Emerson.] 142 • [February. 



of this extension of the sugar culture would be incomplete, without 

 some account of the almost simultaneous introduction of another kind 

 of cane derived from Africa, which for its sugar-making capacities, 

 and other valuable purposes in extra-tropical situations, stands the 

 rival of the Sorghum. I refer to the Iniphee, or African sugar-cane. 

 The introduction of the Chinese Sorghum into the Western World 

 appears to have been a somewhat fortuitous event. Not so, however, 

 with that of the African cane, or Imphee, for which Europe and 

 America stand indebted to the intelligence and well-directed enter- 

 prise of Mr. Leonard Wray, a professed sugar manufacturer, and 

 author of books upon the subject. He informs us that whilst engaged 

 in researches upon sugar-making, his mind became strongly impressed 

 with the idea that " the reed," " the sweet reed," made such frequent 

 mention of by ancient writers, as used by the natives of Morocco, 

 Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and India, for the purpose of making sugar, 

 or jaggery, did not in all cases mean the tropical sugar-cane, but 

 that some other reed-like plant was more probably referred to. Im- 

 pelled by this impression, Mr. Wray at length determined to make 

 explorations himself in Southern Africa, and for this purpose, left 

 Calcutta in 1850 for the Gape of Good Hope. From thence he made 

 a journey to Kafl&rland, and in 1851, the very year that the seed of 

 the Chinese Sorghum were sent from China by Count de Montigny, 

 he found a species of cane, called by the Zulu Kafl&rs Imphee. This 

 he describes as a tall, slender, and very elegant plant, with light 

 and graceful leaves, and tints bright and varied in different stages of 

 its growth, exhaling a perfume strong and agreeable, somewhat re- 

 sembling that of rich new honey. 



Subsequently following up his researches, he sent out the most 

 intelligent natives he could find, to collect seed of the different kinds 

 of Imphee to be met with, and thus succeeded in obtaining no less 

 than fifteen varieties of the plant, differing more or less from each 

 other in external characters, saccharine richness, and periods of ma- 

 turation. The several varieties of this family of plants, such as the 

 Durra, Kaflar corn, or Guinea corn, are cultivated by the natives of 

 difierent parts of Africa for their grain only, but Mr. Wray informs 

 us, the Iniphee is grown by the Kaffirs solely for its sweet juice, and 

 never, to his knowledge, for its grain. They do not make from it 

 either syrup or sugar, but content themselves with masticating and 

 sucking the juice as an article of food. Mr. Wray tells us that it 

 remains to be ascertained, whether we can, by adopting proper mea- 

 sures, obtain hybrids between the Imphee and sugar-cane. 



