Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/394

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of a lion about the head, and that it is a very tender and delicate little animal* and impatient of the flighteft injury. Rays Syn. Quad. p. 154. SAGULUM, among the Romans, a little, or fliort fagum.

See the artiste Sagum, Cyd. SAHIRA, in the materia medica, a name given by Avifenna to the mify of Diofcorides and the Greeks. Avifenna has placed it among the zagi or atramenta, but defcribes it in the very phrafe of Diofcorides, faying that it is of a gold yellow colour, hard and fparkling when broken. The Greek chemical writers call this chakanihum cbloron, or vellowifh vitriol. There feems, however, fome reafon to fufpect that Avifenna has, in this place, confounded two fubftances, and given to the melanteria the name of fekira, and the defcription of mify ; for the mify has nothing in it to entitle it to the name of atramentum or ink ; but the melan- teria of the Greeks very well deferves that name, as it im- mediately turns black on being wetted, though it be in itfelf naturally of a yellow colour refembling fulphur. The properties of thefe two fubftances are ftrangely confounded by Avifenna j his interpreters are generally cenfured, as be- ing faulty ; but the blame, in reality, lies upon the author himfelf, who did not clearly understand the things he was to defcribe to others. See the articles Melanteria and Misy. SAIC, one of the many names given by the antients to quick'

filver. See Mercury, Cyd. and Sttppl. SAIL (Cyd.) — y^fer-SAiLS, in a fhip, are thofe that belong to the main mart and mitten. They keep the fhip to wind- ward. On which account mips failing on a quarter wind require a bead-fail and an after-fail; one to countermand the other. Netting-SAiL) in a fhip, is only 2. fail laid over the Nettings. SAINT CUTHBERT's BEADS, an Englifh name for the tro- chita and entrcchi, found in great abundance in the clay of York'fhire and fome other counties with us. They are truly the remains of parts of the arms of the Jlella arbo- rejhettS) or branch in gjlar-f/b ; but have been fo far mis- taken, by authors, as to be fuppofed a fort of rock plants, or the parts of fome unknown vegetable petrified. Agricola judged very well of the nature of the matter they conhft of, faying they were of the fame fubftance with the lapis judaicus, which is a fpar, as they are, but thefe are ufually of a dufkier colour, fometimes bluifh, fometimes whitifh or reddifh, though thefe latter colours are more rare. The fame author obferves alfo, that they make an effer- vefcence with vinegar, and fome of them move out of their places with it, becoming a fort of creeping ftones. This is no great mark of diftinction, however, for all fpars, or all fofnls, which vinegar will corode, will be acted upon, in the fame manner by it, provided that they are broke into fmall pieces, and that the bottom of the veffel in which the vine- gar is put, be not too rough or too flaming to a point. The fingle joints are ufually thin, and regularly round ; they have always a hole through the middle ; though it is fome- times filled up with earthy or ftony matter ; this has given them the name of beads, as by means of this they may be eafily ftrung together. The hole is ufually fmall, and fome- times oval, though commonly round.

The outermoft round or circle is generally fmooth, but the flat fides are all thick drawn with rays or lines from the cir- cumference to the central hole. Aldrovandus from thefe ftrise refembling antimony, and the whole mafs in the com- pound pieces, or entrochi, refembling the trunks of fmall trees, with the hollow for the pith, and the teeming rudi- ments of branches growing from them, calls them Jiele- chites Jlibii fade. Though in other parts of his book he difcourfes of them after Gefner and Agricola, under the names of troch'itcc and entrochi. In the compofition of the cempound ftones or entrochi, the fingle joints are applied clofely to one another fide by fide, and they are fitted fo nicely together by the rays of one meeting the cavities be- tween the rays of another, that the whole mafs, when ftruck violently, will not feparate into them, but breaks tranfverfely in an oblique direction, as all the other fpars do ; particularly the lapides judaid or fpines of echini petrified. Phil.Tranf. N° 100. SAINT FOIN, fanunU or fanSium feenum, the name given by the French, and continued by us to a fpecies of plant, frequently ufed for the food of cattle, either frefh or dried ; it is called holy hay or wholefome bay, from its excellent nu- tritive quality. The ftalks of the plant are commonly ' about two feet long, but they grow fometimes to five or fix feet, and it has tufts of red flowers of three, four, or five inches in length.

This plant will make a forty times greater increafe in poor ground than the common turf; and this is owing to its hav- ing a long perpendicular root, of that kind, called tap roots, which finks to a great depth to attract its nourishment. The length of this root is fcarce to be credited by any but thofe who have feen it ; it is frequently drawn out of the ground to the length of twelve or fourteen feet, but it is laid to be often thirty feet or more in length. The farmers have a general opinion, that this plant never 3

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fucceeds well in any land, where there is not an under ftra- tum of ftone, chalk, or fome other hard matter, to flop its running ; but that otherwife it fpends itfelf in root, and comes to nothing above ground. This is an error too grofs to need much refutation. It is certain, that the roots being to plants, what the ftomach and guts are to animals, the more and larger roots any plant has, the more nourifhment it re- ceives, and the better it thrives.

Saint fain always fucceeds where its roots run deep, and the beft crops of all are produced upon lands where there is no hard under foil to obftruct their paffage. An under foil of clay may kill the plants, by retaining the water, and chil- ling and rotting their roots.

The long root of faint fain has, near the furface, many ho- rizontal roots ifluing from it, which extend themlclves every way ; there are of the fame kind all the way down, as the roots go, but they grow fhorter and fhorter all the way. Any dry land may be made to produce this valuable and ufeful plant, though it be ever fo poor ; but the r,icheft and beft land will produce the fineft crops of it. The beft way of fowing it is by drilling, but the earth muft be very well prepared, and the feed well ordered, or elfe very little of it will grow. The heads of thefe feeds are fo large, and their necks fo weak, that if they be much more than half an inch deep, they are not able to rife through the in- cumbent mould ; and if they are not covered they will be malted, as the farmers exprefs it ; that is, it will fend out its root while it lies above ground, and be killed by the air ; and whether the farmer plants bad feed that will not grow, or good feed that is buried or malted, the event will be the fame. The ground will be understocked with plants. A bufhel of feed to an acre of land is full twenty feeds to each fquare foot of land; but as there is fome difference in the largenefs of the feeds, there is no abfolute certainty as to this calculation. The worn: feafo.ns for planting it are the beginning of winter, and the drought of fummer ; the beft is the beginning of the fpring ; and it is always ftrongeft when planted alone, and is not fown together with corn, as is the practice of fome farmers. If barley, oats, or any other corn, fown with the faint fain, happen to be lodged afterwards, it kills the young faint join. If it be planted with any other com, it is beft done by drilling in the horfchoing way ; in this cafe it is not much liable to be killed by the lodging of the corn, as the drilled corn feldom falls at all, and when it does, never falls fo low as the fown corn.

The quantity of feed to be drilled upon an acre of land will depend wholly upon the goodnefs of it ; for there is fome feed of which not one in ten will itrike, whereas in good feed not one in twenty will fail. The method of knowing the goodnefs, is, by fowing a certain number of the feeds, and feeing how many plants are produced by them. The external figns of the feed being good, are, that the hufk is of a bright colour, and the kernel plump, of a light grey or blue colour, and fometimes of a mining black. The feed may be good though the hufk be black, as that is ft-me- times owing to the Jetting it receive the wet in the field, not to its being half rotted in the heap. If the kernel be cut acrofs, and appear greenifh and frefh, it is a certain fign that it is good. If it be of a yellowifh colour, and friable, and look thin and pitted, they are bad figns. The quantity of feeds allowed to the acre in the drill way, is much lefs than that by fowing, and is to be computed according to the number of plants that are to be allowed in that fpace, allowing for the common cafualties. It is not necefTary to be exact in this calculation, or to fay whether two, three, or four hundred plants are to be allowed to a fquare perch ; neither is it poflible to know before-hand the precife number of plants that may live out of thofe that come up ; for fometimes the grub takes them when they have only the two firft leaves, and the crop is greatly di- minifhed by this means. Four gallons of good feed to an acre of land will cover the land with plants when judicioufly managed.

Single plants of faint fain make the greateft crops ; but the farmers, in general, plant them fo clofe, that they ftarve one another. The fingle plants always run the deepeft, and thofe which do fo will always draw moft nourifhment. The plants which ftand crowded ftarve one another, and often die after a few years ; but the fingle ones grow to a vaft bignefs, and are every year better and better. The beft way to calculate how many plants are to be al- lowed to a perch, is to compute how much hay each finale large plant will produce ; for if kept fingle, and well culti- vated, they will all be large ones. Without culture thefe plants never arrive at a fourth part of the fize that they do- with it. The hay of a large fingle cultivated plant will weigh more than half a pound, and a hundred and twelve plants upon a fquare perch, weighing but a quarter of a pound a piece, one with another, amount to two tun to an acre. If faint foin be planted on fome forts of land early in the fpring and hoed, it will fometimes produce a crop the following fummer ; in a garden the feeds fown in February will yield plants of two feet high that will flower in the

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