SAGO. — 
ago; and constitute great forests in the Isle of 
Ceram; and particularly abound in all the is- 
lands which are most favourable to the growth 
of the clove and the nutmeg trees. The chief 
species is the Sagus Rumphii or Metroxylon Sagus, 
called by the natives the Libby-tree or Libley- 
tree, a palm of commonly from 30 to 50 feet in 
height. This tree grows at first very slowly, and 
has a spinous or thorny armature; but it after- 
wards grows with great rapidity, and soon at- 
tains its full height, and throws off its armature, 
and acquires a girth of 5 or 6 feet. The exterior 
part of its trunk is a hard, ligneous tube or cy- 
linder of about 2 inches in thickness; and the inte- 
rior part, or everything enclosed within the tubu- 
lar shell, is a farinaceous pith, intermixed with 
numerous longitudinal fibres. The tree isknown 
to be mature by the transpiration of a whitish 
dust through the pores of the leaves; and it is 
then felled, and cut into lengths of 5 or 6 feet. 
The woody part of one side of each piece is sliced 
off; a sufficient quantity of the longitudinal 
fibres and the pith at each end is left to let the 
whole piece have the form of a trough ; all the 
rest of the interior is cut out ; portion after por- 
tion of this is returned into the trough, in mix- 
ture with water, and there beaten with a spatula 
or piece of wood; the flour or farinaceous matter 
has a greater specific gravity than the fibres, and 
after being separated from them by this beating, 
is allowed to subside ; the water and the floating 
fibres are then poured off ; and the pulp is fin- 
ally washed several times with clean water, and 
either granulated by being forced, in a half-dried 
state, through a kind of funnel, or variously dried 
and bleached and made to acquire a pearly lustre 
by means of artificial heat and of warm sifting 
and half-baking. One tree produces from 2 to 4 
cwt. of flour. 
The Sagus Rumphit was introduced to the 
palm-houses of Britain, about 48 years ago, from 
India ; and three other palms, constituting with 
it the genus Sagus, or popularly the Sago-Palm 
genus, were introduced about 20 years later,— 
the wine-bearing, S, vinifera, from Guinea,—and 
the Ruffia and the pedunculate, S. rufia and 
S. pedunculata, from Madagascar. But sago, si- 
milar to that of the Sagus Rumphii, is obtained 
also from the Saguerus Rumphii, the Corypha 
umbraculifera, the Caryota urens, the Phenix 
farinifera, and some other palms; and a coarse 
sago is obtained from the several species of the 
non-palmaceous cycadez. See the article Cycas. 
The common sago of commerce has a variable 
character, and sells much cheaper than the pearl 
sago, and may easily be imitated by a prepara- 
tion of potato starch. See the article Potato. 
Much of the sago of the shops, previous to the 
removal of the enormous duty which was for- 
merly exacted on its importation, was either 
partially or wholly adulterated. Pearl sago isa 
comparatively recent manufacture of the Chinese, 
and cs to hold some such relation to common 
SAINFOIN. 113 
sago as refined sugar does to raw sugar. The 
importation of sago into Britain amounted to 
only 1,339 ewt. in 1822; and rose to 3,859 cwt. 
in 1832; and afterwards became so great as to 
render sago a British bread-stuff, and even an 
available commodity for the feeding of farm 
stock. 
Sago is the staff of life in the Molucca Islands; 
and is highly valued as an article of food, for 
both the sick and the strong, in India. It is 
but moderately nutritious, consisting chiefly of 
starch ; yet it forms a grateful jelly, and makes 
an excellent pudding, and combines with three 
times its weight of wheaten flour to make a pal- 
atable, wholesome, and keepable bread. It has 
long been known, in Britain, as a suitable ali- 
ment for infants and for convalescents from acute 
diseases; and it has been proved, within the last 
12 or 15 years, to be admirably adapted for calves, 
while on milk,—for cows, some time before and 
after calving,—for young horses in winter, as a 
substitute for dry corn,—and for young pet lambs, 
whose mothers have either died or forsaken them. 
It seems, also, well suited to sporting dogs and 
to fast-working horses, since it does not affect 
the wind ; and it might be advantageously em- 
ployed, in all departments of the poultry-yard, as 
a means of rendering the flesh of fowls more 
white and delicate for the table. It is commonly 
used in the state of a jelly ; and can easily be re- 
duced to that state with boiling water; but it 
must either be diluted to the thinness of a drink, 
or mixed with other ingredients, or beaten up to 
a comparatively solid consistency, according to 
the species and the condition of the animals to 
whom it is given. To a horse after a severe run 
or burst in the field, about a pound of jelly may 
be given in complete solution in two or three gal- 
lons of warm water ; and this will prove a most 
grateful and refreshing drink. To milch cows, 
it may also be given dissolved in water as a 
drink ; and it will probably help to give their 
milk a kernelly flavour. To calves it may be 
given, in mixture with new milk, as food, in the 
same proportion as the jelly of lythax or linseed 
porridge. To pigs, it may be given in drinks, to 
the amount of two or three pounds to each pig 
once a-day. To fowls, it should be given in com- 
bination with barley-meal, in the form of warm 
balls. And to dogs, it may be given in the com- 
bination of half a pound of sago, boiled to a jelly, 
and poured over biscuit, bread, or potatoes, pre- 
viously soaked in milk, and now all beat up in 
the form of a jelly. 
SAINFOIN, or Satntrorn,—botanically Ono- 
brychis. A genus of ornamental plants, of the 
hedysarum division of the leguminous order. It 
has a five-toothed or parted calyx, and a one- 
celled, one-podded, thick-skinned, rough-surfaced, 
crested or winged pod. One species grows wild 
in Britain ; about 20 species have been intro- 
duced from other countries ; and nearly 20 more 
are known. ‘Two of the introduced species are 
