OTHER USEFUL PLANTS 71 



In the case of the sugar cane, however, it might 

 almost be said that nature has wholly abandoned 

 the idea of provision for the multiplication of the 

 species, and has left the matter entirely to man. 

 For in giving up the habit of seed production, 

 the sugar cane has developed no complementary 

 habit of bulb production. It is propagated by 

 cuttings, but the agency of man is necessary to 

 place those cuttings under proper conditions for 

 growth. 



Left to its own devices, the cane would be 

 likely to give an illustration of race suicide. 



REJUVENATION THROUGH SEED 

 PRODUCTION 



All this, however, seems out of harmony with 

 the illustrative case with which we began. 



For obviously the Trinidad physician could 

 not have found seedlings of the sugar cane unless 

 the sugar cane produced seed. In fact, it does 

 produce seed on very rare occasions, but the habit 

 has been so nearly abandoned that most cultiva- 

 tors of the plant supposed that it had been given 

 up altogether. The Trinidad case, however, 

 shows that nature has not altogether abandoned 

 the sugar cane to the good graces of man. She 

 still on occasions stimulates the plant to a revival 

 of its long- forgot ten custom. And the benefits 



