Spec. Plant Willd. viii. 403. Cl. 21. Ord. 6. Monoecia Hexandria. Nat. Ord. Palmae. G. 1683. Spathe universal, univalve. Spadix ramose. Male. Calyx triphyllus. Corolla O. Filaments dilated. Female. Calyx triphyllus, with twin bifid leaflets. Corolla O.

Style very short. Stigma simple. Nut tessilated, one seeded. Species 2. S. Rumphii. Sago Palm. Humph. Amboy. 1. p. 72.

t. 17,18. Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Plants, p. 789. Officinal. Sago, Lond. Sago.

Syn. Sagou (F.), Sago (G.), Sago (I.), Sagu (S).

Although this farinaceous substance is designated by the London College as the production of the Sagus Rumphii, yet it is prepared from other Palms and Cycadeae. The greater part, however, of the sago of commerce is procured from the S. Rumphii. It is a native of the Moluccas, Borneo, the Celebes, and is cultivated in part of New Guinea. It flourishes best in low moist situations, and seldom exceeds thirty feet in height. The trunk is thick, erect, and surrounded at the summit with a beautiful crown of large pinnate leaves, curving gracefully downwards. The flowers are in long ramose. spadices : the fruit is a globular nut, covered with a chequered imbricated coat, and containing a single seed.

When the tree has attained maturity, the stem consists chiefly of spongy medullary matter, surrounded with a thin shell or cortex. As absorption of the interior takes place after the appearance of the fruit, and the stem becomes hollow, the tree is felled before this commences, and cut into billets of six or seven feet long, which are split to facilitate the extraction of the pith. It is at first in the state of a coarse powder, which is mixed with water in a trough, having a sieve at the end, through which the mixture passes into vessels, where the fecula is allowed to subside. It is then strained off, and dried either into a kind of meal, or formed into cakes, or made into a paste and granulated, as it is usually found in commerce. Crawford, who has given the foregoing account of its manufacture, says that the finest is the production of the eastern coast of Sumatra. What is termed Pearl Sago, from its pearl lustre, is made by the Chinese of Malacca.1

M. Planche has examined chemically the nature of this description of fecula, of which he states there are six varieties 1. The Sago of the Maldives is the growth of the island of Mali It is in roundish grains, exteriorly of a brownish-grey colou passing into white. Macerated for 24 hours it absorbs ter parts of water, and doubles its bulk; the filtered fluid is no. affected by litmus, iodine, galls, or nitrate of silver, and scarcely by diacetate of lead; but when evaporated a straw-yellow extract is procured, slightly saline, and yielding a minute portion of chloride of sodium when boiled with alcohol. 2. The Sago of Sumatra2 is in round white and pale yellow grains, and exhales a musk odour, which disappears on washing it. With water it is affected in the same manner as the former variety, but the extract yields a larger proportion of chloride of sodium. 3. The Sago of New Guinea is the production of a Cycas, which grows in the island of Waigiou : the grains are exteriorly of a brick red colour, passing to a dirty white.

The water in which it is macerated yields also traces of chloride of sodium. 4. The Malacca Sago constitutes three of the varieties of M. Planche. The first, which is in irregular roundish grains of a fawn colour, passing into grey, is the production of the Sagus Rhumphii, and is prepared chiefly in the island of Borneo. Five hundred grains of it absorbed 544 grains of water in doubling its bulk. The water in which it was macerated precipitated chloride of silver when tested with the nitrate, and the extract consequently yielded more chloride of sodium than the other varieties. The second or rose-coloured variety of this sago resembles the former: the third or white variety differs in yielding to the water of maceration a fecula, so that it affords a magnificent blue with iodine, and is rendered slightly turbid, and gives a precipitate with infusion of galls.1

1 One tree will yield nearly 600 lbs. of sago.

2 It is never found in European markets.

Although sago is insoluble in cold water, yet, when long boiled with it, it softens, becomes transparent, and at length forms a gelatinous solution, having all the chemical characters of starch.

Sago has no medicinal properties, but, like the other varieties of starch, it forms a useful, light nutriment for the sick and the convalescent. A table spoonful to a pint of water forms a proper solution, which may be sweetened with sugar, or rendered more palatable by the addition of lemon juice or wine, according to circumstances.