FRUITS 



83 



CHAPTER VIII 

 SUGAR 



SUGAR (from the Arabic, suk kar). The sugar-cane (Sac- 

 charum officinarum) is a kind of grass which grows from ten 

 to twenty feet high. At intervals up the stalks (or canes) 

 there occur joints, and from these joints spring the long flat 

 leaves. The leaves themselves each have a sheath about 

 a foot in length, and a blade three feet or more long. They 

 are about three inches wide, and their edges are finely indented 

 and cut like a sharp saw. 



The joints up the stalk are at first about two inches apart, 

 but they occur at longer and longer intervals and at last there 

 is a long straight un jointed piece of stalk, which is called the 

 arrow. This arrow, or flowering stem, bears a grey, feathery 

 mass of blossom about two feet in length. The flowers them- 

 selves are tiny but very numerous. They are placed all along 

 the stems which grow out from the arrow, and at the base 

 of each flower are long white silky hairs. 



From each joint sprouts a bud, and it is from these buds 

 that the new canes are produced. The ground is cleared and 



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