1003 



Wfyz Crca^urg at 23otang, 



[SACC 



leaflets, and the pea-flowers as large as 

 those of that plant, but instead of being 

 arranged in many-flowered racemes, dis- 

 posed in axillary fascicles of cwo to four 

 flowers. These usually appear before the 

 leaves, and have a shortly bell-shaped five- 

 toothed calyx ; a roundish standard the 

 length of the free auricled wings, which 

 are shorter than the blunt keel ; and ten 

 stamens, nine united and one free. The 

 pods are compressed, about four inches 

 long, and have a number of seeds. Except- 

 ing in the fascicled instead of racemed 

 flowers the genus hardly differs from Cour- 

 setia, and it is nearly allied to Tephrosia, 

 which has terminal racemes. The genus 

 is named in compliment to Joseph Sabine, 

 Esq., once secretary to the Horticultural 

 Society of London. [A. A. B.] 



SABLIER. (Fr.) Eura. 



SABLINE. (Fr.) Arenaria. — DE MA- 

 HON. Arenaria balearica. 



SABOT. (Fr.) Cypripedium. — DE 

 VENUS. Cypripedium Calceolus. 

 SABUDANA. An Indian name for Sago. 

 SABULOSE. Growing in sandy places. 



SAC, SACCUS. A bag or cup ; a term 

 sometimes applied to the coronet of Sta- 

 pelia,. &c. Sacculus is a little bag. 



SAC OF THE EMBRYO. The vesicle 

 of the nucleus of an ovule, within which 

 the embryo is formed. 



SACCHARATE or SACCHARINE. Hav- 

 ing a sweet taste. 



SACCHARUM. A genus of grasses be- 

 longing to the tribe Andropogonece. It has 

 the inflorescence in loose panicles, which 

 are often very beautiful ; spikelets more 

 or less lanceolate; glumes two-valved 

 two-flowered, enveloped in long wool ; 

 j lower flower neuter with one pale, upper 

 i hermaphrodite with two pales ; stamens 

 one to three; stigmas woolly thick and 

 generally violet-coloured. Steudel de- 

 scribes sixty-two species, which have a 

 wide geographic range, though chiefly 

 natives of tropical and subtropical coun- 

 tries. 



The most important species is Saccharum 

 officvnarum, the Sugar Cane of commerce, 

 respecting which Loudon has the follow- 

 ing observations in the Encyclopedia of 

 Plants :— ' This grass or reed, though un- 

 known to the ancients, has become of im- 

 mense importancein modern times. There 

 are many varieties or species, both wild 

 and cultivated, natives of the banks of 

 rivers and meadows in both the Indies, 

 China, Africa, the South Sea Islands, and 

 South America. It is cultivated in a zone 

 extending from 35° to 40° on each side of 

 the equator. Where it was first cultivated 

 is unknown— in ail probability in India, 

 for the Venetians imported it from thence 

 by the Red Sea prior to 1148. It is sup- 

 posed to have been introduced into the 

 islands of Sicily, Crete, Rbodes, and Cy- 

 prus by the Saracens, as abundance of 



sugar was made in these islands previous 

 to the discovery of the West Indies in 

 1492 by the Spaniards, and the East Indies 

 and Brazil by the Portuguese in 1497 and 

 1560. It was cultivated afterwards in 

 Spain, in Valentia, Granada, and Murcia 

 by the Moors, and sugar is still made in 

 these provinces. In the fifteenth century 

 the Cane was introduced to the Canary Is- 

 lands by the Spaniards, and to Madeira by 

 the Portugese, and thence to the West 

 India Islands and the Brazils. The Dutch 

 began to make sugar in the island of St. 

 Thomas in 1610, and in Jamaica in 1644. 

 The culture of the Cane has since become 

 general in warm climates, and the use of 

 sugar universal ; it forms one of the first 

 articles of commerce throughout the 

 world. It was in use in England in 1466, 

 but chiefly in feasts and as a medicine, till 

 it was brought from the Brazils about 

 1580 to Portugal, and imported from 

 thence. The quantity consumed in Britain 

 has always kept increasing. The consump- 

 tion of England alone in 1790 amounted 

 to 169,573,344 lbs., which, taking the in- 

 habitants at eight millions, gives each 

 individual at an average about 20 lbs. a 

 year.' In 1863 there was imported into 

 this country 11,731,979 cwts. [D. M.J 



Saccharum officinarum. 



The SugarCane has been cultivated from 

 time immemorial, and was known to many 

 savage tribes of the Eastern Hemisphere, 

 who grew it for the sake of sucking the 

 stem or sweetening their food with the 

 raw juice. The manufacture of sugar is 

 supposed to have been derived from China. 

 The native country of the Cane is doubt- 

 less the Eastern Hemisphere, but the ex- 

 act locality whence it spread is unknown. 

 India lays claim to it, and our name Sugar 

 is a corruption of a Sanscrit word. New 

 Caledonia, in the South Pacific, has also a 

 peculiar claim to be regarded its native 

 country. There the Sugar Cane not only 

 grows with rapidity and attains an extra- 

 ordinary size, but the barbarous natives of 

 that large island possess an endless num- 

 ber of varieties. The consumption of 

 sugar is largest proportionally in Austra- 



