Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/681

 SAXO SAXONY 657 in English gardens. (See LONDON PRIDE.) The umbrella saxifrage (S. peltata) of Cali- fornia is remarkable for its large leaves, and is somewhat cultivated for its striking foli- age. A species which multiplies by means of long runners (S. sarmentosa), introduced from China, is cultivated as a house plant, in win- dow baskets, and in greenhouses, under the names of beefsteak and strawberry geranium, wandering Jew, mother of thousands, sailor plant, and various others ; it has round-heart- shaped or kidney-shaped, hairy leaves, purplish below and mottled above with green and white ; it forms thread-like runners, a foot or more long, at the end of which a bud and ultimately a new plant appears, which if it reaches the earth will take root, and if not will throw out other runners. The old plants throw up a stem which bears a panicle of irregular flowers, with two long hanging white petals, and three erect smaller ones, spotted with pink and yellow. SAXO, surnamed GRAMMATICTJS, a Danish historian, died about 1204. According to the common opinion he was provost of the cathe- dral of Roskilde, then the Danish capital, and was employed by Archbishop Absalon to write a history of Denmark. For times near his own, Saxo is an unexceptionable witness ; but in describing remote periods he drew from popular tradition. His Historia Regum Hero- umque Danorum was first printed in Paris (fol., 1514). A learned commentary on it has been written by Stephens (fol., Soro, 1644). SAXONS, a name first used by the geogra- pher Ptolemy to indicate a branch of the Ger- manic race, now dominant in the northwest- ern lowlands of Germany, especially in the region of the middle and lower Elbe, between the Hartz and the northern slopes of the Thu- ringian Forest, and between the Weser and the Rhine. The Saxons mentioned by Ptolemy were a small tribe, who in his time (2d centu- ry A. D.) dwelt between the Eider, Trave, and Elbe, and upon several of the adjacent islands. The word Saxon is supposed by some to have been derived from Salcaisuna, sons of the Sa- kai, or Scythians, and by others from sahs, a flint knife or short sword. Eutropius, the next after Ptolemy who mentions them, says that the Saxons, united with the Franks, had become formidable against the Roman fron- tier. The exploits of the Saxons were chiefly at sea. A special Roman fleet was appointed to act against them, and the southern coast of Britain was placed under an officer styled comes littoris Saxonici. Carausius, a Belgian, who usurped the purple in A. D. 287, gave them ships, sent officers to teach them the sci- ence of navigation, and encouraged their de- predations upon every coast which had not ac- knowledged his authority. Magnentius, who had seized Italy and Gaul, and assassinated the emperor Constans, likewise formed an alliance with them in 350 ; other tribes joined their standard ; and at length they gave their name to a powerful league rivalling that of the Franks, and embracing all the tribes between the Skager Rack and the limits of modern France, extending inland to the Saale, and be- yond to the western frontier of Bohemia. In the middle of the 5th century Saxon tribes took possession of the coast land of modern Normandy as Roman allies and mercenaries, and others settled on the banks of the mouth of the Loire ; but both hordes soon disappeared in the subsequent Frankish empire. In the 6th and 6th centuries they established themselves in Britain (see ANGLO-SAXONS) and on the con- tinent, fought with the Thuringians, attacked the upper Rhine, and extended the scene of their spoils far inland. Charlemagne at last, after one of the most obstinate and destructive wars recorded in history (772-804), destroyed their aggressive power, and forced them to ac- cept Christianity. (See CHARLES I. of Germany, vol. iv., p. 290.) Among the principal Saxon tribes were then reckoned the Westphalians, Eastphalians, Ditmarsians, and Holsatians. In the middle of the 9th century arose the duchy of Saxony, to which Thuringia was soon after annexed. Henry the Fowler, duke of Saxony, became king of Germany (919), and his son Otho I. gave the duchy to Hermann Billung, whose house ruled it for a century and a half. Mainly under it were founded the margraviates of Meissen, East Saxony, and others, in terri- tories wrested from the Slavs and Danes. Af- ter the death of the last emperor of the house of Henry the Fowler, Henry II. (1024), the Saxon dukes often struggled against the empe- rors of the houses of Franconia and Swabia. Lothaire, of the Supplinburg family, becoming emperor in 1125, gave Saxony to Henry the Haughty of Bavaria, under whose son Henry the Lion the duchy was broken up. (See HENRY THE LION.) Only a very small num- ber of monuments of the Old Saxon language, properly so called, are extant. The most im- portant and largest is the H6Uand (the Saviour), of the 9th century, which gives in alliterated verses the gospel narrative of the life of Christ. Two manuscripts of it are in existence, one in Munich and the other in the British museum. It appears to be but a portion of an extensive work giving a versified paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments, made at the request of Louis le D6bonnaire. The first edition of it, by Schmeller, appeared in 1830-'40. (See GER- MANIC RACES AND LANGUAGES, and ANGLO- SAXONS, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE.) SAXONY (Ger. Sachseri), a kingdom of the German empire, between lat. 50 10' and 51 30' N., and Ion. 11 55' and 15 5' E., bounded N. and N. E. by Prussia, S. E. and S. by Bohe- mia, S. W. by Bavaria, and W. by the Thurin- gian states and Prussia; area, 5,788 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 2,556,244. Capital, Dresden. The southern part is traversed by spurs of the Fich- telgebirge and the Erzgebirge, the latter sepa- rating the country from Bohemia. The pictu- resque region where the spurs approach the