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220 NATURAL AFFINITIES—INFERENCES. 
found the Boom-vwa-na and the Oom-see-a-na quite as 
sweet, and, in my estimation, their juices are superior to it 
in some points. My Zulus have told me that under favor- 
able circumstances the Nee-a-za-na frequently ripens in 
seventy-five days; and my head-man (a most intelligent 
native plowman) declares that he has had them from his 
own land as sweet as any sugar cane. From my own 
actual experience I found that they ripened in about three 
months, and that they were the softest and most abounding 
in juice of any. With my mill, I obtained seventy per 
cent. of juice, much still remaining in the trash, and the 
saccharometer showed fifteen per cent. of sugar after 
cold defecation. This, then, for European culture is a 
perfect gem of a plant; one which will be anxiously 
sought after, and very generally cultivated throughout 
Europe at least. In two months after the first cuttings I 
have had the ratoons six feet high, and in flower. The Nee- 
a-za-na is a very small sized variety, but tillers out greatly, 
having sometimes fifteen stalks to one root. I have had 
its stalks varying from four ounces to twelve ounces in 
weight, but they do grow rather larger than this. It 
always appeared to me that their juice was more mucila- 
ginous, and abounding in facule than the two varieties I 
have just mentioned. The seed head is very bushy and 
branchy, and, when thoroughly ripe, the seeds are large, 
round and plump. 
“ Boom-vwa-na is a most excellent and valuable variety, . 
of which I have eaten single pieces, containing certainly 
two or three per cent. more sugar than the average juice 
obtained from large bundles of stalks taken as they come. 
This average juice never contained less than fifteen per 
cent. of sugar, as indicated by the saccharometer, after 
the raw juice had been cold defecated ; and there is a clear- 
ness, a brightness, and a genuine sugar cane sweetness in 
