SACCHARUM 



OFFICINARUM 

 Races 



THE SUGAK-CANE PLANT 



Ganna 

 Canes. 



Description. 



Fungal 

 Disease. 



Races. 



Paunda 

 Canes. 



Edible 

 Canes. 



Description. 



Races. 



Chief 



Indian 



Canes. 



Hadi regards the paunda canes as foreign, but accepts the chin a? 

 indigenous. It seems possible, however, that some ot these may in 

 reality be the survivals of the Chinese canes largely experimented with in 

 these provinces nearly a century ago. 



Group II. The Ganna Canes. Except in a few districts these are 

 grown almost exclusively as edible canes, especially in districts where the 

 paunda canes cannot be successfully raised. They are usually taller and 

 thicker than most of the races of ukh canes, and have longer and broader 

 leaves. The skin is generally hard, but easily removable. The pith is 

 always distinctly softer than in the former group. The central cavity 

 and filaments are also absent and the canes are juicy, though not very rich 

 in sugar. The aerial roots are more largely produced, and the buds are 

 large and more conspicuous than in the ukh canes. But the sugars manu- 

 factured from them are inferior in colour. Lastly, they are very liable to 

 fungal diseases, such as " red smut " (Trichosphaeria Sacchari), and 

 are readily attacked by wild animals and white ants. 



The best-known examples of this group are known as agaul, merthi T 

 dikchan, pansdhi Mid gannd, katdrd, baraukha, tankd and ghorara. Most 

 of these names denote introduction from one district to another, such as 

 Gagaul (agaul), a village in Meerut ; andmerthi, Meerut but Hadi accepts, 

 the majority at least as being indigenous to India. 



Group III. Paunda Canes. These are the acclimatised canes proper, 

 that is to say, those admitted by the people to be of foreign origin, such 

 as the Mauritius, Otaheite, Bourbon, Batavian, China, Singapore, etc.,, 

 discussed above. They are grown almost entirely for chewing, except in 

 one or two localities where they are used for sugar manufacture. Gener- 

 ally speaking, their cultivation is confined to the vicinity of large towns 

 where a ready market may be obtained. High cultivation, involving, 

 heavy expenditure, is an essential feature for the growth of these canes 

 hence they are more profitable as edible canes than as sources of sugar. 



They are tall plants, very thick, with hard skin (easily removable), and 

 soft, fleshy, central solid stems. The leaves are proportionately long and 

 broad, and aerial roots more abundant than in any other canes, but their 

 buds are proportionately small. Many of them have been so long under 

 cultivation in India that they have had local names assigned to them. 

 The best-known examples of this are : (1) Madrasi or thun ; (2) Bombai 

 (red cane of Bombay) ; (3) Saharanpuri ; (4) lal or kola ganna ; (5) 

 Banarsi ; (6) Burmi ; and (7) Poona paunda. 



Standard in Description. Mollison and Leather furnish a diagram 

 showing in outline four forms of cane, and suggest the desirability of future 

 writers accepting these as comparative standards. They furnish parti- 

 culars of 46 canes, but of 11 they have omitted to say to which 

 type they belong, and of 9 more they are apparently not quite certain 

 themselves. The proposed classification would thus seem by no means 

 a very satisfactory one. In type (A) the joints are constricted but the 

 cane not materially swollen, whereas in (C) the joints (nodes) are con- 

 stricted and the internodes distinctly swollen. These would seem to 

 correspond very largely to both the ganna and paunda canes of Hadi's 

 classification. The following are the (A) canes of Mollison and Leather : 

 kali-jadi ; deo-gadi ; Green Mauritius ; rasdali (rasvali, the juicy) ; 

 Yellow-green of Bijapur ; Purple Mauritius (imported in 1893), the 

 rdmrasddli of Kanara ; Streaked cane of Dharwar and Belgaum ; Madrasi 



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