SAP 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



SAP 



527 



them within bounds, otherwise their branches are liable to 

 straggle, and in wet weather to be borne down and displaced, 

 which renders them unsightly; but when they are kept in 

 order, their hoary and different-coloured leaves will have a 

 pretty effect in such plantations. They may be propagated 

 by planting slips or cuttings during the spring; they should 

 be put into a border of light fresh earth, and watered and 

 shaded in dry weather until they have taken root, after 

 which they will require no further care, but to keep them 

 clear from weeds till autumn, when they should be carefully 

 taken up, and transplanted whither they are intended to 

 remain. If the ground should not be ready, let them remain 

 in the border until spring; for if they are transplanted late in 

 autumn, they are apt to be destroyed by cold in winter. They 

 may be also raised from seeds, sown in the spring on beds of 

 light earth : they will come up the same year, and in autumn 

 may be pricked out at half a foot distance; and when a year 

 old be transplanted to where they are to remain. 



2. Santolina Rosruarinifolia ; Rosemary-leaved Lavender 

 Cotton. Peduncles one-flowered; leaves linear, tubercled at 

 the edge; stalk shrubby, about three feet high, terminated by 

 large, single, globular flowers, of a pale sulphur colour. It 

 (lowers from July to September. NaUve of Spain. 



3. Sautolina Fragrantissima ; Sweet-smelling Lavender 

 Cotton. Flowers corymbed ; leaves ovate, crenulate. 



4. Sautolina Alpina; Alpine Lavender Cotton. Peduncles 

 one-flowered; leaves bipinnate; stems simple. Native of 

 Tuscany ; found among ruins of rocks, flowering in June. 



5. .Santolina Anthemoides; Cftamomile-leuKed Lavender 

 Cutton. Peduncles one-flowered ; leaves bipinnate ; stem 

 very much branched, and villose Native of Spain, Italy, &c. 



6. Santolina Maritima; Sea Lavender Cotton. Peduncles 

 corymbed; leaves oblong, blunt, creiiate, densely woolly. 

 See Athanasia Maritima. 



7. Santoliua Montana; Mountain Lavender Cotton. Stalks 

 single-flowered ; leaves doubly pinnatifid, smooth, with ap- 

 pendages at the base ; stems simple. Found on mount 

 Athos. 



8. Santolina Suaveolens. Plant glabrous; stem corymbose- 

 branchy ; leaves subbipinnatifid ; segments acute, linear; 

 peduncles terminal, uniflorous ; flowers yellow. Grows on 

 the banks of the Kooskoosy. This is a small plant, of an 

 agreeably sweet scent. 



Sapindus; a genus of the class Octandria, order Trigynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth four-leaved, 

 spreading; leaflets subovate, almost equal, flat, spreading, 

 coloured, deciduous, two of them exterior. Corolla : petals 

 four, ovate, clawed, two of them more approximating; nec- 

 tary of four oblong, concave, erect leaflets, inserted into the 

 base of the petals; glands four, roundish, similarly situated. 

 Stamina : filamenta eight, length of the flower; antheras cor- 

 date, erect. Pistil: germen triangular; styles three, short ; 

 stigmas simple, obtuse. 'Pericarp: capsules three, fleshy, 

 globular, connate, inflated. Seed: nut globular; (according 

 to Gartner, two-celled.) Observe. The three capsules sel- 

 dom ill! come to maturity. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 four-leaved. Petals : four. Capsule : fleshy, connate, ven- 

 tricose. The species are, 



1. Sapindus Saponaria; Common Soap-berry Tree. Un- 

 .armed : leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate; rachis win-ed. 

 Stalk woody, from twenty to thirty feet high, sending- S out 

 raany branches towards the top, which are garnished with 

 winged leaves. The flowers are produced in loose spikes at 

 the end of the branches. They are succeeded by oval berries 

 large as middling cherries, sometimes single, at other 

 two, three, or four, are jointed together ; these have a 



VOL. II. 110. 



saponaceous skin or cover, which encloses a very smooth 

 roundish nut of the same form, and of a shining black when 

 ripe. These nuts were formerly brought to England for 

 buttons to waistcoats ; some were worn tipped with silver, 

 and others with different metals ; they were very durable, 

 and they seldom broke. The skin or pulp which surrounds 

 the nuts is used in America to wash linen, and from this the 

 plant obtains its name. Lourerro celebrates it as a very 

 excellent soap ; and in reply to (he objection, that being of 

 a very acrid nature they burn and destroy the linen when 

 often used, he remarks, that it is only because they are care- 

 lessly used, all abstergents being in some degree corrosive. 

 The seed-vessels, says Dr. Patrick Browne, are very deter- 

 sive and acrid ; they lather freely in water, and will cleanse 

 the linen more than sixty times their weight of soap, but 

 they are observed to corrode or burn the linen in time ; and 

 even the water in which the tops of leaves have been steeped 

 or boiled, is observed to acquire a portion of the same qua-' 

 lity. The whole plant, especially the seed-vessels, being 

 pounded and steeped in ponds, rivulets, or creeks, is observed 

 to intoxicate and kill the fish. The plants of this genus are 

 propagated by seeds, which must be obtained from the 

 country where they naturally grow. The seeds must be 

 planted in small pots filled with rich fresh earth, and plunged 

 into a hot- bed of tanners' bark. The pots must be frequently 

 watered, otherwise the berries, the outer covers of which 

 are very hard, will not vegetate. In five or six weeks the 

 plants will appear, and then the glasses of the hot-bed should 

 be daily raised to admit frosh air. In a month or six weeks' 

 time after they appear, they will be tit to transplant, and 

 must be shaken out of the pots, and carefully parted, so as 

 not to injure their roots; each to be replanted in a separate 

 small pot filled with light rich earth, and then plunged into 

 the hot-bed again, observing to shade them from the sun 

 every day until they have taken new Foot ; after which they 

 will require the admission of free air every day in warm 

 weather, and also to be frequently watered. When well 

 rooted, they will make great progress, so as to fill the pots 

 with their roots in a few weeks' time, therefore they should 

 be shifted into large pots, and gradually inured, as they 

 advance, to the open air ; for they seldom survive the winter, 

 after being much forced in the summer. In the beginning 

 of autumn they should be removed into the bark-bed of the 

 stove. 



2. Sapindus Longifolius ; Long-leaved Soap-berry Tree. 

 Leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, smooth, one terminating; 

 rachis simple. Unarmed. Supposed to be a native of the 

 East Indies. 



3. Sapindus Spinosus ; Thorny Soap-berry Tree. Leaves 

 abruptly pinnate; stem very thorny. This shrub is very 

 remarkable for the prickliness of its trunk, which seldom 

 exceeds seven or eight feet in height, and two or thrc-t- 

 inches in diameter. Native of Jamaica, in the borough of 

 St. James's, where it is called the Licca Tree. 



4. Sapindus Laurifolius ; Bay-leaved Soap-berry Tree. 

 Leaves pinnate; leaflets ovate-oblong, pointed, smooth; 

 rachis simple; petals tomentose at the edges. A tall, stout, 

 evergreen tree. Native of Malabar. 



5. Sapindus Emarginatus; Notch-leaved Soap-berry Tree. 

 Leaves pinnate ; leaflets oblong, emarginate, villose beneath ; 

 rachis simple; petals tomentose at the edge. Unarmed. 

 Found on the coast of Coromandel. 



6. Sapindus Rubiginosus; Rusty Soap-berry Tree. Leaves 

 pinnate ; leaflets oblong, lanceolate, acute, villose beneath ; 

 rachis simple ; petals smooth. It differs from the preceding, 

 in the leaflets being five-paired, longer, acute, not three- 



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