250 APPENDIX. 
MONOGRAPH OF THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE, 
CALLED THE SUGAR SORGHO. 
BY DOCTOR ADRIEN SICARD, 
Secretary of the Marseilles Horticultural Society, Member of the Imperial 
Acclimation Society, etc., ete. Marseilles, 1856. 
CHAPTER V. 
Studies in the Structure and Intimate Composition of the Chinese 
Sugar Cane. 
Let us take a joint of the cane, deprived of the clasping part of 
the leaf, designated by the name petiole or footstalk, and let us study 
it from exterior to the interior. 
Immediately beneath the footstalk we find a deposit of cerosie, 
which completely covers the epidermis of the cane. This deposit, 
which is but slightly apparent midway between the knots, under the 
footstalks is considerable enough, on the contrary, from its being pro- 
tected from the contact with the air. Some canes will even manifest 
this same substance on their leaves. This is called cerosze because of 
its resemblance to wax (c7re.) 
The cerosie being passed, we come to the epidermis, or outside coat ; 
this is thin, very strong, tinted usually with colors of straw color, 
yellow, apple green, and rose color, passing into a violet when the cane 
is too ripe. If a piece of this epidermis be magnified to five hundred 
diameters, it appears to the eye like the bark of the elm as seen in 
nature by the naked eye, especially if the examination be made on the 
portion covered with cerosie. If the fragment of epidermis be turned 
so as to present the interior face, there will be seen angular protuber- 
ances, which correspond with the joints of the cells, and filaments 
running in a direction from above to below, or from knot to knot, of 
the stalk. Whatever pains be taken to separate the epidermis of the 
cane, some fragments of cells will always be seen adherent. 
I submitted the epidermis to the action of pure sulphuric acid* ; 
* All my studies of organic chemistry with the view of discovering the intimate 
structure of the Chinese Sugar Cane have been made under the microscope. 
