134 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



of which have been discussed in Memoir III. These sections are separated, 

 in the first place, by having red-brown and green stems at maturity. Of the 

 members dealt with in this paper, Kufha in the Punjab, and Chin and Saretha 

 in the western United Provinces belong to the first section : the second section 

 includes Khari^ in Bengal, HuUu Kahhu on the western coast of the Penin- 

 sula and Ganda Cheni in Mysore ; the distribution of the two sections is thus 

 seen to be geographical, the noithern members being thinner and more primi- 

 tive. The Green section of the Saretha group appears to approach the 8un- 

 nabile group in many particulars. As might be expected, the forms indigenous 

 to the Peninsula are much more at home on the Cane-breeding Station, and 

 this renders the comparison of the two sections, as regards formulae, difficult. 

 It is probable that the branching of the Red-brown section is more complicated 

 than that in the Green section, but this does not show up very clearly for the 

 reasons given. The rate of cane formation is very nnich more rapid in the 

 Red-brown section. 



The arrangement of the canes in the clump is characterized by irregularity, 

 canes being produced at all angles, with the outer ones often spreading widely 

 or even prostrate. An intricate mass is thus formed, and, as the attachments 

 are very thin and brittle, dissection, especially in the Red-brown section, 

 is verv difficult. There are, in most of the varieties, a large number of runners 

 and the spacing of the canes in the clump is due rather to their irregular 

 arrangement and the presence of these runners than to orderly curving of 

 the outer branches, in this character resembling Sa<;clmrum spontanevm. 

 The canes are long-jointed, knotted and zigzag, and vary little in thickness 

 in different parts of their length, and there is less ovalness than in most other 

 groups^ (Pis. XX and XXI). 



The appended tables give the varietal formulae, and the average length 

 of basal parts, length of joints in the lower two feet and thickness at two feet 

 from the base. There is, generally, a marked difference between the branches 

 of different orders. Owing to the comparative absence of curvature in the 

 younger branches, the length of the basal part of the cane does not increase 

 rapidly from h onwards. 



1 There appear to be several cane varieties included under this name, as in Barmiklia. 

 Ketarl, CJn/nia, etc. One Khari in our collection is fairly obviously a Pansahi cane. 



2 For fuller descriptions of some varieties in this group, see Mem. I. where the primitive 

 Punjab forms are described, and Mom. Ill, where the general characters of the group and its 

 «iecti(ms are given in some detail. 



