VARIATION IX THE CANE AND CAXE VARIETIES 



59 



The Uba Cane. — This cane is of peculiar interest and history. It first 

 appears in the more recent history of the cane as one of a number imported 

 to Mauritius from Brazil in 1869^, and it is mentioned as a well-estabhshed 

 variety in Brazil in a report appearing in the Sugar Cane for June, July and 

 August, 1879. 



In 1882 and 1883 Messrs. Daniel de Pass it Co., of Reunion, Natal, im- 

 ported canes from both ^Mauritius and India. Among these was one bag 

 with a damaged label on which was to be read the letters " Uba," and 

 these letters were taken to be but a part of the name of the cane, and hence 

 arose a legend that the Uba cane represented another with a longer name 

 containing these letters, whereas actually the correct name had been de- 

 ciphered from the damaged label. 



]\Iore lately Barber has recognised this cane as one of the Pansahi group 

 indigenous to Northern India ; and its presence in Brazil, evident^ from 

 early times, is unexplained. The most reasonable supposition is that it 

 was brought by the Portuguese from India, and not as the writer once 

 suggested that it is the original Creole cane which travelled from India 

 via the Mediterranean to the West Indies. 



The origin of the word Uba is to be found in Piso's^^ description of 

 Brazil (1658) where Viba (and elsewhere Vt{ba) is given as the native Brazilian 

 term for a reed, and was used at that time as a s\-nonym of the sugar cane. 

 To this cane is also attached the terms '■* Japanese Cane," " Kavengire " 

 (e\ddently a corruption and misapplication of Cavengerie) , and in Argentina 

 " Bambou de Tabandi " and " Sin Nombre 54." 



This cane is very different from other cultivated varieties. It is only 

 about half an inch in diameter, with internodes up to six inches long. It is 

 of a green colour, with a very heavy coating of wax, gi^ ing it a bluish bloom, 

 and it contains an exceptional quantity of fibre, reaching up to 17 per cent. 

 The juice afforded by it is of reasonable density and purity. 



The Z%\-inga cane, also in some cases called Japanese Cane, is similar, vnih 

 the exception of a swollc^n node, that of the Uba being equidiametrical 

 with the intemode. The appHcation of the term " Japanese " merely 

 implies that at some time these canes travelled from India to Japan, and 

 thence to other parts of the world. 



Plate X (page So) shows the cane, as dra\\Ti from a specimen obtained 

 in Porto Rico, with ascertained pedigree from Brazil, via Argentina. 



The Elephant Cane. — This cane was originally described by Loureiro^"- 

 as growing in Cochin China, and it has acquu-ed a certain celebrity in the 

 hterature of the cane. It is stated that it is allowed to grow undisturbed 

 for five or six years as an ornamental plant, when it reaches a height of thirty 

 feet. It is of no importance as a sugar producer, although it has not in- 

 frequently been tried on the large scale. The Elephant cane is figured by 

 Soltwedel-^ under the name of Teboe Gadjah as of a very dark greenish-grey, 

 almost black colour, irregularly blotched with, greenish-yellow patches. The 

 name does not apparently refer to its size but to its use as a food for elephants. 



Indian Canes. — Although India is the oldest of all cane-growing countries, 

 it is only of quite recent years that detailed studies of the numerous varieties 

 indigenous to that peninsula have been made. This neglect is aU the more 

 unfortunate since these Indian canes are radically distinct from the varieties 

 grown elsewhere, the origin of most of which is the South Pacific. In the 



