108 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



there are fewer ca on any one branch, and there is therefore less evidence of 

 this tailing ofi. The as, if formed at all into strong shoots, are generally well 

 grown, but of only moderate thickness, 



The elementary facts here detailed, regarding the general course of growth 

 of the cane plant, may with convenience be studied by a glance at the figures 

 on Plate II of Memoir No. Ill, of a Pansahi plant, and the description of this 

 Plate in the text. A more striking example is given in a couple of photographs 

 of Sacdmrum anmdinaceum on Flsite I of the present Memoir, in which the 

 variations in length and thickness of joints are very clearly shown. We may 

 be excused for pointing out, in passing, a curious resemblance between the 

 Pansahi canes and those of this wild Saccharum. Just as the irregularity 

 and disorder of Saccharum spontanemn is seen in the general dissections of 

 the Saretha group, the almost mathematical exactitude of Saccharum arundi- 

 naceum is reproduced in members of the Pansahi group, which, for a moment, 

 suggests the possibility of genetic connection between the latter pair, as well 

 as that now believed to exist between the two former ; but this connection is not 

 confirmed by a general study of the other characters which we have examined. 



We have referred above to the early branching period of the growth of 

 the cane plant, and we may now enquire if there is any indication of the same 

 division into the two periods — tillering and elongating— which is seen in grasses 

 {cf. pp. 52-55). The matter is complicated by the fact that there is not neces- 

 sarily a flowering period in the sugarcane, when all the shoots are thrust simul- 

 taneously upwards, although the canes cannot attain their proper dimensions 

 without being pushed up into the light and air. Furthermore, as soon as 

 a cane shoot has attained its full thickness, it starts gTowing onwards in the 

 upright direction exactly like a palm tree, and there is no halt in this upward 

 growth until the inevitable slowing down towards harvest time. Thus, while 

 one shoot is engaged in attaining its full thickness and giving ofi what branches 

 are likely to have a chance of development, beneath the surface, another is 

 already well formed, well above the ground and rapidly forming solid cane. 

 We cannot therefore easily separate the growth of the plant, as a whole, into a 

 tillering and elongation period, as in grasses. But this is less di£&cult where some 

 external factor acts as a restrainer on the early growth of the plant. Such, as 

 already noted, are the dry spell in the north of India during the early months of 

 the year after planting, which tends to prolong the tillering period, and the drought 

 in the Godavari District, caused by the annual cleaning out of the canals, often, 

 as already mentioned, accompanied by a determined attack of shoot borer, which 

 kills each shoot as soon as it emerges above ground. But, when we consider 



