saguerus

[Malay sagu =the name of var i. ous palms (?).] Bot.: A genus of Arecem. Saguerus saccharifer ( Arenga sac char if era ) is from twenty to twenty five feet high, and is very common in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Moluccas, and Philippines. The spadices are wounded and then pounded without detaching them from the tree. This causes them to yield a quantity of saccharine matter, which may be boiled into sugar or be converted by fermentation into an intoxicating liquor. When the trees are exhausted by this drain on their energies, sago is obtained from the trunk, as much sometimes as 150 or 200 pounds from a single tree. The cabbage-like bunch of young leaves at the summit of the stem is eaten, the leaf-stalks yield strong and useful fibers, and the mid-rib of the leaves is used for pens and for tubes through which to blow arrows. ( Lindley .) sā-gŭm, s. [Lat.] Rom. Ant.: The military cloak worn by the Roman soldiers and inferior officers, as distinguished from the paludamentum or cloak worn by the supe per i or officers. It was the garb of war as the toga was of peace.