BOTANICAL CHARACTERS. 201 
other hand, where strong, distinctive habits and properties 
are manifested by each, necessity requires the employment 
of means and processes adapted to those peculiarities. 
1. BoranticaAL CHARACTERS.—Both plants are members 
of the natural family Graminewx—the grasses—to which 
also maize, millet, rice and our common cereal grains are 
referred. Unlike the latter, however, but like maize, they 
have solid pithy stems, charged with a saccharine juice. 
Southern Sugar Cane, or Saccharum Officinarum. 
GEN. CHar.—Spikelets all fertile, in pairs, one sessile, 
the other stalked, two-flowered, lower floret neuter, with 
1 palea, the upper hermaphrodite, with 2 pale. Glumes 
2, membranous, subequal, concave. Palez thin, transpa- 
rent. Stamens 1—3, styles 2, stigmas feathered with 
simple toothletted hairs. 
Spe. Cuar.— Culm solid with pith, closely jointed 
(joints about three inches or more apart), about 14 inch 
diameter, brittle, of a green hue, verging to yellow at 
maturity, 8—15 feet high in Louisiana, sometimes 20. feet 
in the tropics. Leaves flat, linear lanceolate, 3 or 4 feet long, 
1 to 2 inches broad, of a sea-green tint, striated, fall off as 
the plant matures. Panicle 1 to 2 feet long, pyramidal, 
of a gray color from the long, white, silky hairs that sur- 
round the flower. 
There are several distinct varieties, such as the common 
yellow or Creole cane, the purple, giant, and Tahiti or 
Olaheitan. All, except the last, native in Southeastern 
Asia. The Otaheitan cane was obtained from Otaheite, 
one of the Society Islands. 
