VARIATION IX THE CANE AND CANE VARIETIES 33 



definitely established in ^la}' of 1S5S,* when an overseer at the Highlands 

 . Plantation in Barbados saw and recognised seedhng canes gro\\ing in the 

 field. He reported their presence to Mr. J. W. Parris, the proprietor, who 

 grew these self-so\%Ti seedlings to maturity, and aftenvards grew four and 

 a half acres of seedling canes. This discovery was put on record in the 

 Barbados Liberal of Februan.'^ 12th, 1S59, ^.nd was confirmed shortly 

 afterwards b\- several local planters. The question was followed up by 

 Driunm^^ in Barbados, who experimented in hybridization, and de\'ised the 

 method of " bagging " the inflorescence referred to later. It does not appear 

 certain that Drumm ever obtained h^^brids, though his commiinications 

 on the matter in the local Barbados press obtained wide publicity in the 

 Sugar Cane, the Produce Markets Review, and in Austraha. 



In 1862 self-so\^-n seedlings were also obsers^ed in Java^^ ; in 1S71 

 these were obtained of intent by Le ^Merle^^ in Reunion, and about the same 

 time the Baron da \Ula. Franca wrote as if the fertility of the cane was a 

 matter of common knowledge in Brazil. All these observations, however, 

 were forgotten, and systematic research work dates from the re-discover\' 

 bv Soltwedel in Java in 18SS and bv Harrison and Bovell in Barbados in 

 18S9. 



Long pre\'ious to this, however, it is possible that seedling selection had 

 been practised by primitive peoples, and it is almost certain that it was as 

 seedhngs that some of the cultivated varieties of cane were originally segre- 

 gated b}' some intelligent and observant savage. Mr. Muir has told the 

 \mter that he saw, during his travels in search of a parasite for the Hawaiian 

 beetle borer, such a process obtaining amongst the New Guinea natives. 

 A seedhng cane, or an}- newh* introduced sexual variant, is then in no ■wise 

 different from any of the older varieties, the sexual origin of which has been 

 forgotten. 



In Java at first the fertility of the cane was regarded as of academic 

 interest only, since it was beheved that the Black Cheribon cane had reached 

 commercial perfection. The development of the Sereh disease in the 'nineties 

 was the stimulant to the use of this method of research in order to obtain 

 improved varieties. In the British West Indies research was begun at once, 

 and was mainly undertaken by Harrison, by BoveU, and by Jeimian. Per- 

 rcmat in Mamitius was also an early worker. A number of years elapsed 

 before Eckart started his experiments in Hawaii, as here also at first a 

 stimulus was wanting. Other workers in this field have been the Littee 

 brothers in ^Martinique, the Hambledon j\Iill in Australia, the Diamond 

 Plantation in Demerara, and more recently the Louisiana State Experiment 

 Station at Audubon Park, and the Experiment Station at Tucuman, Argen- 

 tina. A large number of seedhngs has also been grown at the Soledad 

 Estate of Mr. E. F. Atkins in Cuba by Mr. R. ^I. Grey, but the results have 

 not been made pubhc. The last cane-growing district to fall into line is 

 also the doyen of all, namely, India, and here Barber and Venkataraman^" 

 have initiated a series of studies equally valuable from the academic and 

 the atilitarian aspect. 



Methods of obtaining Seedlings. — The methods under which seedlings 

 are obtained are : — 



been unable to confirm or refute these statements. 



