Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/419

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ed on fpuftgy flocks, would be made worfe than it would be on its own bottom ; as if the EngliSh elm were grafted upon the Dutch elm, it would partake fo much of the na- ture of the ftock, as to be a fpungy wood, and not fit for the ufes it is ufually put to.

In grafting the New-England cedar, or juniper, upon the Virginia cedar, this experimenter found that the branch which was grafted, being left feveral inches below the graft- ing, that part continued growing, as well as the upper part above the grafting. The viburnum was another fubjecl: of his experiments. On bending down the top of this tree, and burying its upper branches in the earth, thefe became roots, and the proper roots were by degrees removed out of the ground as thefe took place. All the roots became branches, and finally the tree became inverted, and grew as well as in its natural ftate.

A pear tree being inarched upon two pear flocks, continu- ed in a flourishing ftate, even when the root was raifed out of the ground, and it received no nourishment, but from the two inarched branches. This tree, after it had ftood fonie years in this condition, pufhed out new fuckers from the root; which proves, that the branches are as ufeful to Supply the root with nourifhrnent, as that is to fupply the branches ; and hence it is no wonder that fo many trees miicarry in planting, when there are no branches left on the head. Philof. Trail f. N" 384. p. 127. SAPA, among the Romany new wine boiled to the third part

of its fir ft quantity. Pitifc. in voc. SAFINDUS, the fcapberry tree, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form ; thefe are ufually four in number, and the cup is alfo compofed of four leaves. The piffil arifes from the cup, and finally becomes a round fruit, which enclofcs a ftone of the fame Shape, with a round- ifh kernel in it.

There is only one known Species of this genus, which is the fsapberry tree with leaves growing to an alated rib. Teurn. lnft. p. 659,

The berries of this tree are ufed as foap; they are of the fize of a mufket-bullet, and are ufed in warning without any admixture of fait or oil. They perform the office of foap very well, as to the cleanfing the lumen, but they rot it in time.

The negroes in general ufe them for their coarfe apparel, which bears them much better than the finer linnen worn by the Europeans. Philof. Tranf. N° 96. SAPINUS, in botany, a name given by fome of the modern botanical writers to the fir tree. This does not feem, how- ever, to have been the tree fo called by the antients. Some of thofe writers have plainly defcribed the pine tree under this name, and Pliny makes it the denomination of the pitch tree, fuch as was manured in his time.

Matthiolus contends that no peculiar tree was ever called by this name, but that what the antients meant by this word, was, that part of the fir, or any other tree of that kind, which was above the ground, and below the branches. This is ufually a fmooth part of the tree, free from knots; and the other part, where the branches grow, was called fruf- ierna. Matthiolus grounds this on the authority of Pliny, but that author errs in this; for that part of the tree was not called fapinus, but exprefied by the zdjetYive fappiuea. This is abundantly proved by Vitruvius ; and on comparing the text of thefe two authors, it appears that Pliny look from Vitruvius what he fays on this Subject, though he did this erroneoufly; for Vitruvius fays, that this part of the fir was called fappinea, becaufe very fmooth, and free from knots, like the fappinus, or pine.

Pliny, in another place, diftinguifh.es between the fap hi us and 'fappinus. The fappinus he feems to make the fame with the common pitch tree, and the fapinus with the pine, or with fome other tree of the coniferous kind : he places this great distinction between them, that the fappinus, when cut down, would never grow up again, but that the fapinus would.

Some of the old glofTaries distinguish alfo between the fa- pinus and fappinus in this manner, the one being always translated the pine, <^V; and the fappinus the fir, <mvxy. The obfervation of Pliny, of the one of thefe trees growing again from the root when cut down, and the other not, is contrary, however, to the fentiments of the reSt of the an- tients.

Theophraftus fays of both the pine and fir, that when once cut down they never Shoot up again; and Herodotus men- tions the fame thing, as a Singularity among trees. The -word fapinus feems to be only a contraction of fapaPi- nus, a name given by the Latins to the domeftic or culti- vated pine, from the vaft quantity of juice or fap it con- tained. They had a way of expreSTing this juice by the word fopa- y and Theophraftus has, for the fame reafon, called the domeftic pine by the name errus, •f^t, a word Signifying juice or fap. This was the pine tree which bore the pine nuts ufed in medicine and in foods ; and Pliny, who calls it Suppl. Vol. II.

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the manured pitch tree, plainly errs, becaufe trjaf tree can- not bear efculent nuts, or anfwer to the reft of the defcriD- tion. r

SAPO amygdalinus, ahwnd foap, a new form of medicine got much into ufe of late in nephritic cafes, and made to fupply the place of the common hard foap for internal ufes, in a more determinate manner for the phyfician, ai.d a more cleanly one for the patient.

It is thus made. Take any quantity of frefh oil of al- monds, and thrice its quantity of foap Ices ; di>eft them to- gether in fuch a heat as will make them but juS? boil, with- in a few hours the oil and lees will be united, and the liquor will foon after become ropy, and fomething tianfparent, and will cool into the conSiStcnce of a jelly ; then throw in fea fait till the boiling liquor has loft its ropineSs ; con- tinue the boiling till drops of the liquor being received up- on a tile, the water is Seen to feparate freely'from the coa- gulated yS*# ; then take away the fire, and the foap will rii'e to the top of the water, and is to be taken off for ufe. Pern- herton's College Difpenf. p. 184.

SAPONACEA terra, in natural hiftory, a term ufed by fome to exprefs a kind of native alkali fait, of the nature of the nitre, or natron of the antients, which is found on the fur- face of the earth, mixed with dirt, tsY. in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and thence called by fome Smyrna earth. It is found principally in two places near Duraclea, a large open village, about fix leagues to the eaftward of Smyrna ; and in a very flat plain, about a league weftward from the river Hermus. It is at firft gathering, a fine whitifh fait, which of itfelf boils up, as it were, out of the ground, it is always gathered before fun-rife, and only in mornings in which there falls no dew; fo that a ftock Sufficient for the whole year muft be laid in during the Summer months. It comes up in fome places an inch or two above the furface of the ground, but when the fun rifes upon it, it dries and falls down again. The earth producing it lies low in both places, and in winter is waShy. It is thinly covered with grafs.

It may be fufpected, at firft fight, that the neighbouring fea impregnates this earth about Hermus, but the ground which produces it, and lies about Duraclea, is fo far from the fea, that it overthrows this fpeculation ; though every morning in rummer the earth be fwept clean of this fait, the next morning always produces a new crop.

Dr. Smyth, who made experiments upon this fait, informs us, that three hundred drachms of it being put into a retort, and this fet in a fand-heat with a very Strong fire for twelve hours, yielded between five and &x ounces of an infipid phlegm, of no other Smell but fuch as, in all fuch operati- ons, arifes from the fire. It appeared from this, that the matter contained no volatile fait. After this the quantity of two hundred drachms, calcined in a German crucible, were diflolved in water. This compofition of earth and water, boiled into a lixivium, made five hundred drachms, after it had boiled three hours, and the foul fcum had been conti- nually taken off during that time, and been filtrated ; the clofe liquor being then evaporated to a drynefs, there re- mained a pure white fixed alkaline fait, of the nature of pot-afh.

The people of the place make foap with this earth in the following manner. They mix three fourths of this earth with one fourth of lime, and then pour boiling water upon the mixture : they ftir this with a Stick, and there arifes to the top a thick brownifh fubftance, which they fcum off; they Save this in velTels by itfelf. They ufe both this and the clear liquor in making foap, but this is much Stronger than the liquor. They put fifty kintals of oil into a large copper boiling vefiel, and kindling a large fire under it, they let the oil boil a little, and then throw in by little and little firft the fcum of the lye, and afterwards the liquor it- felf; though fomctimes they vSc only the one, or only the other. They continue adding more and more of thefe, till the oil acquires the confiftence of foap, which is often fe- veral days. The fire muft be all this time kept up very Strong. The fcum of the lye, and the Stronger part of the lye itfelf, mix with the oil in the boiling, and the weaker part unmixing itfelf, finks to the bottom, and is let out by a cock prepared for that purpofe. This is not thrown away, but is let run upon freSh lime and earth, to make a lye for future ufe ; and when the foap is perfectly made, it is ladled out, and put upon a brick or lime floor to harden.

The common proportion in the making the foap is two loads of earth, of five kintals each, to fifty kintals of oil, and the produce is between feventy and eighty kintals of foap. The earth is bought at a dollar a load, and the foap at 6\ a kintal. There is employed annually, in making foap at 'Smyrna, at leaft ten thoufand kintals of oil. The bringing the foap earth to Smyrna employs a thoufand camels, or fifteen hundred, for eight months of the year, the four ham- mer months being too hot for camels to travel in. A com- mon foap houfe produces, at a medium, a thoufand dollars a year clear profit. Philof. Tranf. N e 220. p. 230.

U u u SAPO