750 ORD. LI. Gramina. saccHARUM OFFICINARUM, 
two valves, which are oblong, or lancé-shaped, pointed, erect, 
concave, equal, and the base surrounded with long woolly hairs: 
the coroJla is composed of two valves, shorter than those of the 
calyx, and of a fine delicate texture: the nectarium is divided into 
two leafits: the filaments are three, capillary, of the length of the 
corolla, and furnished with oblong antherz: the germen is oblong, 
and supports two feathered styles, terminated by a plumose stigma: 
the seed is oblang, and is invested by the corolla. 
The Sugar Cane is a native of Africa, and Lower Asia, as the 
East Indies and Arabia felix; it is also said to grow spontaneously 
in America; but others assert that it was unknown in these regions 
till Europeans possessed it. For a considerable time however it, 
has been industriously cultivated in the American Islands situated 
within the tropics, and was two centuries ago introduced into the 
garden of that assiduous botanist Mr. Gerard. 
We have before remarked on the subject of manna, that several 
vegetables secrete a sweet or saccharine juice, easily converted 
into sugar. The Arundo Bambo L. distils from its joints a fluid, 
which, by the heat of the sun, concretes into sugar, and is col- 
lected for use.* A considerable quantity of Sugar is annually ob- 
tained in America from the Acer saccharina, a species of Maple. 
The inhabitants of New Spain procure Sugar from the Agaye 
americana: it is likewise obtained from the Astlepias syriaca, and 
_Zea Mays. Nor are the inhabitants of the northern regions wholly 
destitute of vegetables which furnish this useful aries ; for at 
Kamschatska it is produced from the Heracleum Sy Rennes 
and fucus saccharinus.’ — 
The plant here figured affords the Sugar i in common use, which 
is prepared from its expressed juice, boiled with the addition of 
quick lime, or the common vegetable alkali. The boiling is 
* See Pison. Mant. Aromat. p. 186. It is also procured from the Borassus 
fiabelliformis & Cocos nucifera. 
> Several roots and fruits likewise afford Sugar. * The use of this is to imbibe 
the superfluous acid. og 
