SAXE-COBURG 



SAXIFRAGE 



183 



visit him at Berlin, and met with a brillian 

 reception. He then retired to his estate of Cham 

 bora, and died there of dropsy, 30th Novembe 

 1750. His work on the art of war, entitled Met 

 Reveries, was published at Paris in 1751. Saxi 

 was a gallant soldier, but no scholar. When tin 

 French Academy wanted to make him a inenibe 

 he declined the proffered honour in a sentence whose 

 extraordinary orthography accidentally rebuked 

 more than the most cutting sarcasm could have 

 done, the sycophancy of the Academy : ' 11s veui 

 me fere de la cademie ; sela n\'iret came une huge 

 a un chits.' His love for the actress Adrienne 

 Lecouvreur forms the subject of one of Scrilie's 

 best-known plays ; and from an illegitimate 

 daughter of his George Sand (q.v.) was descended. 



His character and genius are well, though not flatter- 

 ingly, portrayed in Carlyle's Frederick the Great; and 

 see also Lives by Karl von Weber ( German. 2d ed. 1870); 

 Saint-Rene Taillandier (French, 18G5); and Vitzthum 

 von Eckstadt ( French, 1867 ), with the Dae de Broglie's 

 Maurice de Saxe et le Marquis tfArgenson ( 2 vols. 1891 ). 



Saxe-Coburg, &c. See SAXON DUCHIES. 



Saxhorn, the name of a series of brass wind 

 musical instruments invented by Antoine or 

 Adolphe Sax (1814-94), liorn at Dinant in Belgium, 

 who settled in Paris in 1842, taught instrumental 

 music, and died in poverty. By inventing Sax- 

 horns and Saxophones he greatly influenced military 

 music over the world. The saxhorn consists of a 

 conical tube opening ont to a wide bell, is sounded 

 through a cupped mouthpiece, and is provided with 

 valves or pistons on a principle similar to the Cornet 

 (q.v.). Saxhorns are made in several sizes, the 

 principal being the soprano in F, Eb, and D ; the 

 contnilto in C and Bb ; the tenor or althorn in F 

 and E? ; the baritone and euphonium in C and 

 Bb ; the bass or bom- 

 bardon in F and E? ; 

 and the contra- bass or 

 contra-nointmrdon in 

 Bb. These have all the 

 usual open harmonic 

 notes of their respec- 

 tive titles (see HAR- 

 MONICS, HORN, &c.), 

 the pistons providing 

 the intermediate tones 

 and semitones. The 

 series have a very wide 

 compass, stated by the 

 inventor as more than 

 five octaves. They 

 are all more or less 

 like the one (the eu- 

 phonium ) shown in the 

 figure, except the con- 

 tra-bombardon, which, 

 on account of its size 

 and weight, is usually 

 made circular, so as to go round the shoulders 

 of the performer. Their number and variety 

 supply all the different parts required by a brass 

 band, and in many places very efficient bands are 

 entirely composed of them. From the fact that 

 their lingering is all alike, a performer, *liavin2 

 mastered one, can by a little practice play with 

 equal facility on any of the others. This has 

 MBdd m great measure to supersede the older 

 istruments, which, from their diversity of nn-'.-r- 

 ing, had to l>e studied separately. This result has 

 also l>een helped by the short-service system in the 

 British army, where, as the maximum' time during 

 Wttefa the. sen-iocs of the men can he claimed is so 

 short, the simpler the instrument the sooner they 

 ran be taught, and consequently the better return 

 for the trouble of teaching them. 



Eaphonin 



Their compass, richness, and flexibility of tone 

 render them peculiarly suitable for military music, 

 and their form renders them easy to play either on 

 the march or on horseback. The euphonium and 

 bombardon are, however, the only two which have 

 found a place in the orchestra. See BAND. 



Saxifragacea?, a natural order of exogenous 

 plants, comprising heros, shrubs, and trees, so 

 varied in character that botanists are not in agree- 

 ment respecting its limits. The British genera, of 

 which there are four, al, of which are herbs, are 

 very diverse in character, yet they give very 

 little idea of the range of the variation of generic 

 character in the order when they are compared 

 with the ligneous or arborescent exotic genera. 

 They are all, however, distinguished from the 

 genera of the closely allied orders by their regular 

 flowers ; four, five, or rarely ten-lobed calyx, more 

 or less adherent to the ovary ; petals equal in 

 number to segments of calyx or wanting ; stamens 

 also generally enual in number or twice as many, 

 still more rarely indefinite in mimlier ; ovary either 

 adherent or inserted in a broad base, either two or 

 four celled, or, if one-celled, having two or more 

 parietal placentas often lobed at the top. with the 

 same number of styles or stigmas as cells or pla- 

 centas, rarely twice as many ; fmit a capsule, with 

 several seeds, usually many to each cell or pla- 

 centa ; the albumen usually copious. The family 

 is spread over nearly the whole world, most numer- 

 ously in the mountainous regions of the northern 

 lii'iuisphere; they are rare in tropical America, in 

 Peru and Java, and in southern Australia. The 

 prevailing property is astringency. The small 

 grnin-like roots of Saxifraga granulata, a native 

 of Britain and other temperate countries of Europe, 

 were formerly reputed to be efficacious in calculus. 

 S. tridactylites, also a native of Britain, is said to 

 be lieneficial in diseases of the liver. But the only 

 species of the numerous herbaceous class having 

 any well-based reputation for medicinal or officinal 

 virtues is the Alum-root (Hctic/tem mnericana), 

 which is abundantly distributed in rocky and shady 

 places throughout the United States. The root, 

 which is intensely astringent, is employed by the 

 Indians to heal wounds and persistent ulcers, and 

 it is said to form the basis of a powder reputed in 

 America to l>e a cure for cancer. 



Among the arliorescent species there are some 

 which produce valuable timl>er. Cimonia capetisis 

 is the Keti Alder or Kood Els of the Cape ofGood 

 Hope. Its limlier resembles that of the lime-tree, 

 lint is more tough and close-grained, and being 

 al>o susceptible of a fine polish is valued alike for 

 agricultural purposes and for cabinet- work. Plata- 

 lojthtis trifoliatus is the White Alder or Wit Els 

 of the same country ; it is a larger growing tree 

 than the preceding, the trunk often attaining a 

 diameter of 3 or 4 feet. The wood is white, light, 

 ind comparatively soft, and is valued for making 

 boxes, drawers, the more common articles of furni- 

 ture, picture-frames, and the like. The bark of 

 wine of the species of Weinmannia are employed 

 n Peru and in the West India Islands in the tan- 

 ling of leather, and also for adulterating Peruvian 

 >ark. Some of the Australian species yield gum. 

 The Hydrangea, so popular in British gardens and 

 n cottage windows, belongs to this family. 



Saxifrage (Saxifraya, 'stone-breaker,' because 

 upposed to break stones in the bladder), a genus 

 if plants of the natural order Saxifragese or Sax i- 

 rafracejp (q.v.). The genus is a numerous one, con- 

 isting of annual and perennial herbs, mostly tufted. 

 The species are chiefly mountain or rock plants, 

 .nd are most abundant in the northern hemisphere. 

 ifany species are cultivated in gardens for their 

 >retty flowers and neat habit of growth, being 



