52 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



It is true that all the canes seein to be similar in some cases, but in others it 

 is not unusual to note thin, yellow, sprawling canes developed first, these 

 succeeded by redd'sh tinged slanting canes, while the latest formed are thick 

 and dark purple ; and all sorts of such colour variations may be detected, 

 as weU as variations in thickness and erectness. We do not as yet know 

 whether this variability is lianded on to the next generation, when the 

 seedling is grown vegetatively, or whether only one of the forms of cane noted 

 is characteristic of the future crop cane, but experiments are being conducted 

 to determine th^'s point, which is of considerable moment for the proper 

 selection of seedlings. 



(2) Periods of growth. 



The great bulk of the Order Graminese consists of grasses, and it will be 

 of interest briefly to consider their mode of branching, in order to see in what 

 respects the sugarcane resembles them — for the sugarcane has often been 

 described as a gigantic grass. There are two well marked phases of develop- 

 ment in grasses, the first, in which the plant remains low and adds shoot to 

 shoot until a dense bush is formed, in which the shoots are often inextricably 

 intertwined and point in all directions ; and, the second, in which the ends of 

 certain of these branches become erect, rapidly increase in length and proceed 

 to form the spikes of flowers and ears of grain. In the first stage the energy 

 of the plant is devoted to multiplying its number of shoots, chiefly by the 

 branching of the underground portion ; in the second, branching ceases 

 and the energy is diverted to pushing the branches high into the air and the 

 formation of flowers whore they can be readily fertilized, and seed where it 

 can be scattered abroad. 



In the sugarcane this division into periods of growth is to a certain extent 

 hidden, in that, both in seedlings and set plants, each shoot, as soon as it is 

 formed, pushes into the air and grows steadily upwards to form the aerial stem 

 or cane. Flowering is a matter of secondary importance, and has largely 

 fallen into desuetude from long propagation by the vegetative method. This 

 is especially so in North India, where flowering is rare, but, in the Peninsula, 

 as in most tropical countries, flowering takes place regularly towards the close 

 of the growing season, and the fields then present a mass of feathery plumes 

 over the whole area (c/. PI. V, Memoir II). It may be noted, in passing, that 

 the time of flowering does not coincide with that of reaping the crop, as these 

 two periods are induced by very different climatic conditions. Flowering 

 occurs at Coimbatore during the period of greatest rainfall in October and 



