C. A. BARBER 



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generally impossible to separate them into early and late, all the intervening 

 stages being present. This would seem to indicate that, throughout the life 

 of the plant, new canes are continuously being formed in these varieties. 



In order to gain further information as to the cause of these differences 

 in the canes of any one clump, a large number of stools of different varieties 

 have been dissected out during the past season. One of these dissections has 

 been detailed above and, among others, six varieties of each of the Sunnabile 

 and Saretha groups have been dealt with. In the Saretha series, Cheni, Chin, 

 Hullu, Khari, Saretha, and Katha, and, in the Sunnabile group, Bansa, Bansi, 

 Dhor, Kaghze, Sunnabile, and Naanal were selected, and the dissections were 

 analysed to see if there was any difference in their mode of branching. This 

 work is to be regarded at present as prehminary, and it is intended to deal 

 with the dissection of six varieties of each of the main classes of indigenous 

 Indian canes on an extended scale during the coming season. The results 

 thus far obtained appear to justify the idea that, by this study, hght will be 

 thrown upon, the relative state of development of the different groups, as 

 compared with the wild Saccharums on the one hand and thick, tropical canes 

 on the other, these two forming the extremes of the series. 



The adjoining table gives the results obtained for the Sunnabile and 

 Saretha classes, in each case the most fully developed stools of those dissected 

 being selected. 



Dissection of clumps in six varieties each of the Saretha and Sunnabile 

 groups {a being the main stem and b, c, d, e, bran.ches of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 

 ■1th orders). 



From this table the following interesting conclusions can be drawn : — 

 ,(1) The Saretha class of canes matures earlier than the Sunnabile, the 

 number of canes forming at 4 months being 6*3 and 2*7 respectively. But 



