5 Dijfertat'ion on the Hi/lory of Sj/gar. 



feems to have enlertaiued lome degree of doubt when he 

 fays, — " it forms itfelf into concretions, as ive are told, 

 around the reeds," This account alfo may be rendered ftill 

 more lufpicious wl.en we refleft upon the many ridiculous 

 things which both the antienls and moderns have related re- 

 fpefting articles brought from diftant countries by merchants, 

 who, for the moft part, are inierefted in concealing ihe real 

 nature of their merchandize under falfe accounts. Nor do 

 I fee any arguments to confute thofe who might affert that 

 Pliny and Dioi^coridcs were deceived by merchants ; fo that 

 thefe two naturalifts believed the faccharum, which was aa 

 exprefled juice, condenfed by art and the help of fire, to be 

 a certain kind of gum. This doubt I, indeed, cannot re- 

 move; but let us try whether we can produce any thing fa- 

 tisfa6lory by adopting Pliny's opinion, that the antienty^c- 

 charuvi was the work of nature, and not of art. I ihall 

 therefore inquire whether our fugar-cane ever produces fugjy: 

 fpontaneoully ; which, indeed, feems not at all improbable, 

 fince we have camphor both in a natural ftate and produced 

 by art. This queftion, indeed, may be determined by the 

 teftimony of thofe who in India have made this an obje6l of 

 their attention. 



Hernandez, in a book which he wrote on the plants of 

 Mexico*, relates that he had heard that fragments of fugar 

 •were found fometimes adhering to the tops of the canes. 

 Matthiolusf alfo fays, that he had heard from men worthy 

 of credit, who had vifited the ifland of St. Thomas and 

 Madeira, that in thofe i Hands the fvgar is found in a con- 

 crete ftate, like gum, on the fugar canes, by the exuding 

 of the juice, and not unlike that made by art called fugar 

 cajidy. John Langius | faw alfo fugar canes, brought fronj 



* Hernandez thefaiiTUi No'va Hijfunia •■ Roma; 1651, fol. lib. iv. c. 14. 

 P- tii : — Audio nafci fponte fua apud Argcrtanum, quod vocant, fluinen 

 arundines facchaii, arborum magnitudine, quibus (quod dixcrat Plinius 

 in Tcter, quoque orbe evenire) vi folis exprefli facchari orbiculi fiiprcma 

 parte adhxrefcant. 



t Matihlolt Opera, edita a C. Bauhino : Bafilis 1 674, fol. epiftoi. lib. 1. 

 p>76: — Sed an quid pluribus dt his dilputandum, cum muhorum telti- 

 monio ja-n noium fit in infulis, quas Canarias et Divi Tiioma appellant, 

 \\\ iifdem fane calamis, a quibus faccharum exprimunt, illud etiam per fe 

 gigni, et aperto arundinis latere, minare, et gummi mode coalefceie ? qui-. 

 bus facile fubfcribnnt ii, qui hoc a:vo in Indiam navigant. Eteiiim ad 

 BethL-caldm Indiae utruniqut jam Tendi affirmant. 



+ /. Langii Epijlqlcirum Medirhalium Volurncn tiipartilun:, Hannovjae 

 j6o^, i\o. p. 320: Vidi quoque ex Madera in Hifpaniam allatas arundines, 

 q»iibus faccharum purum accreverati qnod ftparatum, ne rtliqui decottio 

 vilefcat, non nifi magni vencunt. 

 6 



Madeira 



