80 



TILLKRTNG IN INDIAN SUGARCA^^Eg 



of tbo canes of different ages. The sucrose does, it is true, show a regular 

 decline in the later formed shoots, but this is exactly what would be expected 

 from their increasing immaturity. When, on the other hand, we analyse the 

 figures given for the healthy, well matured 1894 crop, it is not easy to follow the 

 author's conclusions. The average weight of the twenty parents was 2-01 lb. 

 while that of the 119 branches was 2-03 lb. Among the latter, 89 shoots, 

 developed during May and June, weighed on the average 1-97 lb., while the 

 thirty later ones, developed in June and July, averaged 2*22 lb. These figures, 

 indeed, rather point to an increase in weight in the later formed canes. As 

 to sucrose, the 20 parents averaged 1342 per cent., the 89 of May and June 

 12-27 per cent., and the 30 of June and July 12-47 per cent. Here there is a 

 marked difference between parent and branches, but no fall in the sugar 

 content of the branches during the season, as claimed by the author. There 

 are two canes, however, at the end of the series, which stand out as heavy, 

 and three with high sucrose content ; Stubbs draws attention to these, as 

 exceptions, without being able to explain their meaning. It is possible, with 

 our experience in stool dissections, to throw some light, at any rate, on the 

 two heavy ones. 



From the details given by the author on the branching of one plant, we 

 can, without difficulty, reconstruct the scheme of its branching. There were 

 five mature canes and 12 shoots of 5-6 feet in length, whose distribution is 

 given in detail, and the reconstruction is given in Figure 1. This distributio)i 

 is in general agreement with what we should expect in the branching of a 

 thick cane in the time. Starting with this as a basis, we are also able to build 

 up average schemes for the matured canes of the 1894 and 1895 crops, since 

 the relative numbers of parents and branches are given in the tables. These 

 are given in Figures 2 and 3 for 1894 and in Figures 4 and 5 for 1895. 



bl tS 



b* b! 



ci bl kj bs a b* bi 



f,f3 



1895 



f,f4 



The two exceptional canes in 1894 crop were produced at the end of tin; 

 branching season (June-July) and were considerably heavier than those 



