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SACCOLABIUM. 
known. Several of the species are cultivated, 
in various hot parts of the world, for the produc- 
tion of sugar; and a number are useful for reed- 
pens, for thatch, for railings, for rafts, and for 
other economical purposes. 
The officinal species, or common sugar-cane, 
| Saccharum officinarum, concentrates in itself the 
main interest of the genus, and affords, at the 
same time, a good specimen of the species. It is 
a native of the East Indies, the West Indies, 
and some of the tropical parts of Continental 
America; it was introduced to British gardens 
from India toward the close of the 16th century ; 
it seems to have been first cultivated by the 
Spaniards in their country, and to have been 
carried back thence, as an economical plant, to 
the West Indies and Brazil; and it is now abun- 
dantly cultivated in the West Indies, in Persia, 
and on the islands and sea-boards of the Indian 
Ocean. The root is jointed; several stems rise 
from each root, and are jointed, and commonly 
attain a height of from 8 to 14 feet ; a leaf springs 
from each cauline joint, and sheaths the stem 
up to the next joint, and there expands out to a 
length of 3 or 4 feet, with a narrowness propor- 
tionate to the shape of a blade of grass, and with 
thin and sharply toothed edges; the flowers 
grow in terminal panicles of two or three feet in 
length, and have thin florets enclosed in long 
flexuose down; and the seeds are oblong and 
pointed, and ripen in the valves of the flowers. 
In the West Indies, the plant is propagated from 
cuttings, and does not ripen in less than from 14 
to 17 months, but is cut for making sugar be- 
tween the 6th and the 13th month, when the 
culms are from 7 to 10 feet high, and have a 
smooth, dry, and brittle cuticle ; and, in good, rich, 
permeable soil, it commonly yields five crops of 
shoots before requiring to be repropagated. In 
British hothouses, it is propagated from slips or 
suckers, and grown in pots, filled with rich gar- 
den earth, and plunged in a moderate hotbed of 
tanner’s bark. See the article Sugar. 
SACCOLABIUM. A genus of ornamental, 
tropical, epiphytous plants, of the orchis family. 
The name signifies “sack lip,” and alludes to 
the form of the labellum. The pimpled species, 
S. papillosum, was the earliest known in Britain, 
and was introduced hither about 20 years ago 
from India; and it has a white spotted flower, 
and blooms in autumn. The gemmed species, S. 
gemmatum, was introduced & or 9 years later, and 
carries pink and white flowers in May, and pos- 
sesses a high degree of beauty. Some other spe- 
cies have been introduced. 
SACK. A large canvas bag for holding grain, 
| pulse, small seeds, and other similar farm pro- 
| duce. 
A number of sacks, proportioned to the 
quantity of produce likely to be sent to market, 
ought to be kept ready for use, and in sound and 
clean condition, on every farm. They may be 
made, more or less strong, and of either plain or 
tweeled sacking, according to the particular pur- 
SAFFRON. Tiel 
poses for which they are to be employed; and 
all should be marked with the initials of the 
owner or with the name of the farm. When 
any become wetted, they must be shaken and 
dried; or when dirtied with mud, they must be 
washed ; or when holed, they must be patched or 
darned ;—and all should be kept stored away in 
some dry airy place, such as upon ropes across 
the granary. 
SACK-BARROW. See Barrow. 
SACRED BEAN. See NutumsBium. 
SADDLE. The artificial seat of a rider upon 
a mule’s or horse’s back. It should be so con- 
structed as to combine comfort to the rider with 
ease to the horse. It ought to press only on the 
back, and on neither the spine nor the withers; 
it must make everywhere an uniform pressure, 
and must neither tilt forward upon the points nor 
jut backward upon the seat; and, when fully ad- 
justed and fastened on the animal, it should have 
as large a free space beneath the pommel as will 
permit the introduction of the hand. If these 
matters, and some others which are well-known 
to all duly qualified saddlers, are not fully at- 
tended to in the construction of any saddle, not 
only discomfort to the rider but much suffering 
and serious disease to the horse may be the con- 
sequence. 
SADDLE-BACKED. See Back. 
SADDULE-GALL. See Gant. 
SADDLE-GRAFTING. See Grarrrna. 
SAFFLOWER. See CartHAmus. 
SAFFRON. The prepared stigmas of the 
Crocus Sativus. This plant grows wild in the 
meadows of some parts of England, and is com- 
monly classed as indigenous, but probably was 
introduced at some remote period from Greece or 
Asia. Its root is perennial, and comprises a 
solid and depressed bulb; its flower is sessile on 
the bulb, and rises before the leaves on a long, 
slender, white tube, and has a rich violet or 
lilac colour, and blooms in September and Oc- 
tober; its stigma is pendulous, odorous, and 
deeply three-cleft, and has a brilliant orange 
colour; and its leaves are linear, somewhat revo- 
lute, and have a deep rich green colour, veined 
with a white line along the centre, and are en- 
closed with the tube of the flower in a mem- 
branous sheath. 
“For the preparation of the saffron, the flowers 
are gathered early in the morning, just as they 
begin to open. They are then spread upon a 
table, and the pistils are carefully picked out of 
the flower, they being the part containing the 
saffron ; the rest of the flower is useless. They 
are then dried upon a portable kiln, of a peculiar 
construction, over which a hairy cloth is stretched, 
and over this several sheets of white paper are 
laid, upon which the wet saffron is spread be- 
tween 2 and 3 inches thick. It is now covered 
with other sheets of paper; and over them is 
laid a coarse blanket 5 or 6 times doubled, which 
is pressed down with a board and large weight, 
