512 Voyage of the Novara, 



important, articles of export from the vast Empire of China, 

 we cannot refrain from indulging in a few remarks upon some 

 useful products of that country, which seem to us of more 

 than merely commercial importance. Among these we shall 

 notice first one of the most valuable rewards bestowed by Na- 

 ture on human industry, the so-called Chinese sugar-cane 

 (^Sorghum, or Holciis saccharatus), which deserves the earnest 

 attention of all European proprietors of land, as it grows in 

 its native country quite in the northern districts, in fact 

 in latitudes where the ordinary cane [Saccharum officinale) no 

 longer flourishes ; because frost and cold are much more con- 

 ducive to its growth than the opposite extreme, so that it 

 would seem to be specially adapted for cultivation in South- 

 ern Europe. 



The first attempt to cultivate this cane in Europe was made, 

 if we are rightly informed, at the Hyk-es islands by Count 

 David de Beauregard, from seeds which M. de Montigny had 

 sent home to the Geographical Society of Paris, while other 

 attempts were made at the same time in various parts of 

 France by the Societe t/' Acclimatisation. The results surpassed 

 the most sanguine expectations. From the stem there was ob- 

 tained a juice from which sugar and alcohol, syrup and 

 brandy, can be easily made. The abundant leaves, five or 

 six feet long, furnished a considerable quantity of cattle with 

 most nutritive food ; the seeds were used as food for poultry, 

 and were even substituted with advantage for barley in the 

 provender supplied to horses, so that the experiment at once 



