September 21, 1874. ] JOURNAL OF IIORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE CABDENEK. 



277 



rodes must be acknowledged to be pretty objects as they dis- 

 play themselves on the leaves when the day is calm, their 

 beauty being brought out fully to view by a hand-magnitior. 

 The gardener, however, is aware that if not bo troublesome as 

 the aphis, they are no friends of his, and their minute size 

 makes it more difficult to deal with them. Though they 

 resort at times to the lofty Oak, they do not disdain under 

 certain circumstances the culinary Cabbage, and various plants 

 and trees afford them a comfortable abode besides these 

 extremes. But as compared with the abundant aphid;e, the 

 Aleyrodidre are rather uncommon insects, though in this season 

 I have seen many parties of them about, for they delight to 

 associate in groups on the " happy family " principle. They 

 are kept under by parasitic enemies. A Cynips kills many of 

 them, and also an Acarus. Nor are these all, we may presume ; 

 at least it is only in that way we can account lor Alejrodes 

 having fewer representatives than aphis, for if lot alone it has 

 been found by an ingenious calculation that a father and 

 mother can in one year boast of a posterity of two hundred 

 thousand individuals, and, accordiug to the' observations of 

 Ei'aumur, these insects can bid defiance to the cold, and go 

 through all their changes in winter as in summer. Ho found 

 larva! and pupa;, as well as images, in December and .January ; 

 but I do not think in Britain it has been their usual habit to 

 proceed beyond the end of autumn in their round of life, when 

 they break off and the images usually die, and as it would 

 seem the species is continued into another year by eggs that are 

 hatched in the spring. It is possible that the increasing mild- 

 ness of our winters may make this and other insect pests much 

 more lively than they used to be. 



Aleyrodes proletella, the Cabbage visitant, and the best 

 known of this small group of insects, is about one-eighth of an 

 inch long in its imago state. Without a very minute examina- 

 tion we can see that this insect has not the paps or abdominal 

 appendages noticeable in the aphis tribe, though the grey or 

 powdery appearance causes a marked resemblance to some 

 species of that division of the Homoptera. An Aleyrodes has 

 wings that are almost devoid of nervures, the fore wings having 

 but one passing along the centre; the hind wings are small in 

 proportion. These are all placed in a triangular form when 

 the insect is in repose, and besprinkled with a powdery sub- 

 stance, as also are the rather long black legs. Whether this 

 serves to protect the Aleyrodes from the weather, or deters 

 some of its enemies from approaching it, is to be regarded as 

 doubtful ; the powder may answer both ends, and it is pro- 

 duced in quantity sufficient to be not only on but about the 

 insect as it moves along the leaves, which it does with great 

 deliberation. One peouharity observable in the head is that 

 the eyes are as it were divided in the middle, making it look as 

 if it possessed four of these organs. The familiar " whirl-wig " 

 beetles (Gyrine) have eyes of similar aspect. 



The juices of plants are obtained by means of a rostrum or 

 sucker, which is folded beneath the body when not in action. 

 Though A. proletella has been seen on different plants through- 

 out the summer and autumn, it is in .June and .July that the 

 females have been detected in the act of egg-laying, the 

 patches containing about a dozen, environed of course with 

 the powdery exudation, but not usually covered by the dead 

 body of the parent, as in the scale insects. The young 

 Aleyrodes, however, almost immediately after it bursts the 

 shell grows a sort of scale over itself, under which it advances 

 in a very tortoise-like way along the under side of a leaf, where 

 it might easily escape notice as seeming an object devoid of 

 life. This larva has a short rostriim like the parent, and six 

 pectoral legs. There is a true pupa state intermediate, when 

 the Aleyrodes is attached to the leaf without moving, and 

 covered by the rejected skin of the larva. 



The extirpation of the species of Aleyrodes is sometimes diffi- 

 cult, because the plants they are found upon cannot frequently 

 be fumigated. Hand-picking of the infected leaves, unless 

 done by a practised hand and eye, results in the missing of 

 many of them ; fortunately these insects are rather disfigurers 

 of plants than serious garden pests.^J. E. S. C. 



THE SUGAR CANE 



(SACOHAHUM OFFICINARUM). 



If we were asked which article of food is the most generally 

 approved we should name sugar. In all ages, in all countries, 

 and at all periods of life saccharine substances have been and 

 are desired. One of them was of the two products of the 

 Promised Land held out as specially acceptable to the Israel- 



ites : it was to be " a land flowing with milk and honey." 

 There is reason for believing that the Sugar Cane became 

 known to them, for .Jeremiah and Isaiah both speak of " the 

 sweet Cane from a far country ;" and they probably received it 

 from the same country that afforded them their favoured spice, 

 Cinnamon — namely, the East Indies. The very name Cane is 

 of Hebrew origin. Kaiirli is the Sugar Cane in that language, 

 whence came the Latin L'lmna, and thence our English name. 



Nearchus, Alexander the Great's admiral in the eastern 

 seas, brought the Sugar Cane thence to Europe in the fourth 

 century before the birth of Christ ; and three centuries later 

 Varro speaks of an Indian Cane of largo size from which was 

 " expressed a liquor sweeter than honey." Theopbrastus 

 mentions it as " the honey in reeds." Pliny also describes 

 sugar, and says the best is from India. These authorities con- 

 vince us that the Sugar Cane is a native of the East Indies. 

 I-'rom thence, as we have noted, it was brought to Europe, 

 and seems to have been made known to England by the Cru- 

 saders. The Cane was cultivated in countries adjacent to the 

 Holy Land, and the cultivation lingers still in Sicily and Anda- 

 lusia. Our word sugar is of Arabian derivation, for in Arabic 

 it is siicchar. 



There are three varieties of the Sugar Cane cultivated in 

 India. 1, The Purple-coloured, which grows well on dry land. 

 2, The Pale Yellow, requiring richer soil ; this Cane is sold in 

 the Calcutta bazaars and eaten raw. 3, The White Cane, pre- 

 ferring a swampy soil, and by far the taHest variety. 



The China Sugar Cane was considered by Dr. Roxburgh a 

 different species, and was named by him Saccharum sinensis. 

 There are also in various parts of India varieties known by the 

 local names of Puttaputti, Maracabo, &e. ; but the writer, when 

 in India and seeing the specimens, thought the distinctions 

 trivial. 



The ryots consider the Sugar Cane, and also the Beetel 

 Plant, in a sacred and superior light ; they even place it among 

 the number of their deutohs. The first fifteen days of Koar 

 (or September), termed Peetereputch, are devoted by the Hin- 

 doos to religious ceremonies and offerings on account of their 

 deceased parents, relations, and friends. Such of them as 

 have been bereft of their parents refrain from every indulgence 

 during the said period, as being the season of mourning and 

 mortification ; and as they deem the performance of the higher 

 rites of their religion (such as making offerings of sweetmeats, 

 cloths, jewels, &c., in the temples of their several deities, and 

 also the sacrifices denominated Howm-jugg, Ac), a pleasure 

 and enjoyment, these are likewise carefully avoided. 



The sacred appellation of the Cane amongst the ryots is Nag' 

 bele : and hence, for the reasons above stated, the immediate 

 owners of the Cane plantations sedulously refrain from repair- 

 ing to or even beholding them during the continuance of the 

 Peetereputch. On the 26th of Cartick (or October), termed 

 by the ryots Z)cu(/m», they proceed to the fields, and having 

 sacrificed to Nari' bclc, a few Canes are afterwards cut and 

 distributed to the Brahmins. Until these ceremonies are per- 

 formed according to the rules of estabUshed usage and custom , 

 no persuasion or inducement can prevail upon any of them to 

 taste the dane, or to make any use whatever of it. 



On the 2oth of .Jeyte (or May), termed the Drsliarah, another 

 usage is strictly adhered to. As it is usual with the ryots to 

 reserve a certain portion of the Canes of the preceding year to 

 serve as plants for their new cultivation, it very frequently 

 happens that inconsiderable portions of Cane remain unex- 

 pended after the said cultivation has been brought to a con- 

 clusion. Whereyer this happens to be the case the proprietor 

 repairs to the spot, and having sacrificed to Nay' bctc (as 

 before stated), he immediately sets fire to the whole, and is 

 exceedingly careful to have the operation executed in as com- 

 plete and efficacious a manner as possible. 



The cause of this extraordinary practice proceeds from a 

 superstitious notion of a very singular- kind. The act is com- 

 mitted from an apprehension that if the old Canes were allowed 

 to remain in the ground beyond the 2.5 th of Jeyte they would 

 in all probabihty produce flowers and seed, for the appearance 

 of these flowers they consider as one of the greatest misfor- 

 tunes that can befal them. 



Although the Sugar Cane is a native of the East Indies, and 

 thence became known in Europe, yet we beUeve it is a native 

 also of South America. Sugar is chiefly imported into this 

 country in the state of raw sugar, and molasses or treacle. 

 From the molasses a considerable quantity of crystalUsed 

 sugar ia obtained in this country, and the uncrystallisable 

 portion then remaining constitutes what is called treacle. Raw 



