114 TRIANDRIA. 



latitude, and in southern latitudes it is raised 2000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. The same weight of Wheat yields a 

 greater quantity of flour than any other grain. It is also 

 more nutritious than any other flour. The straw of Wheat is 

 manufactured into hats and bonnets. It is said that the best 

 straw for these purposes grows on dry, chalky lands. Leg- 

 horn hats are made from the straw of a bearded variety of 

 Wheat which resembles Rye. 



Fig. 156. 



GENUS Saccharum, Fig. 156, Su- 

 gar Cane. Name from the Greek 

 sakkar, which is said to come from 

 the Arabic soukar. 



The character of the genus is, 

 glume, two-valved, two-flowered, 

 enveloped in long wool, flowers in 

 a panicle, leaves flat. The stem of 

 the Sugar Cane is a culm, so that 

 with Wheat, Rye, Barley, &c., it 

 is one of the grasses. The Sugar 

 Cane was unknown to the ancients, though of such vast im- 

 portance in modern times. There are many varieties of this 

 genus, both wild and cultivated, which grow in various parts 

 of the East Indies The species called the Common Sugar 

 Cane, is that which is cultivated for the extraction of sugar. 

 The first distinct account of this plant appears to be about 

 the middle of the 12th century, just prior to which, the Vene- 

 tians imported it from the vicinity of the Red Sea. Its native 

 country is probably India. It is supposed to have been intro- 

 duced into Sicily, Crete, and Rhodes, by the Saracens, as 

 sugar was made in these Islands about the middle of the 15th 

 century, and before the discovery of the West Indies. The 

 Dutch began to make sugar on the island of St. Thomas, in 

 1610, and the English in Barbadoes, 1643. Since these 

 times, the culture of the Sugar Cane has become general in 

 nearly all warm climates, so that sugar now forms one of the 

 first articles of commerce all over the world. It was first 

 used in England in about 1466, when it was offered only at 

 feasts, and employed in medicine. It was then probably im- 

 ported from Sicily. In the West Indies it is propagated by 



What is the derivation of saccharum ? Was sugar known to the an- 

 cients, or not ? What is supposed to have been the native country of the 

 gugar cane 1 When and where is sugar said to have been first manufac- 

 *ured ? When was sugar first used in England ? 



