Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/541

 SAFFRON SAGA 517 sity of Chicago and director of Dearborn ob- servatory. The first two years here were chiefly devoted to work upon the nebulae, many new ones being discovered. From 1869 to 1871 he was engaged upon the great catalogue of stars now forming by the cooperation of English, German, Russian, Norwegian, Swiss, and American astronomers. This undertaking, however, was interrupted by the total loss of the means of the Chicago observatory, and since 1872 Prof. Safford has been much em- ployed in latitude and longitude work in the territories, by the United States engineers, for whom he has also prepared a star catalogue, which was published by the war department. He is now (1875) working upon another. He has edited vol. iv. (part i.) and vol. v. of the " Annals of Harvard College Observatory." The latter volume is taken up by the report of Prof. G. P. Bond's discoveries in the constella- tion of Orion, which Prof. Safford wrote out fully after Bond's death. Other contributions of Prof. Safford may be found in the same periodical, and also in the " Proceedings of the American Academy." SAFFRON (Arab, zafran, from asfar, yel- low), a drug consisting of the dried stigmas of crocus sativus. The genus crocus is famil- Safiron Crocus (Crocus sativus). iar through the spring-flowering garden sorts ; the saffron crocus resembles these, but blooms in autumn ; the flowers are pale violet, veined with purple, and very fragrant ; the leaves ap- pear soon after the flowers; the corm or bulb is rather larger than in the spring crocuses. The important part of the plant is the stigma, which is orange-red, with three drooping di- visions, each about an inch long, and usually with a crest at the end ; these are protruded beyond the flower. Saffron is mentioned by Solomon (Canticles iv. 14), and has been known and cultivated from very early times, so that its home is very doubtful; it grows sponta- neously in Greece, but may have been intro- duced by the early cultivators. The stigmas are collected and dried in sieves over a gentle tire, the operation being completed in half an hour. It requires the stigmas of 4,320 flowers to make an ounce of the dried saffron. In the genuine article the stigmas are loose and dis- tinct ; this is called hay saffron, to distinguish it from a factitious preparation of various sub- stances pressed together on paper, called cake saffron. The principal production of the drug is in lower Aragon and other parts of Spain ; a considerable amount of excellent quality is gathered in the department of Loiret, France ; some is produced in Austria ; and a small quan- tity is cultivated by the Germans in Lancaster co., Pa. It was formerly cultivated in Eng- land at Saffron Walden, but the supplies from that source have ceased. The cultivation some- times fails entirely, on account of a fungus which destroys the bulbs. The drug has always borne a high price, on account of the labor re- quired to collect the small stigmas which com- pose it, and has been subject to various adul- terations ; one of the most common is the ad- mixture of safflower ; another is the petals of the garden marigold ; even shreds of beef have been used. All such adulterations are easily detected by soaking a small quantity of the drug in warm water ; the peculiar form of the stigmas, with three long lobes, allows the true to be distinguished from the false at once. Saf- fron was formerly regarded as of so much im- portance that various countries had most strin- gent laws against its adulteration. In Germany in 1444 a man was burnt with his adulterated saffron, and in 1456 two men and a woman were buried alive in the same country for falsi- fying the drug. Saffron is of no value for any medicinal effect; it is now used but little in pharmacy, and then solely for its color. Its taste is of a warm, bitterish character, its odor sweet and penetrating, and its color a rich deep orange. A single grain of saffron rubbed to a fine powder with a little sugar will impart a distinct tint of yellow to 700,000 grains (10 gallons) of water. The coloring matter, termed polychroite, in allusion to the diversity of tints it is capable of assuming, is soluble in water and alcohol, but varies by the action of differ- ent acids. It is a peculiar glucoside, which by the action of acids splits into sugar, volatile oil, and a new coloring matter called crocine. SAGA, a city of Japan, in the province of Hizen, at the head of the bay of Shimabara, island of Kiushiu; pop. about 100,000. It is regularly laid out, the streets crossing at right angles, is the principal seat of the trade of Kiushiu, and manufactures the famous Hi- zen porcelain ware. It has an ancient castle, a telegraph station, and government schools. It was the former capital of the prince of Na- beshima, one of the 18 semi-independent dai- mios, and the scene of much active labor by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th and 17th cen- turies. In 1872 it was the centre of a party which took up arms to compel the resignation