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readily deceive an inexperienced eye. Besides, were llie 

 Sugar Cane a native, it would be difficult to account for its 

 being at present found nowhere in a state of nature. 



It is a peculiarity of the Cane in this climate, that it refu^^es 

 to perfect its seed. Ever since its cultivation in this island, 

 it has been raised from cuttings of the joints. By these in- 

 numerable subdivisions, it has been continued to the present 

 time, retaining all the characters and peculiarities of the 

 parent plant. There are, in reality, only a very few plants in 

 the island — the Canes which cover our fields being strictly 

 not distinct beings, but prolongations of a few individuals 

 their origin derived from the enlargement of one part re- 

 moved by division from another. The case is different in 

 the East. Here we can point out but a few varieties: there, 

 along the banks of the Ganges, its native region, it perfects 

 its seed, * and may be raised in this manner, presenting 

 innumerable varieties, corresponding to what we observe in all 

 plants produced in this manner— the offspring seldom pre- 

 senting a strict similarity to its parent stock. 



It may be remarked, that in all plants, the cultivation of 

 which is carried on by any other method than that of seed, 

 (whether by suckers, as the plantain or pine, or by divisions 

 of the stem, as in the case before us,) there is a tendency, in 

 the course of time, to dispense with the process necessary for 

 perfecting the fruit. We observe Nature, as it were, wishing 

 to spare herself an exertion which is no longer necessary. 

 In barren worn-out soils, on the contrary, where the supply 

 of nourishment is scanty, we find an attempt made in many 

 vegetables to return to this natural process of propagation ; 

 the plant shedding its seed, which, carried to a distance, 

 germinates under circumstances more favourable than those of 

 the parent. Perhaps in such situations we may hope to dis- 

 cover the seed of the Cane perfected. We might also succeed 

 in obtaining it, by removing suckers from the plant, so that 



* Dr. Roxburgh, however, notwithstanding his long residence in the country 

 of the Ganges, never saw the seed of the Sugar Cane, — EiL 



