426 ILLUSTRATION OF THE BOTANY OF [ Graminee. 
been cultivated, as a substitute, for the sugar-cane; and, of course, most abundantly in the 
sugar-cane itself. The cultivation of this plant in India is undoubtedly of great anti- 
quity; the Arabian authors on Materia Medica give sukkur and shukkur, Av.c. 757, as 
‘ts names, which are no doubt derived from the same source as the Hindee jaggery, 
Tamool sakkara, the Sanscrit sarkura. The last contained in the Amera Kosha, already 
carries us back to the beginning of the Christian era; and Oriental scholars easily 
prove that the manufacture of sugar was known to the Chinese, as well as to the 
Hindoos, from very early times. It has been supposed that the Saccharum of the 
Ancients, is not the sugar of the present day; but it would be unaccountable, then, 
how the term Taxyapov wer should be applied to it by Dioscorides, who, iic. 104, 
describes it as a concrete honey, similar to salt. 
The manufacture of sugar of the best quality in India, is a subject of the greatest 
importance to that country, and one which is quite within its capabilities, and the 
power of those who, with sufficient capital, pay due attention to the cultivation of 
the cane, as well as to the manufacture of the sugar. The variety of cane hitherto 
cultivated in India has been very inferior in quality to that employed elsewhere ; so 
far back as 1796, Dr. Roxburgh, (Fl. Ind. 1, 240), introduced from China, into the 
Calcutta Botanic Garden, a variety, which he called Saccharum sinense, which, from 
its great hardness, resisting the attacks of the white ant, and the jackal, at the same 
time that it produced a crop, even in the third year, resisting drought to a great degree, 
and yielding juice of a richer quality, was hoped would prove superior to the cane, 
which was common all over India. Within the last few years the Otaheite sugar- 
cane, probably Saccharum violaceum, ‘‘Canne de Haiti,” of Tussac, has been introduced 
into India by Capt. Sleeman, and cultivated in the Calcutta Botanic Garden by Dr. 
Wallich, whence it has spread rapidly over great part of India, as Seringapatam, 
Bombay, Saharunpore, and the Deyra Doon. 
Due attention to the various physical agents which control the secretion of the 
various juices, good soil, free exposure to air, and light, as well as sufficient irrigation, 
and only a moderate degree of cold during the winter months, appear to me essential 
for securing the richest secretion of Saccharine matter ; while equal care and attention 
must be paid by the manufacturer to the Chemistry of the subject. That the utmost 
success is attainable, is evident from specimens which have been sent to this country 
from India, and some of which have been pronounced by the best judges to be ‘‘ fully 
equal to any sugar brought to the London market.” As this subject is of too great 
importance to be passed slightly over, and too extensive to be comprised within the 
limits of the present work, the Author intends taking an early opportunity of treating 
the subject in detail. : 
Besides the above, and their extensive uses as grain, and as fodder for cattle, many 
of the Grasses, though delicate in structure, and narrow in leaf, are valuable from their 
durability, partly from containing so much silex in their cuticle, and are therefore 
employed for thatching, such as Imperata Kenigit, and Saccharum canaliculatum. — 
Some, 
