95 



[TAB. XXVI.] 



ON THE BOTANICAL CHARACTERS OF THE 

 SUGAR CANE, WITH REMARKS ON ITS CUL- 

 TIVATION. By James Macfadyen, M. D., Jamaica. 



SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM, 



{Sugar Cane.) 

 Triandria Digynia. Nat. Orel. GRAMiNEyp,. 



Gen. Char. Spiciila geminae, altera sessilis, altera pcdi- 

 cellata, omnes hermaphroditoe, uniflora?, (biflonv, * Jh\) 

 Gluma duae, coriacea?. Flos hermaphroditus : Falccc diia? 

 hyalinse, inferior mutica aut aristata, Br.) Paha (flos 

 neuter univalvis, Br.) iinica, mutica. Kunth. 



Saccharum officinarum ; panicula effusa, ramis numcrosissi- 

 mis verticillatis, glumis subacqualibus lanugine breviori- 

 bus, foliis planis glabris. (Tab. XXVI.) 



Saccharum officinarum. Linn. Sp. PL p. 79. Jfilld. Sjj. PI. 

 V. 1. /?. 381. Humh. et Kunth Nov. Gen. v. \. p. 146. 

 Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. \. p. 281. 



Arundo saccharifera. Sloans Jam. v. \. p. 108. t. QG. 

 Rumph. Herb. Amb. v. \. p. 186. f. 74. f. 1. 



Hab. In India orientali? Colitur fere ubique inter tropicos. 



This precious plant, so especially valuable in a commercial 

 point of view, is supposed to be a native of the East Indies. 

 The Chinese date the cultivation of the Sugar Cane to 

 periods of the most remote antiquity: but Dr. Roxburgh 

 ascertained that the Sugar Cane of China was different iVom 

 S. officinarum^ and he has published it as the S. sinense. From 

 the East Indies it was carried by merchants, towards the 



* " Spiculas bifloras esse vix dubito, quainquain i" speciminibua slccin cat 

 despicere non potui." — Kunth. 



VOL. I. H 



