SAG 
542 
Stem and petioles triangular, very spongy, by which they 
are supported in the water, iu consequence of the air gene¬ 
rated within them: they discharge a white milky juice, an 
uncommon circumstance in aquatic plants. Leaves all from 
the root: the first, which are always under water, long and 
linear: the succeeding leaves, which rise above the water, 
are arrow-shaped, entire, smooth, with parallel ribs, and a 
net-work of veins. Flowers three in each whorl, each hav¬ 
ing a small oval-lanceolate bracte at the base of the pedicel, 
embracing the stem One or two of the lower whorls have 
female, the rest male flowers. Calyx of one leaf, with three 
divisions. Corolla white, with a purplish tinge at the claws 
.of the petals.—Native of Europe, Siberia, China, Cochin- 
.china, Japan and Virginia in pools, ditches and slow streams; 
of which it is one of the most beautiful ornaments throughout 
England. There are four varieties of the species. 
2. Sagittaria obtusifolia, or blunt-leaved arrow-head.— 
Differs from the preceding in having the anterior part of the 
leaves twice as wide as in that.—Native of Asia. 
3. Sagittaria lancifolia, or lance-leaved arrow-head.— 
Leaves acuminate both ways, entire, shining, coriaceous, on 
round and very long petioles. Spikes of flowers a foot or 
two longer than the leaves. Of these there are four partial 
ones; the middle longer than the three outer. Peduncles 
one-flowered, three together. Flowers twice as large as those 
of the common sort; with a reddish calyx, white petals, and 
yellow anthers. Fruit depressed.—Native of Jamaica and 
Cuba, in stagnant waters. 
4. Sagittaria acutifolia, or sharp-leaved arrow-head.— 
Leaves sheathing at the base, convex outwards, sharp at the 
edge, gradually attenuated into a compressed cusp, without 
any widened leaf. Flowers resembling those of the first 
sort. Stamens many. Fruit a very close globe of acute 
seeds.—Native of Surinam, in water. 
5. Sagittaria trifolia, or three-leaved arrow-head.—Leaves 
ternate.—Native of China. 
SAGITTARIA, an island in the South Pacific ocean, 
discovered by Quiros in 1606, and supposed to be the same 
as Otaheite. 
SAGITTARIUM ALEXIPHARMACUM, the name of 
a root cultivated with great care in Jamaica, and supposed a 
remedy for the wounds of poisonous arrows. The plant of 
which it is the root, is the canna Indica radice alba (Sloane’s 
Hist. i. p. 253.); but its virtues have not yet brought it into 
use on this side the water. 
SAGITTA'RIUS, s. [Lat.] The sagittary, or archer; 
one of the signs of the zodiac.— Saggitarius, the archer, 
hath 31 stars: touching the sign there are, among the poets, 
many and sundry opinions. Moxon. 
The stars in the constellation Sagittarius, in Ptolemy’s 
catalogue, are thirty-one; in Tycho’s, fourteen ; in Hevelius’s, 
twenty-two; in the Britannic catalogue, sixty-nine. 
SAGITTARIUS (Gaspard), a learned German, and writer 
in history and antiquities, was the son of a Lutheran minis¬ 
ter, and was born at Lunenburg, in 1643. He studied at 
Lubeck and Altenburg, after which he visited several of the 
German universities, and travelled to Denmark. He took 
the degree of doctor of philosophy at Jena, and, in 1674, 
was made professor of history in the university of Halle, and 
was honoured with the office of historian to the duke of 
Saxony. He passed his life in the duties of his office, and 
in writing, and died in 1694. The most valuable of his 
works, of which there are 60 or 70 distinct publications, on 
theology, antiquities, criticism, history, biography, and topo¬ 
graphy, are “ The Antiquities of the Kingdom of Thurin¬ 
gia-.” and “A History of the Marquisses and Electors of 
Brandenburg.” 
SA'GITTARY, s. [ Sagittarius , Lat.] A centaur; an 
animal half man halt horse, armed with a bow and 
quiver. 
The dreadful sagittary 
Appals our numbers. Shakspeare. 
SA'GITTARY, adj. [Sagittarius, Lat.] Belonging to 
an arrow; proper for an arrow. Not in use .—With such 
SAG 
differences of reeds; vallatory, sagittary, scriptory, and 
others, they might be furnished in Judea. Sir T. Brown. 
SAGMATOK, a town of East Greenland. Lat. 61. 18. 
N. long. 45. 30. W. 
SAGNE, a village and commune of Switzerland, in the 
canton of Neufchatel. It was here that the manufacture of 
clocks and watches was first introduced into Switzerland.: it 
is still carried on with great activity. Population of the two, 
1300 ; 8 miles west-north-west of Neufchatel. 
SAGNIKA, the name of a sect of Hindoo pyrolaters, 
whose name seems derived from Agni, the god of fire; 
otherwise called Pavaka. Sir William Jones, speaking of 
some reform among the ancient Persians, in the eighth or 
ninth century before Christ, says, that “ while they rejected 
the complex polytheism of their predecessors, they retained 
the laws of Mahabad, and a superstitious veneration for the 
sun, the planets, and fire: thus resembling the Hindoo sects, 
called Sauras and Sagnikas; the second of which is very 
numerous at Benares, where many AgDihotras, or consecrated 
fires, are continually burning, and where the Sagnikas, when 
they enter on their sacerdotal office, kindle with two pieces 
of the hard wood Sami, a fire, which they keep lighted 
through their lives, for their nuptial ceremony, for the per¬ 
formance of solemn sacrifices, and the obsequies of departed 
ancestors, and for their own funeral pile. This remarkable 
rite was continued by Zeratusht, who reformed the old reli¬ 
gion by the addition of genii or angels, presiding over 
months and days; of new ceremonies in the veneration 
shewn to fire; of a new work which he pretended to have 
received from heaven; and above all, by establishing the 
actual adoration of one Supreme Being.” Discourse on the 
Persians As. Res. vol. ii. 
SA'GO, s. A kind of eatable grain. Bailey. —Sago is 
not a grain by nature, but the granulated juice of an East- 
Indian plant. It is so prepared before exportation. Mason. 
—They recommend an attention to pectorals, such as sago , 
barley, turnips, &c. Ld. Chesterfield. 
Sago is procured from a tree called landan, growing 
in the Moluccas. This tree is a species of the palm, which 
grows naturally in Japan, and upon rocky dry mountains 
in Malabar. Its production is an universal article of 
food among the inhabitants of Amboyna, Ceram, Celebes, 
and the surrounding islands east of Celebes, and also in 
Borneo. The tree propagates itself by offsets, or shoots, 
which for a long time appear only like bushes (about fif¬ 
teen or sixteen feet in height), and which all proceed from 
the roots, or from the bottom of the trunk of a full-grown 
tree. The stem, when it begins to form itself out of the 
bush, shoots up. as straight as an arrow, to the height of 
between 40 and 50 feet, without any lateral branches, 
like the cocoa-nut trees, forming a handsome crown at the 
top, which affords an agreeable shade. A grove of these 
trees, with their erected stems, which, when arrived at 
maturity, consist of nothing but a spongy and mealy sub¬ 
stance, surrounded by a hard bark about half an inch thick, 
and their beautiful leafy crowns, has a very charming 
appearance, and forms a pleasant and cool retreat. This 
white, spongy, and mealy substance is the sago, which 
serves the natives in lieu of bread. It is said that this tree 
does not produce any fruit, till it has lost its strength, and 
is about to die, when the branches likewise appear covered 
with meal : it then produces at the top a bunch of small 
fruit, like pigeons’ eggs, which are first green, and after¬ 
wards yellow : the kernel is very astringent. It delights in 
wet morassy situations, and will not grow except in low 
grounds. It does not live above 30 years. A tree is chosen, 
the pith of which has arrived at its full maturity, and this 
is perceived by its beginning to be of a yellowish-white cast 
just under the foliage. The stem is then cut through as 
close to the ground as possible, in order to lose the less of 
its farinaceous contents. They likewise sometimes try it by 
chopping a hole in the tree, out of which they take some 
of the pith, in order to examine whether it be sufficiently 
ripe; if not, they close the hole again, or else they imme¬ 
diately fell thp tree, because if it be suffered to remain too 
long. 
