SAO PAULO, a city of Brazil, capital of the province of the same name, stands on an uneven elevation between two small streams, tributaries of the Tiete, 220 m. of Rio de Janeiro. There is an academy of laws, attended by about 500 legal students. Ti general appearance of the town is picturesque, and the and suburbs are beauti ful. Pop. stated at 22,032.
SAP, the fluid which circulates in plants, and is us indispensable to vegetable life as the blood to animal life. Entering by the roots of the plant (see LNDOSMOSE), it ascends through the cells and vessels of the stem, proceeding to the surface of the leaves and utmost, extremities of the system, and having been exposed, chiefly in the lemes, to the influent:es of air and light, returns through the bark, a portion ultimately reaching the root and being excreted there, while another portion probably enters again into circula tion with the new fluid entering from the soil. See CIRCULATION OF SAP. Sap in its most simple state, the ascending or crude sap, consists chiefly of %%iter, mucilage, and sugzs; the elaborated sap varies much more in its properties in different plan s, forming the peculiar juices of the plants. The elaborated sap always contains much less water than the ascending sap. Plants seem to derive their supply of sap not only from the soil by their roots, hut also from the atmosphere by the stomata (q.v.) of their bark and leaves; and some, especi.illy succulent plants, are capable of existing and increasing in size although entirely severed from the soil. The ascending sap appears to find its way
through the whole wood of the stem in ligneous plants, but chiefly through the alburnmn or sap-wo•. The elaborated sap has been named Latex (q.v.).—The ascent of the sap is one of the most wonderful phenomena of spring, and seems to depend not so much on the state of the weather, for it begins in the depth of winter, as on the plant having had its sufficient period of repose, and being therefore constrained by its very nature to renewed activity.
in niilita:'y engineering, is a narrow ditch or trench, by which approach is made from the fort.,most parallel toward the glacir or covert-way of a besieged place. The sap is usually anid(: by fonr sappers, the leading man of whom rolls a large gabion before him, and excavates as lie progresses, filling smaller gabions with the earth dog out, and erecting them on one or both sides to form a parapet. The other sappers widen and deepen the sap, throwing more earth on to the parapet. A sap is considered to advance; in average ground about eight ft. per hour. From the nearness of the enemy's works, running a sap is an extremely dangerous operation. When possible, therefore, it is carried on at night; in any case, the sappers are relieved at least every hour. When a sap is enldrged to the dimensions of a trench, it bears that name: