SAPIUM. 
some instances sweetish, in others slightly saline, 
and in most insipid. It is liquid and limpid and 
watery-looking ; and consists mainly of water 
holding a great variety of saline and gaseous 
substances in solution. It combines in all pro- 
portions with water, and, when viscid or thickish, 
is diluted by it into a thoroughly fluid state. 
If exposed to strong heat, it emits bubbles of 
carbonic acid, and exhales a strong odour of 
vinegar ; if submitted to distillation, it yields 
carbonate of ammonia; and if subjected to 
chemical agency, it combines readily with alka- 
lies, and suffers thereby a neutralization of all 
its acid properties. But it has as yet been ana- 
lysed or even closely examined in the case of but 
few plants; and it evidently varies widely in com- 
position in different species, and contains prin- 
ciples in some which it wants in others. The sap 
of Fagus sylvatica was found by Vauquelin to 
contain water, gallic acid, tannin, mucous and 
extractive matter, acetate of potash, acetate of 
alumina, and acetate of lime with excess of acid. 
The sap of the birch and of some other trees can 
be manufactured into a very pleasant wine ; the 
sap of the sugar maple is well known to yield a 
large proportion of the sugar used by the popu- 
lation of North America ; and the sap of many 
trees, when thrown out of its course by punc- 
tures and fractures, or when enfeebled or viti- 
ated by the want of a due proportion of azo- 
tised matter, forms most of the gums and bal- 
sams and similar vegetable exudations which 
are used in medicine and the arts. The sap of 
almost any tree or shrub may be artificially 
withdrawn, at any time during the rifest period 
of its ascent, by cutting asunder a shoot or a 
young branch, or by boring the stem or a 
main branch; and it flows chiefly from the 
tubes of the alburnum,—yet, in some trees, will 
not come from any shallower bore than one to 
the centre of the stem. In 24 hours, a branch 
of a vine has been known to yield from 12 to 16 
ounces; and in the course of a season, a birch 
tree has been known to yield a quantity equal 
to its own weight, and a maple tree about 28 
gallons. The several kinds of morbid and acci- 
dental diversions or outpourings of sap from its 
natural course are noticed in the article Exrra- 
VASATION. 
SAPINDUS. See Soap-Brrry. 
SAPIUM. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
ever-green trees, of the spurge family. Four 
species, varying in natural height from 20 to 35 
feet, have been introduced to Britain ; and seve- 
ral more are known. The name sapium alludes 
to an unctuous fatty-looking exudation which 
flows from any wound in the trunk. Two of 
the introduced species possess properties some- 
what akin to those of the poisonous manchineel. 
See the article MancHInEEt, 
SAPONARIA. See Soapworz. 
SAPOTA,—botanically Achras Sapota. An ex- 
otic, evergreen, ornamental, economical, corol- 
SARACHA. 
liflorous tree, constituting the type of the natural 
order Sapotee. It was introduced from South 
America to the hothouse collections of Britain 
in the former part of last century. Its natural 
height is about 35 or 40 feet ; its stem is straight, 
and has ash-coloured bark; its branches are 
produced on every side, and form a regular 
head ; its leaves are a foot in length, and nearly | 
3 inches broad in the middle, and taper to a 
point at each end; its flowers have a cream- 
colour, and grow on the branches; and its fruit are 
large and oval or top-shaped, and have a brownish 
skin, or thick russet-coloured pulp, and are very 
luscious, and somewhat resemble the marmalade 
of quinces. The seeds of this plant possess 
somewhat aperient and diuretic properties ; and 
the juice of it, as also that of some species 
nearly allied to it, is milky and constitutes a 
wholesome beverage or article of food. The name 
sapota is sometimes popularly given to the whole 
genus. See the article Acuras.—The plants of 
the order Sapoteze are either trees or shrubs, 
chiefly evergreen,—most of them tropical, and a 
few in the warmer parts of the southern tem- 
perate zone, but none natives of Europe. “ The 
Sapotez,” says Loudon, “ are chiefly valuable for 
their fruit, which, in many cases, contributes 
richly to the dessert. Mimusops-elengi, Imbri- 
caria malabarica, and Argania sideroxylon, are 
all of this description. The star-apples of the 
West Indies, the produce of several species of 
Chrysophyllum, and particularly of C. Cainito, 
are esteemed delicious, and the medlars, lucu- 
mas, and sapotillas of equinoctial America, all 
the fruit of different kinds of Achras, are among 
the most valuable productions of the western 
world. The seeds of all the order are oily ; and 
their oil is not fluid, but so concrete as to 
have the appearance and consistence of butter, 
whence the name of butter-tree has been applied 
to different species both in Africa and India. 
The most famous of this description is the Indian 
mava, mahva, or madhuca, the Bassia butyracea — 
of botanists,—the seeds of which are so oleagin- 
ous, that asingle tree has been known to produce 
three quintals of oil. The dried flowers of the 
same tree are mixed by some Indians with their 
food, and a kind of spirit is distilled from them by 
others.” Upwards of 30 hothouse species, and 
upwards of a dozen greenhouse and hardy species ~ 
have been introduced to Britain. See the ar- 
ticles Bassra, Srar-Appiz, Iron-Woop, Mimusors, 
Lucuma, and BuMELia. 
SARACHA. A genus of ornamental exotic 
plants, of the nightshade family. The umbelled 
and the procumbent species are trailing, summer- 
blooming annuals, with pale yellow flowers, and 
with stems of 3 or 4 feet in length, and were in- 
troduced to Britain about 26 years ago from 
Peru. The clammy species, Z. viscosa, isa deci- 
duous, greenhouse, curious-looking shrub, and 
carries olive-coloured and white-spotted flowers 
in autumn, and is also an introduced plant and 
Warr laioeriwem CS ors rarer a 
