S A P 
Mr< R. Brown, Prodr. Nov. Holl. v. 1. 529, points out 
the affinity of this order to the Ebenacese, and augments it 
with a new genus, Sersalisia. At the same time he establishes 
the order of Myrsineae; and proposes to remove to its lead¬ 
ing genus, Myrsine, amongst other things. Samara coriacea 
of Swartz; pentandra of Ait. Hort. Kew.; and floribunda 
of Willdenow. 
SAPP AN, a river in the peninsula of Malacca, which falls 
into the straits. Lat. 2. 37. N. long. 101. 47. E. 
SAPPAN, in Botany. See (Lesalpinia. 
SAPP AN, a name used by some authors for the wood of 
the arbor Campechiana, or logwood, used in dyeing. See 
H.ematoxylum Campechiana. 
SAPPARE of Saussure and Kirwan, Cyanite or Kyan.it 
of Werner, Disthene of Haiiy, in Mineralogy, a species of 
the crystallaceous genus, the colour of which is milk-white, 
pearl-grey, blueish-grey, or smalt-blue, Prussian blue,- or 
sky-blue. It sometimes occurs entirely blue, but more fre¬ 
quently spotted, striped, or clouded with this colour. It is 
found in mass, disseminated, and crystallized in long oblique 
four-sided prisms, truncated on the lateral edges. The crys¬ 
tals are imbedded or intersect one another, and vary from 
middle-sized to very small. Its external and internal lustre 
is bright-shining pearly. Its fracture is broad, diverging, 
and intersecting radiated, passing into curved-foliated. The 
fracture of the crystals is foliated in three directions. Its 
fragments are slaty and sometimes imperfectly rhomboidal. 
In mass, it. is usually translucent; the crystals are for the 
most part transparent. Its hardness is about equal to that of 
fluor spar. It has a’slight degree of flexibility, and feels 
somewhat greasy. Sp. gr. 3.51 to 3.C2. 
It is infusible per se before the blowpipe. Its component 
parts, according to Theodore de Saussure, are—silex, 29.2; 
alumine, 55; lime, 2.25; magnesia, 2; oxyd of iron, 6.65; 
water and loss, 6.9: Total, 102.00. 
It occurs in primitive mountains, imbedded in micaceous 
schistus, and accompanied by grenatite. 
It is found near Banchory, in Aberdeenshire, and in the 
largest of the Shetland islands; also in Norway, the Swiss 
Alps, the Pyrenees, the Tyrol, Carinthia, Bavaria, France, 
and Siberia. 
The very pale varieties of this mineral are sometimes mis¬ 
taken for tremolite; they may be distinguished, however, by 
the blue tinge, which, even the palest are not entirely free 
from: besides, tremolite is found chiefly in granular lime¬ 
stone, but cyanite in micaceous schistus. The transparent 
varieties of a Prussian blue colour are sometimes, when cut 
and polished, sold for sapphires; from which, however, they 
are readily distinguished by their inferior hardness and specific 
gravity. Kirtean's EL ofMinera'ogy, vo\.i. Atkin's Diet. 
SA'PPER, s. [sappeur , Fr.] A kind of.miner.—These 
are instruments and tools belonging to pioneers, sappers, 
diggers, and labouring men. Transl. of Boccalini. 
. A brigade of sappers generally consists of eight men, 
which form two equal parties; whilst one party is advancing 
the sap, the other furnishes the necessary materials; and thus 
they alternately relieve each other. 
SA'PPHIC,* adj. [Sapkique , Fr. Sapphicus, Lat. from 
Sappho, who invented of particularly used this kind of metre.] 
Denoting a kind of verse used by the Greeks and Latins, 
consisting of eleven syllables, or five feet and a half, of which 
the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second a spondee, 
and the third a dactyl, in the first three lines of each stanza 
which closes with a fourth consisting of a dactyl and 
spondee.—I choose to call this delicate Sapp hick ode the first 
original production of Mr. Gray’s muse. Mason. 
SA'PPHIRE, s. [sapphirus, Latin: so that it is im¬ 
properly written saphirei] A precious stone of a bright blue 
colour.— Saphire is of a bright blue colour. Woodward. 
In enroll’d tuffs, flow’rs purfled, blue, and white. 
Like saphire, pearl, in rich embroidery. ShaZcspcare. 
The sapphire is next in hardness and value to the dia¬ 
mond. The more common colour of the sapphire is blue, 
in various shades. It is sometimes red, and has been mis- 
Vol. XXII. No. 1530. 
s- A P G6& 
taken for the ruby* but it is harder, and scratches the latter 
gem. The primitive form of the crystal is a rhomboid, 
nearly rectangular, the angles being 96° and 84°. 
The sapphire is infusible per se by the blowpipe, but it 
loses its blue colour in the fire. The constituent parts of the 
sapphire, as given by Klaproth, are—alumine, 98; oxyd of 
iron, 1; lime, 0.5. 
Thus, it appears, that the principal part of the sapphire is 
pure clay or alumine; and Klaproth observes, “ what a high 
degree of cohesive power must nature command, to be able 
to transform such a substance as common clay into a body, 
so eminently distinguished and ennobled by its hardness, 
brilliancy, and resistance to the action of the . fire or acids, 
and the effects of all destroying time.” Klaproth's Essays. 
The method of making the counterfeit sapphires in paste, 
is this:—take of crystal prepared, two ounces ; minium, or 
common red lead, six ounces; zaffer prepared, five grains; 
manganese prepared, seven grains; mix all the powders per¬ 
fectly together, and put them into a crucible; cover it with 
a strong lute, and put the whole into a potter’s kiln, to stand 
in the hottest place for twenty-four' hours; it will be of a 
most beautiful deep sapphire colofir. Blue pastes of two 
other degrees of blue are also made in the following manner : 
—.for a sky-blue, take crystal prepared, two ounces; red 
lead, six ounces; prepared zaffer, twenty-one grains; mix 
all well together, and bake them as before. For a deep 
violet-blue, take crystal, two ounces; red lead, four ounces, 
and four grains of painter’s blue smalt; mix all, and bake 
together in the kiln. 
SAPPHIRE-RUBIES, or the Sapphiro-Rubinus, are cer¬ 
tain precious stones, between blue and red; which, in effect, 
are nothing but rubies, whose colour is mixed with blue. 
SA'PPHIRINE, adj. [sapphirinus, Lat.] Made of sap¬ 
phire; resembling sapphire. 
She was too sapphirine and clear for thee; 
Clay, flint, and jet now thy fit dwellings be. Donne. 
SAPPHO, a celebrated Greek poetess, was a native of 
Mitylene, in the Isle of Lesbos, and flourished about the 
year 610 B.C. She married a rich inhabitant of Andros, 
by whom she had a daughter, and it was not, probably, till 
after she became a widow, that she rendered herself so dis¬ 
tinguished by her poetry and amours. Her verses, were 
chiefly of the lyric kind, and love was the general subject, 
which she treated with so much warmth, and with such 
beauty of poetical expression, as to have acquired the title 
of the tenth muse. Her compositions were held in the 
highest esteem by contemporary poets, the Roman as well 
as the Grecian, and no female name has risen higher in the 
catalogue of poets. Her morals have been as much depre-, 
dated, as her genius has been extolled. Besides her des¬ 
perate passion for Phaon, she has been accused of an unna¬ 
tural attachment to some of her own sex. She is represented 
by Ovid, as very far from handsome; and as she was pro¬ 
bably no longer young when she became enamoured of the 
beautiful Phaon, his neglect of her is not at all to be won¬ 
dered at. Unused to neglect, and unable to bear her dis¬ 
appointment, she repaired to the famous precipice of Leu- 
cate, popularly called the Lover’s Leap, and throwing herself 
into the sea, terminated her life and her love. Of the poems 
of Sappho, two pieces are only left, viz. “ An Ode to a 
Young Female,” and “ A Hymn to Venus," with some 
fragments quoted by the scholiasts. These have been very 
frequently published with the works of Anacreon, and with 
the other minor Greek poets. Catullus has given an elegant 
translation of the ode: and Ambrose Phillips has published 
an English version of the hymn. Some writers have men¬ 
tioned two persons of the name of Sappho, one of Eresca, 
the other of Mitylene; the first the lover of Phaon, the 
second the poetess: but they are generally regarded as the 
same. 
Sappho invented the mixolydian mode, which was the 
highest of the five original modes, having its lowest sound, 
or proslambanomenos, upon F sharp, the fourth line in the 
base of the Guido scale. The mixolydian was still higher, 
8 G by 
