VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. SUGAR. 143 



they require from twelve to fourteen months. Those which are 

 grown from planted slips, are plant-canes, those which sprout up from 

 the old stems, are rattoons. After being cut, the canes are crushed 

 (the pressed canes being called begass), the saccharine juice is ex- 

 tracted, evaporated, and crystallized, as Eaw or Muscovado sugar, 

 which is afterwards refined in vacuo, so as to form loaf sugar. 



305. In 1844, the gross amount of sugar entered for consumption 

 in the United Kingdom was 4,139,994 cwt. The quantity of sugar 

 produced from the sugar cane in different parts of the world, in 1839, 

 has been thus estimated : 



British Sugar Colonies, 3,571,378 cwt. 



British India 519,126 



Danish West Indies, 450,000 



Dutch West Indies, 260,000 



French Sugar Colonies, 2,160,000 



United States of America, 900,000 



Brazil, 2,400,000 



Java, 4,481,342 



306. Maple Sugar is much used in America. It is procured from 

 the sugar maple by making perforations in the stem, and allowing the 

 sweet sap to flow out. Two or three holes, at the height of eighteen 

 or twenty inches from the ground, are said to be sufficient for an 

 ordinary tree. The season of collecting is from the beginning of Feb- 

 ruary to the middle of April. Beet sugar is the produce of the root 

 of Beta vulgaris, and is extensively manufactured in many parts of the 

 continent. In the year 1841, there were 142,518 acres in France 

 planted with beet-root for sugar, and the quantity of sugar produced 

 was 31,621,923 kilogrammes, (one killogramme being equal to about 

 2 1 Ibs.). Manna sugar, or Mannite, differs from the others in not being 

 fermentescible. Its composition is, C 6 H 7 O 6 . It is the chief ingre- 

 dient of Manna, which exudes from the Ornus europasa and rotundi- 

 folia. From Sicily and Calabria it is exported under the name of 

 flake-manna. Mannite is found in the juices of Mushroom, in Celery, 

 and in Laminaria saccharina, and Eucalyptus mannifera. Dr. Sten- 

 house has determined the quantity of Mannite in some sea- weeds as 

 follows : 



Laminaria saccharina, 12 to 15 per cent, of Mannite. 



Halydris siliquosa, 5 to 6 per cent. 



Laminaria digitata, 4 to 5 per cent. 



Fucus serratus, rather less 



Alaria esculenta, about the same 



Khodomenia palmata, 2 to 3 per cent. 



Fucus vesiculosus, 1 to 2 per cent. 



Fucus nodosus nearly same. 



Knop and Schnederman have detected Mannite in Agaricus piperatus, 

 and other chemists have found it in Cantharellus esculentus, and 

 Clavaria coralloides. 



