53$ 
furroundecl with long woolly hairs: the corolla is compofed of two 
valves, (hotter than thofe of the calyx, and of a fine delicate texture: 
the ne&arium is divided into two leafits : the filaments are three 
capillary, of the length of the corolla, and furnifhed with oblon 
anthers : the germen is oblong, and fupports two feathered ityles, 
terminated by a plumofe ftigma : the feed is oblong, and is inverted 
by the corolla. 
The Sugar Cane is a native of Africa, and Lower Ana, as the 
Eaft Indies and Arabia felix ; it is alfo faid to grow fpontaneouily in 
America ; but others allert that it was unknown in thefe regions till 
■ " 
Europeans pofferled it. For a confiderable time however it has been 
indufiriouily cultivated in the American ((lands- fituated within the 
tropics, and was two centuries ago introduced into the garden of that 
affiduous botaniil Mr. Gerard. 
We have before remarked on the fubjed of manna, that feve- 
ral vegetables fecrete a fweet or faccharine juice, eafily converted 
into fugar. The Arundo Bambo L. diftils from its joints a fluid, 
which, by the heat of the fun, concretes into fugar, and is collected 
for ufe. a A confiderable quantity of Sugar is annually obtained in 
America from the Acer faccharina, a fpecies of Maple. The inha- 
bitants of New Spain procure Sugar from the Agave americana : it 
is likewife obtained from the Afclepias fyriaca, and Zea Mays. Nor 
are the inhabitants of the northern regions wholly deftitute of vege- 
tables which furnifh this ufeful article ; for at Kamfchatfka it is pro- 
duced from the Heracleum Syphondylium and fucus faccharinus. 5 
The plant here figured affords the Sugar in common ufe, which is 
prepared from its expreffed juice, boiled with the addition of quick 
lime, or the common vegetable alkali. The boiling is repeated in 
fmaller and fmaller veffels, during which it is often neceffary to 
fcuni the impurities, and employ additional alkali ; when the juice 
acquires a due confidence, it is fuffered to cool in a proper veffel, and 
the faccharine matter concretes into a cryftalized mafs. This, after 
being feparated from the melaffes, is fold under the name of brown 
See Pifon. Mant. Aromat. p. 186. It is alfo procured from the Boraflus flabeliifor- 
mis & Cocos nucifera. 
fuperfluous acid. 
and fruits likewife afford Sugar, c The. ufe of this is to imbibe 
or 
