102 



admit of the cultivation of more approved varieties. The 

 stem of the Violet Cane is of a purple colour, varying in 

 intensity according to the nature of the soil. Thus, in poor 

 lands near the sea-shore, such as several cane-pieces of Pera 

 and Leith-Hall, but lately reclaimed from a state of salt 

 morass, Canes may be observed of a deep purple colour, 

 known by the names of the Claret Cane, the Black, the Im- 

 perial, Mont-Blanc, &c. The colour of such, when culti- 

 vated in a more favourable situation, has been observed to 

 assume a paler character. As for the foliage of the Violet 

 Cane, it is broad and luxuriant, and of a dark green colour : 

 the glumes of the Calyx are purplish, spotted with deeper 

 purple spots ; they are marked with prominent green nerves, 

 the outermost glume having 2 of this description, with 2 

 marginal less distinct, the middle having a dorsal nerve 

 keeled and villose, with the traces of 2 marginal nerves, and 

 the innermost the same as in the last, with the exception that 

 the dorsal nerve is not villose. In the Systema Vegetabilium 

 of Roemer and Schultes, this is set down as a distinct species, 

 under the name of S. violaceum. The only character at all 

 distinctive, is the outer valve of the corolla being 4 nerved — 

 a peculiarity by no means warranting such a division. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR CANE. 



The Cane is a plant of a warm latitude, its growth being 

 in proportion to the heat of the climate, and the fertility of 

 the soil. It may be considered as the production of the 

 highest effort of the powers of vegetation. In almost all 

 other plants, it is only during the germination of the seed, 

 the most active period of their lives, that the sweet principle 

 is to be detected. In the Cane it is at all times to be found, 

 and tJicit in quantities surpassing what exists in all other 

 plants put together. 



It is on our plains that the Cane reaches all the perfection 

 of which it is capable in these islands. Yet, even here, ac- 



