Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/633

SAO THOME. 567 SAPHIR. Africa, E 5). Area, 3ijS .square miles. It is voUaiiic and mountainous, being more than 7000 feet high. The rainfall is abundant, and nearly tlie whole island is covered with lu.uriant forests. The chief product is cacao, of which 14,914 tons were exported in 1901. C'ollee and cinchona are also exported. Tlicre is consider- able trade, the exports in 1900 being valued at $3.808,03,5. The eaiiital, Cidade de S.-io Thome, is the residence of a governor, whose jurisdiction extends also over the neighboring Prince's Island. Population, in 1900. 37,77(i, 90 per cent, of whom were negroes. SAP (AS. swp. OHG. .so/", Ger. SafI, sap; probably from Lat. sapa, must). The popular name for the wateiy solutions foimd in plants, and without exact scientific significance. It is projjcrly applied only to the juices, though some- times used to designate the slimy protoplasm which escapes from the delicate layers of cells lying between the bark and the wood in shrubs or trees. It exists in the interior of the protoplasm of active cells and also dead and otherwise empty cells, such as wood. The water absorbed by the protoplasm is first secreted in the form of minute droplets; these enlarge and merge one by one, until at maturity usually only one large sap cavity (vacuole) occupies the centre of the ])rotoplasm. (See Growth, Fig. 5.) This water takes up into solution many of the foods manufactured by the plant and also a great many of the mineral salts which enter the plant from without. It is. therefore, a solution of a variable but very lai-ge number of tile most diverse materials. The solution is usually very dilute, although in cells of storage tissues a considerable percentage of reserve food may be present. Thus in the cultivated beet the percentage of cane sugar in the sap runs from 10 to 17, while various gums, proteids, and salts are also present in smaller amounts. Expressed sap is utilized for flavoring palatable drinks, for sugar-making, for making various liquors, as pulque, etc. The sap of trees is popularly, but erroneously, supposed to ascend in the spring and descend in the autumn. The amount of sap in such plants increases from simuner until early spring. Through the winter the tissues are saturated, and in cold climates the}' freeze solid. See Conduction. SAP (OF. sappe, Fr. sap, hoe, mattock, from JIL. srippa, sapa, hoe, mattock, probably from Gk. (TKaTravn. shapaiw. hoe, from o-KOTrTeii', skap- trill, to dig). A military term denoting a nar- row trench, subsequently widened, which is con- tinually prolonged in the desired direction, by digging away the earth at its head, and utilizing the same as a cover for the working party. A single or full sap is a trench with the parapet constructed at the head, and on its exposed flank. A double sap Is so called when both flanks and the head of the sap are exposed to fire: two full saps are driven parallel and very near to each other, each with its parapet on the outer flank. The double sap is formed by re- moving the strip of earth dividing the two nar- row trenches, the result being a single wide trench or sap with a parapet on each side. Run- ning a sap has always been a difficult as well as dangerous operation, owing to the command of fire possessed by the enemy, and soon came to be restricted to night operations. The modern searchlight and other electrical contrivances, however, make the hazard as great by night as it would lie by day. The soldiers foinierly de- tailed and trained for this work in the British Army were known as sapiters. See Siege anu SiEOE Works. SAPAJOU, or SAJOU. A French rendering of an ol)scnrc native name in Brazil (see SaI), now api)lied to the typical American monkeys of the genus Cebus, of which many sjiecies are known. The group includes some of the largest of American monkeys as well as those which have the largest brain capacity and show the greatest intelligence. The monkeys which range the farthest north are also sapajous. One of the most noteworthy species is the 'white-fronted' (Cebtis albifrons), common in the forests at the headwaters of the Amazon and easily recognized by its light brown color and white forehead. Like the tribe generally, they live in troops of 30 or more and are great jumpers, leaping, it is said, 40 or 50 feet from tree to tree, when neces- sary. They are often made pets of. but are ex- tremely jealous and are restless anil irritable. One of the largest species is Cebus oUvaceus, which is 44 inches long, 20 of which belongs to the tail. The 'sapajous' of the genus Ateles in- clude the well-known coaitas or spider-monkeys (q.v.). Perhaps the best known of all is the weeper sapajou, or 'capuchin' {Cebus capucinus) , whose fur has a golden tinge, and is short and even all over its head as though 'roached.' Young ones are constantly made captive. See Plate of American JIonkeys. SAPAN" WOOD, SAPPAN WOOD (Malay supaiifi). or BuKKlM Woon. The wood of Cwsal- piivi SapiKin. an East Indian tree, about 40 feet high, with twice pinnate leaves, and racemes of 3"ellow flowers, much used as a red dyt. which is not easily fixed. It is largely exported from Singapore and other East Indian ports to Cal- cutta and to Europe. SAP-CHAPER. One of many species of ceto- nian beetles which have mouth-jjarts formed for the sipping or lapping of vegetable juices rather than for lioring or chewing. They feed indif- ferently upon the sap which exudes from wounds in trees or upon the juices of over-ripe or injured fruit or oth- er succulent vegetable growth and upon pol- len. One of the com- monest species in the United States is the . brown sap-chafer {Eu- phoria inda), a rather large brown variegated beetle which appears abundantly in the au- tunui over a large part of the Western States, spring beneath the surface of the groimd, and the larv£e. which are white grubs closely resem- bling the larvte of the May-beetles and the fig- eater or .Tune-beetle (qq.v.), feed upon decaying vegetable matter and soil humus. SAPHIR, sa'fer, MoRiTZ Gottlieb (179.5- 1858). An Austrian humorous writer, born at Lovas-Bereny, Hungary. He edited the Vienna Humorist from 1837 to 1858, and. his humorous HROWN SAP-CH.M-'ER.