16 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
fully worthy of the encomiums which have been bestowed 
upon it by its various European cultivators, but that there 
may be in use in China other plants of inestimable value, 
which have not as yet been brought to our attention at all. 
As a corroboration of this position, we have only 
to remember the early history of the sugar cane cul- 
tivated in our southern states. The art of cultivating 
the sugar cane was practiced in China from the highest 
antiquity; and yet, so moderate were the means of 
intercourse with that nation, that it was unknown to the 
ancient Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, or Romans; and it 
was not until the end of the thirteenth century that it 
passed into Arabia. From Arabia it was carried by the 
merchants to Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia. 'The Moors 
obtained it from Egypt, and the Spaniards from the 
Moors. In the fifteenth century the cane was intro- 
duced into the Canary islands by the Spaniards, and 
subsequently into Madeira by the Portuguese; thence 
it found its way into the West India Islands and 
the Brazils. Previous to the year 1466, sugar was 
known in Kurope only as a medicine, brought, as were 
costly spices, from the East, and bearing the name of 
‘“‘Tndian salt;” and though it was cultivated in a few 
places on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, still it 
was not more generally used on the Continent. 
With these historical facts in view, how shall we be 
authorized in the assertion that the Chinese Sugar Cane 
should have of right been known to us before? The fact 
is, that were it not for the merest accident, even to this 
day we should not have been called upon to discuss its 
merits, or have been put in possession of its riches. 
