154 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



species grows in the whole of South America as far as 

 five thousand feet of altitude. It is mentioned^ in 

 Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica, and Cuba, but it must 

 be observed that it multiplies easily by suckers, and 

 that it is often planted far from dwellings to form 

 fences or to extract from it the fibre known as jpite, and 

 this makes it difiicult to ascertain its original habitat. 

 Transported long since into the countries which border 

 the Mediterranean, it occurs there with every appearance 

 of an indigenous species, although there is no doubt as 

 to its origin.^ Probably, to judge from the various uses 

 made of it in Mexico before the arrival of the Euro- 

 peans, it came originally from thence. 



Sugar-Cane — Saccharum officinarum, Linnaeus. 



The origin of the sugar-cane, of its cultivation, and 

 of the manufacture of sugar, are the subject of a very 

 remarkable work by the geographer, Karl Ritter.^ I need 

 not follow his purely agricultural and economical details ; 

 but for that which interests us particularly, the primitive 

 habitat of the species, he is the best guide, and the facts 

 observed during the last forty years for the most part 

 support or confirm his opinions. 



The sugar-cane is cultivated at the present day in all 

 the warm regions of the globe, but a number of historical 

 facts testify that it was first grown in Southern Asia, 

 whence it spread into Africa, and later into America. 

 The question is, therefore, to discover in what districts 

 of the continent, or in which of the southern islands of 

 Asia, the plant exists, or existed at the time it was first 

 employed. 



Ritter has followed the best methods of arriving at a 

 solution. He notes first that all the species known in a 



1 Grisebach, Fl. of Brit. W. Ind. Is., p. 582. 



^ Alph. de Caudoile, Geogr. Bot. Raisonne'e, p. 739 ; H. Hoffmann, in 

 Eegel's Garteri flora, 1875, p. 70. 



* K. Eitter, Ueher die Geographische Yerhreitv.ng des ZucTcerrohrs, 

 in 4to, 108 pages (according to Pritzel, Thes. Lit. Bot.) ; Die Cultur 

 des Zuclcerrohrs, Saccharum, in Asien, Geogr. Verbreitung, etc., etc., in 

 8vo, 64 pages, -without date. This monograph is full of learning and 

 judgment, worthy of the best epoch of German science, when English 

 or French authors were quoted by all authors with as much care as 

 Germans. 



