STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173 



indigenous plants hitherto known, and also of the most useful 

 exotics in the island of Jamaica. By John Lunan, in two vols, 

 quarto — the second vol. (the only one which I have seen) con- 

 taining 400 pages was printed in 1814. This work devotes ten 

 pages to the natural history, culture, &c., of the sugar cane. 

 From its pages I make, extracts corroborative of some of my 

 positions in the preceding article. 



" The root of the sugar cane is jointed, like that of other sorts 

 of cane or reed. From this arises four, five or more shoots, pro- 

 portionable to the age or strength of the root, eight or ten feet 

 high, according to the goodness of the ground. In some moist , 

 rich soils canes have heen measured nearly txoenty feet long, hut 

 these were not as good as those of middling growth^ abounding in 

 juice, hut having little of the essential salt. * * * * 

 The flowers are produced in panicles on the top of the stalks. 

 They are from two to three feet long, and are composed of many 

 spikes nine or ten inches in length, which are again subdivided 

 into smaller spikes. * * * Yl^e seed is oblong, pointed 

 and ripens in the valves of tl>e flowers. It has been asserted that 

 the sugar cane is not indigenous in America, but that it migrated 

 through Europe, which may be doubted, as Father Hennepin, in 

 1680, found it growing near the mouth of the Mississippi, for 

 thirty leagues; and Francis Ximens, Hernandez, and Piso, all 

 affirm that the sugar cane grows spontaneously near the Rio-de- 

 la-Plata. Jean deLeary, who went to Rio Janeiro, in 1556, also 

 asserts that he found every where a great quantity of sugar canes. 

 It is thought by some that Columbus introduced the plant into 

 Hispaniola in his first voyage; but the opinion that it may be a 

 native of America and the West Indies is much strengthened by 

 the sugar cane having been found in such plenty in the South Sea 

 islands. 



There are several varieties of this valuable plant; but the cul- 

 tivation of all has been for some years past greatly neglected to 

 make room for the Otaheite or Bourbon cane, which was brought 

 here in 1796, and has since been generally cultivated. This cano 

 is of a much larger size than any otlier, the joints frequently 

 measuring eight ur nine inches, and of a proportional thickness; 

 the common cane seldom exceeds two or three inches. They have 

 consequently been found very productive, and their sugar of a 



