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. Ord. Gramine^e. 



Gen. Char. SpiciilcB geminse, altera sessilis, altera pedi- 

 cellata, omnes hermaphrodita;, uniflorae, (biflorae,* Br.) 

 Gluma duae, coriaceae. Flo8 hermaphroditus : PalecB duae 

 hyalinae, inferior mutica aut aristata, Br.) Palea (flos 

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



Saccharum officinarum ; panicula efFusa, ramis numerosissi- 

 mis verticillatis, glumis subaequalibus lanugine breviori- 

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



Saccharum officinarum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 79. Willd. Sp. PI. 

 V. 1. p. 38L Humh. et Kunth Nov. Gen. v. \. p. 146. 

 Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. \. p. 28 L 



Arundo saccharifera. Shane Jam. v. 1. p. 108. t. 66. 

 Rumph. Herb. Amb. v. 1. p. 186. f. 74. / 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 Sug-ar Cane of China was different from 

 S. officinarum, and he has published it as the S. sineme. From 

 the East Indies it was carried by merchants, towards the 



* " Spiculas bifloras esse vix dubito, quamquam in speciminibus siccis eas 

 despicere non potui." — Kunth. 



VOL. I. H 



