158 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



forms ik and akh} But in other languages beyond the 

 Indus, we find a singular variety of names, at least when 

 they are not akin to that of the Aryans ; for instance : 

 panchadara in Telinga, kyam in Burmese, mia in the 

 dialect of Cochin-China, kan and tche, or tsche, in Chinese ; 

 and further south, among the Malays, tuhu or tahu for 

 the plant, and gula for the product. This diversity 

 proves the great antiquity of its cultivation in those 

 regions of Asia in which botanical indications point out 

 the origin of the species. 



The epoch of its introduction into different countries 

 agrees with the idea that its origin was in India, Cochin- 

 China, or the Malay Archipelago. 



The Chinese were not acquainted with the sugar-cane 

 at a very remote period, and they received it from the 

 West. Ritter contradicts those authors who speak of a 

 very ancient cultivation, and I find most positive con- 

 firmation of his opinion in Dr. Bretschneider's pamphlet, 

 drawn up at Pekin with the aid of all the resources of 

 Chinese literature.^ '' I have not been able to discover," 

 he says, "any allusion to the sugar-cane in the most 

 ancient Chinese books (the five classics)." It appears to 

 have been mentioned for the first time by the authors of 

 the second century before Christ. The first description 

 of it appears in the Nan-fang -tsao-mu-chuang, in the 

 fourth century : " The che che, kan-che (kan, sweet, che, 

 bamboo) grows," it says, " in Cochin-China. It is several 

 inches in circumference, and resembles the bamboo. The 

 stem, broken into pieces, is eatable and very sweet. The 

 sap which is drawn from it is dried in the sun. After a 

 few days it becomes sugar (here a compound Chinese 

 character), which melts in the mouth. ... In the year 

 286 (of our era) the kingdom of Funan (in India, beyond 

 the Ganges) sent sugar as a tribute." According to the 

 Pent- Sao, an emperor whb reigned from 627 to 650 A. D., 

 sent a man into the Indian province of Behar to learn 

 how to manufacture sugar. 



There is nothing said in these works of the plant 



• Piddington, Index. 



* Bretsclmeider, On the Study and Value, etc., pp. 45-47. 



