military Engineering, is a narrow ditch 

 or trench by which approach is made from the 

 foremost parallel towards the glacis or covert-way 

 of a besieged place (see SIEGE). For Sappers and 

 Miners, see ENGINEERS. 



Sapnjon, a name sometimes applied to all 

 that division of American monkeys which have a 

 prehensile tail, and sometimes limited to those of 

 them which are of a slender form, as the genera 

 Allies (see SPIDER-MONKEY), Cebus (q.v.), &c. 



KapindacecP, a natural order of exogenous 

 plants, consisting of trees and twining shrubs 

 furnished with tendrils, very rarely herbaceous 

 climbers. Their leaves are often marked with 

 lines or pellucid dots. The order contains seventy 

 genera and about 400 known species, natives of 

 warm climates, especially of South America and 

 India ; none of them natives of Europe. The 

 individuals of this natural order exhibit the most 

 varied properties. Some produce delicious fruits, 

 others are purely medicinal, some again abound in 

 a saponaceous principle, while a few are danger- 

 ously poisonous, and still fewer yield wholesome 

 food -prod nets. The root of Cardiospermum halica- 

 eabum (Heart-seed) is diaphoretic, diuretic, and 

 aperient, while in the Moluccas its leaves when 

 cooked are eaten as a vegetable. The genus 

 Serjana is poisonous; S. ternata (Supple Jack), 

 a native of South America, is used to stupefy fish, 

 and the long rambling stems from which it takes 

 its popular name are cut into lengths for walking- 

 sticks. The same poisonous principle resides in 

 the genus Panllinia (see GUARANA); yet from 

 the seeds of P. sorbili* Gnarana bread is made. 

 In the genus Schmidelia the same contradictory 

 qualities are exhibited. The Soapberry (q.v.) is 

 the fruit of Sapindus taponaria, the type of the 

 order. 



Sa|Mlill:i I'lliill. the name given in the 

 West Indies to the fruit of Achras sapota and 

 other species of Achras, a genus of the natural 

 order Sapotaceae. The seeds are aperient and 

 diuretic, but an overdose is dangerous. The pulp 

 of the fruit is subacid and sweet, and it is much 

 esteemed for the dessert in the West Indies. 

 Marmalade, Naseberry, &c. are names given to 

 various species. 



Saponification. See OILS, FATS, and SOAP. 



Saponin is a vegetable principle contained in 

 various plants, including the Saponaria officinalis, 

 or Soap- wort, the Polygala senega, several varieties 

 of Lychnis, the fruit of the horse-chestnut, and in 

 Quillia bark. It is readily extracted from the root 

 of soap- wort by means of boiling alcohol, which, as 

 it cools, deposits the saponin as an amorphous sedi- 

 ment. It derives its name from its behaviour with 

 water, in which it is soluble in all proportions, 

 yielding an opalescent fluid which froths when 

 shaken like a solution of soap, if even ,',-,,-, t h part 

 of saponin be present. Its solution, or an infusion 

 of soap-wort, is sometimes employed in place of a 

 solution of an alkaline soap for cleansing the finer 

 varieties of wool from grease. The various pre- 

 parations for cleaning kid gloves, &c., which are 

 sold under fancy names at every exhibition, owe 

 their virtues to saponin. It is also employed by 

 aerated water makers to give apparent body to 

 their lemonade, &c., the public regarding a per- 

 sistent head or froth as a guarantee of excellence. 



SapOtaoe.P, a natural order of exogenous 

 plants, consisting of trees and shrubs, often abound- 

 ing in milky juice. The leaves are leathery, entire, 

 and without stipules. The order comprises about 

 20 genera and over 200 species. They are natives 

 of the wanner regions of both hemispheres, but are 

 comparatively rare in Australia, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, North-west Africa, and South America. The 

 most important species from -an economical point 

 of view is the Gutta-percha Tree (q.v. ; Isonandra 

 gutta). The substance called Monesia, an extract 

 from the bark of Chrysophyllum glycyphlceum, 

 employed in France in medicine, is a moderate 

 stomachic excitant, alterative, and mild astringent. 

 The fruit of C. cainito is the Star Apple (q.v.). 

 C. roxburghii, a native of Silhet, also produces a 

 frujt prized by the natives ; but neither of these 

 fruits find much favour with Europeans. The 

 Mammee-Sapota, or American Marmalade, is the 

 fruit of Lucuma mammosa, a lofty tree of tropical 

 America and the West Indian Islands (not the 

 Mammee-apple, q.v.). The pulp is luscious, but 

 the kernels abound to a dangerous extent in 

 prussic acid, a very little of one kernel being 

 capable when eaten of causing sickness. The 

 Sapodilla Plum (q.v.) is the fruit of Achras sapota. 

 The flowers of some of the species of Bassia are 

 edible ; they are eaten raw or cooked in various 

 ways ; those of B. latifolia yield a strong ardent 

 spirit by distillation. Oil is also expressed from 

 the fruit of some of these, which is used in the 

 manufacture of soap and as an inferior lamp-oil 

 and lubricant. B. butyracea and B. parkii the 

 latter the Stea Tree of South Africa both yield 

 from kernels of their fruits a fine vegetable-butter. 

 Valuable timbers are produced by some species 

 of this order; one of the Ironwoods (q.v.) is the 

 timber of Sideroxylon inerme. The Galimeta Wood 

 of Jamaica is the timber of Bumelia salicifolia. 

 The flowers of Mimusopt elengi, a native of the 

 East Indies, are powerfully aromatic, and yield a 

 fragrant water by distillation, and the seeds abound 

 in oil which is nsed by painters. 



Sappan Wood is the wood of Ctesalpinia 

 Sappan (see C<ESALPINIA), used in Dyeing (q.T., 

 p. 139). 



