208 



SUGAR CANE. 



on American plants, published at Mexico, asserts 

 that the saccharum grows without cultivation, and 

 to an extraordinary size, on the banks of the river 

 Plata ; we are assured by Jean de Lery, a Pro- 

 testant minister, and chaplain to the Dutch garrison 

 at Fort Coligny, on the river Janeiro, during the 

 sixteenth century, that he found sugar canes in great 



THE SUGAR CANE. 



abundance beside the banks of that river, and in 

 places never visited by the Portuguese. Father 

 Hennepen, and other voyagers, bear testimony in 



