C. A. BARBER 149 



Wild, Sacchariims. 



The wild Saccharums, grown on the Cane-breeding Station for several 

 years, consist of various types of Saccharum spontaneum, Saccharum arundi- 

 naceum and Saccharum Munja, and a single form of Saccharum Narenga. 

 (PI. XXXIV.) The two latter have at various times been more or less carefully 

 sfcudied and dissections made of their underground parts, but, as they do not 

 form canes in the ordinary sense, we have been content, in the present Memoir, 

 with reproducing the diagrams of a couple of clumps, from which their bushy, 

 grass-like habit may be inferred. (PI. XXXVII.) Some idea of their under- 

 ground parts may be obtained from a study of the Plates in Hole's Memoir 

 referred to above. An interesting series of crosses have been raised between 

 the local thick Vellai cane and Saccharum Narenga, which will doubtless well 

 repay a detailed study (c/. Mem. No. II, Plates IXa to XI). 



(1) Saccharum arundinaceum, Ketz., is a very distinct form. It is typically 

 at home in the moister, eastern portions of the north of India and in parts 

 of Burma, where it occurs wild and flowers freely. Elsewhere, although often 

 planted and then growing well, it rarely flowers. In .South India it is constantly 

 planted around the gardens of betel pepper, and shows its-lf well adapted to 

 heavy, water-logged soil. In spite of a diligent search during several years, 

 only isolated cases have been met with where it was in flower, and here the 

 inflorescence was invariably diseased. It has not therefore been possible to 

 obtain crosses with cultivated canes on the farm. 



The species is at once recognizable by its mass of tall, thick, cane-like stems, 

 largely covered by the dead leaf sheaths, its broad curving leaves and the large, 

 dense plumes of white or brownish flowers. The canes have fairly long joints 

 and are distinctly noded. These are peculiar in having only one row of root 

 eyes. The leaves are also distinguished by a mass of long brown hairs extendino- 

 up the base of the lamina on either side of the mid-rib. But these hairs vary 

 in different parts of the plant, and ultimately disappear in the upper leaves, 

 which more resemble those of cultivated canes. These characters of leaf and 

 joint have not been observed in any forms of Sacclmrum officinarnm, which 

 closely resembles Saccharum spontaneum in these and other respects. There 

 is, of course, also the difference in the hairy vestiture of th.e flowers, which 

 separates Saccharum arundinaceum, and puts Saccharum spontaneuin and the 

 cultivated canes into the same botanical section. 



The branch iiig of Sacclmrum arundinaceum is characterized all through 

 by its symmetrical development. The canes are erect and parallel, often 



