142 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



Mungo Group. 



The Mungo group cau at once be separated from the other indigenous 

 canes of India by the dwarf, bushy habit of its members. This varies, it is 

 true, in the group itself and with the locality. Kuswar, for instance, sometimes 

 grows to quite a respectable h.eight, as at Shabjahanpur and at Pusa, while 

 it is as short as the others at Coimbatore ; it is therefore somewhat difficult 

 to draw the line, from the habit alone, between the Mungo varieties and the 

 taller transitional forms, Bodi, Sanaohi and possibly Dhmilu of Phillaur 

 which have been placed in the unclassified list. But, in comparison with some 

 others, the group is remarkably homogeneous. In the six varieties selected 

 at haphazard for dissscbion, Kharwi shows itself to be somewhat different, 

 in its branching and especially in the rate of cane-formation, from the rest, 

 and Katara is between Kharwi and the others in the latter respect. But, as a 

 whole, the group is markedly late in maturing. It must however be especially 

 emphasized that the diagrams of canes at harvest are not altogether comparable 

 among the varieties themselves nor mth those of other groups, and for the 

 following reasons. The shortness of the joints often causes there to be a large 

 number of buds on the set, and a correspondingly large number of individual 

 plants in the clump, with a consequent abbreviation of the plant formulse. 

 Thus, Hemja has fifteen plants in the three clumps, Rlieora fourteen in three 

 clumps, Katara fourteen in four clumps, Mungo and Kuswar ten in three 

 clumps, while Kharwi has only four plants in two clumps. In Hemja two clumps 

 have seventeen plants between them (Plate XVI), while in Kuswar there is 

 one clump with only a single plant growing (Plate XXVIII). Taking these 

 facts into consideration, the typical plant formula of canes at harvest in this 

 group is a very extended one, being, even as it is, on a par with those of the 

 Saretha and Pansahi groups. 



In habit, the Mungo varieties assume the form of a low bush, mth very 

 short, thickish canes, and a uniform mass of drooping leaves all round. The 

 canes are white in the Cane-breeding Station, but in North India often assume 

 delicate rosy tints. The form of the dissected mass of canes is a rounded cup 

 or bowl (Plate XXVIII), and the individual canes are straight or slightly 

 curved, uniform, short-jointed and without prominent nodes, in these respects 

 somewhat reminding one of abbreviated Sunnabile canes. The limits of the 

 growth rings are usually very indefinite, there is a strongly marked, thin scar 

 line, and the buds have blackened flanges. The leaves are rather narrow and 

 the leaf sheaths long. These characters, together with the habit, make the 

 group a very distinct one, and it is difficult to obtain connecting links between 



