CHAPTER XXX, 
NATURAL AFFINITIES OF THESE CANES—INFERENCES 
DERIVED THEREFROM. 
The Nature of the Relationship between Chinese Cane, Imphee, etc. 
—Species—Varieties—Are they all of one Species or of several? 
—Facts which throw Light upon this Question—Tests of Specific 
Identity—The Inference that they are of one Species not at vari- 
ance with the Fact of their wide Geographical Distribution—The 
Climate of China—Early Planting of Cane necessary in that 
Country —The Climate of Southeastern Africa—Inferences— 
Precautions to be observed—Mr. Wray’s Account of the Imphee 
Canes of South Africa. 
A KNOWLEDGE of the true nature of these new sugar 
plants, and of their relationship to each other, would en- 
able us to determine how far the very variable characters, 
exhibited by each, are capable of being retained or fixed, 
what probable limits there are to their future improvement, 
and what precautions must be observed in order that the 
saccharine matter in the juice may reach its most perfect 
development. 
The affinities of plants are determined by certain common 
points of resemblance, and naturalists have generally agreed 
in the opinion that, certain peculiarities, which are contin- 
ually reproduced by the individual forms possessing them, 
are characteristic of Species. In other words, species are 
represented by individuals descended from a common stock, 
which invariably retain certain peculiarities of form, etc., 
through all successive generations wherever they are found. 
(210) 
