SAC CH ARUM. 715 



r g 



ductive variety. Saccharicm violacemn Tussac, the Batavian (JanCy is 

 also considered to be a variety; but the large 8. chinense Roxb. intro- 

 duced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta,may be a 

 diytinct species; it has a long, slender, erect panicle, while that ofS. offici- 

 narum is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more 

 compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers. 



The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very 

 seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical 

 countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above 

 the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and 

 China up to 30-31° N. lat., the mountainous regions excepted. 



From the elaborate investigations of Ritter,' it appears that Saccha- 

 mm offioinarum was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo- 

 Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other 

 islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is 

 now found anywhere in a wild state. 



History2— The sugar cane was doubtless'known in India from time 

 immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefiy 

 in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar. 



Herodotus, Tlieophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers 

 had some knowledge of raAV sugar, which they speak of as the Hovey of 

 Canes or Honey made by human hands, not that of bees; but it u-as 

 not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients 

 manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name oi 



Saccharon. , . , ,i i 



Thus Dioscorides^ about A.B. 77 mentions the concreted ^^on^y^^jf^^ 

 SaVxapo. found upon canes (eVJ rS^u KaUfim) m India and Arabia 

 Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. 1 in>} 

 evidently knew the same thing under the name ^^^^J^Va ^^7 tS 

 author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, A.D. -^^-^^f^^^f/J^^ 



honey from canes, called aaV/>^ ^^ ^^P^^^^^^ ^f.i pSf^Hum 

 Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the P^'^^^^^^^ 

 Aromatum. that is to W to the coast opposite Aden ^^^^^^^^^^ 

 that period su^ar was produced in Western India, or v.^ brou^nt 

 thither from the Ganges, is a point still douhtful. . .,„.pof cncrar* 



^ Bengal is probably the country of the earhest ^^^f'^^^^^^^ 

 hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and Lui^ea 

 I^ations are derived from the simskrit ^harkam, ^^^^^^ 

 m the shape of small grains or stones. It is strange that tins w 

 contains no allusion to the taste of the substance. ^^^.^^^ ^^^^^ ^,^^ 



An old 

 the word 



Gnla, meaning raio sugar, a term 



^Erdkunde von Asien, ix. West-Aslea, 



-merlin, 1S40 pp 230 '^01 



^ ' The learned investigations of Heyd, a ^'f ^J!^^.^"";;;-^ ' 8omeTiave supposed it 



^evanfehandel, ii. {1879) 665^667, afford f^ }Tsna^TC3.n^ 



exhaustive information about the medicuial to oe ]''/ ,^ )^ In our opinion, there 



history of sugar. .S^""'' ^^ rf^n to conclnile that it Mas 



/The production which the EugMi ^« "^e^V^T 



translators of the Bible have rendered Siveet Casm /.aU. 

 ^^^ne, and wliidi is allude^l to by the pro- ^^^' "• *- 



