508 



SAG 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



SAG 



. Saccharum Polystachyon ; Many-spiked Sugar Cane. 

 Flowers panicled ; spikes filiform, very long, fustigate; flo- 

 rets remote. This plant is from three to four feet high; culm 

 round, jointed, smooth ; leaves sheathing, broadish, keeleci, 

 linear, smooth. Native of the island of St. Kills. 



C. Saccharum Arundinaceum ; Reedy Sugar Cane. Pani- 

 cles clustered, with the peduncles divided; florets Iwo toge- 

 ther, one sessile, the oiher pedicelled; corollas three-valved, 

 polygamous. Culms ten feet high, thick, half void, leafy ; 

 leaves wide, in whorls, approximating to the stem. Native 

 of the East Indies. Koeuig says, it is cultivated about 

 hedges, and on t| le banks of pools, near Tranquebar. The 

 Tauiools call it Pee-Carumbo, or Devil's Sugar, by which it 

 would seem, they infer that Lucifer himself has a sweet toofh 

 in his head. The entire culms are often used for the lower 

 covering of roofs; but they are a harbour for serpents, lizards, 

 and other reptiles. 



7. Saccharum Benghalense; Bengal Sugar Cane. Pani- 

 cles close, with the peduncles divided; florets two toge- 

 ther, one sessile, the other pedicelled; corollas two-valved, 

 hermaphrodite. This so closely resembles the preceding 

 species, that it might be taken for the same : it differs in 

 having the corollas Iwo-valved, all the florets hermaphrodite, 

 and the sligmas yellowish-brown. -Native of Bengal. 



8. Saccharum Repens ; Creeping Sugar Cane. Panicle 

 patulous ; florets two together, sessile, awned ; leaves flat ; 

 sheaths hairy, culm a foot high, simple, ascending; calix 

 mooth. Native of Guinea. 



9. Saccharum Ravennse; Italian Sugar Cane. Panicle 

 loose, with the rachis woolly; flowers awned; culm ihe 

 thickness of the finger or thumb, upright, smoolh j calix- 

 glumes narrow, nearly equal, villose on the outside, with 

 iilvery hairs longer than the flowers. One glume of the 

 corolla is longer than the other, with a short bristle-shaped 

 awn. It is a very beautiful plant, and the Arabs make 

 tobacco pipes of the straw. Native of Italy, Provence, and 

 Mount Alias, on ihe banks of streams. 



10. Saccharum Cylindricum ; Cylindric Sugar Cane. 

 Panicle spiked, cylindric; peduncles one-flowered; flowers 

 swnless, two-stamined ; leaves flat; joints bearded; roots 

 long, slender, twisted, white ; culm often branched at the 

 base. Native of the south of France, Italy, Sicily, Candia, 

 Smyrna, Barbary, the East Indies, and New Holland. 



11. Saccharum Thunbergii ; Tlmnbergian Sugar Cane. 

 Panicle spiked, cylindric ; peduncles one-flowered ; flowers 

 awnless, two-stamined ; leaves convolute; joints smooth. 

 This is a very tall grass, with the panicle more contracted, 

 and twice as long as in the preceding, wilh the wood rather 

 yellowish ; joints of the culm quite naked ; flowers twice as 

 big; corolla only half the size of the calix, thin, of a very 

 shining white colour. Native of the East Indies. 



12. Saccharum Jaculatorium ; Dart Sugar Cane. Stem 

 hollow, simple; leaves very lon>;. keeled; panicle spiked, 

 oblong;. The stem is ten feet high, hollow, with distant 

 knots or joints. Native of Cochin-china; where it serves to 

 make darts. 



Safflower, or Bastard Saffron. See Carthamus. 



Saffron. See Crocus. 



Saffron, Meadow. See Colchicum. 



Sage. See Salvia. 



Sage of Jerusalem. See Pltlomis. 



Sagina; a genus of the class Tetrandria, order Tetragynia. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth four-leaved; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, spreading very much, permanent. 

 Corolla: petals four, ovate, obtuse, shorter than the calix, 

 spreading. Stamina: filaments four, capillary; antheree 



roundish. Pistil: germen subglobular; styles four, awl- 

 shaped, recurved, pubescent; stigmas simple. Pericarp: 

 capsule ovate, straight, one-celled, four-valved. Seeds: 

 numerous, very small, fastened to the receptacle. Observe. 

 The second species varies with petalous and apetalous flowers; 

 ihe third has the pelals scarcely discernible ; ihe fourlh has 

 ihe calix-leaves lanceolate, acuminate; and the fifth differs in 

 several marks from its congeners. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix : four-leaved. Petals : four, Capsules : one-celled, 

 four-valvcd, many-seeded. The species are, 



1. Sagina Cerastoidea ; Tetrandrous Pearlwort. Stem 

 diffused, dichotomous ; leaves spatulate and obovate, re- 

 curved; fruiting peduncles reflexed ; root fibrous, branched, 

 annual; herb bright green, many-stemmed, branched, hir- 

 sute, somewhat viscid. The flowers expand only in clear 

 weather. This plant more properly belongs to the genus 

 Cerastium. Native of Scotland, where it is found on sandy 

 shores and rocks, on walls and rubbishy places, flowering in 

 May and Juue. It was first observed by Dr. Smith on walls 

 about Edinburgh, as well as on the Gallon Hill and upon 

 Arthur's Seat: and has since been found on Inch Heath and 

 Inch Combe in the Frith of Forth, and also ou the beach 

 below Preston Pans. 



2. Sagina Procumbens ; Procumbent Pearlwort. Stems pro- 

 cumbent, smoolh ; leaves acute, with a miirnte bristly point; 

 petals very short. Root fibrous, generally annual, but in 

 shady places often perennial; peduncles axillary, solitary, 

 longer than the leaves, one-flowered, nodding before the 

 flowers open. Mr. Curtis remarks, that few plants assume 

 greater variety of appearance than this, but that in all situ- 

 ations the singular appearance of the seed-vessels, placed 

 on the calix like a cup on a saucer, will easily distinguish it. 

 Being fond of a sandy and gravelly soil, it is a troublesome 

 little weed in garden walks and paved courts, where il flowers 

 and seeds during the whole summer. Nalive of most parts 

 of En-rope, Siberia, and Japan, where it is found in barren 

 pastures, &c. 



3. Sagina Apetala; Annual Small-flowered Pearlwort, Stems 

 almost upright, pubescent; leaves linear, bristle-pointed; petals 

 obsolete. Root annual, small, and fibrous. This sppcies is 

 as regular an annual as the Draba Verna, which, like the pre- 

 ceding, conlinues green thiough the winter. The preceding 

 is always procumbent; and when it grows, as it commonly 

 does in moist situalions, it mats and spreads on the ground. 

 This is a smaller plant than the Procumbens, and much finer 

 in its stalks; its leaves are also shorter by one half, and less 

 succulent. It is not, as its trivial Latin name infers, perfectly 

 apetalous. being generally with petals, which are so minute as 

 almost to require a magnifier to render them visible. It is found 

 in dry, barren, and open places, on walls, and in gravel walks, 

 where it is a troublesome weed, and flowers in May and June. 

 There is scarcely any plant which is quicker in ripening its 

 seeds. Native of England, France, Italy, and Germany. 



4. Sagina Erecta ; Upright Pearlwort. Stem upright, 

 one or two flowered; calix-leaves acute; petals entire. Hoot 

 annual, simple, fibrous. The whole herb is smooth and 

 glaucous. The calix never opens far, so that the corolla 

 is not suffered fully to expand. If the season proves dry, 

 the stalk is generally simple; but if the ground be moist, it 

 throws out many stalks, which first spread on the earth, and 

 afterwards become upright. The fruit is altogether that of 

 a Cerastium; but its entire petals, and the number of parts of 

 the flower, by no means agree with that genus, nor does the 

 habit correspond with either Cerastium or the other Saginas. 

 It may probably constitule a distinct genus. This is a little 

 plant, of considerable neatness and elegance in its structure, 



