SUGAR. BAMBOO. 117 



[The cane in the West Indies is propagated by cuttings from the root end, 

 planted in hills or trenches in spring or autumn, something in the manner 

 of hops. The cuttings take root at the joints under ground, and from those 

 above send up shoots, which, in from eight to fourteen months, are from six 

 to ten feet long, and fit to cut down for the mill. A plantation lasts from 

 six to ten years. Sugar mills are merely iron rollers placed vertically or 

 horizontally, between which the canes are passed and repassed. The juice 

 thus squeezed out is collected and boiled with quicklime, which imbibes the 

 superfluous acid, which otherwise would impede crystallization : impuri- 

 ties are skimmed off, and the boiling is continued till a thick syrup is pro- 

 duced, when the whole is cooled and granulated in shallow vessels of earthen 

 ware, which permit the molasses (a part that will not granulate) to drain 

 off. It is now the brown or raw sugar of commerce. A further purifica- 

 tion is effected by dissolving it in water, boiling, skimming, adding lime, 

 and clarifying from the oily or mucila'ginous parts, by adding blood or eggs, 

 which incorporate with them and form a scum. When boiled to a proper 

 consistency, it is put into unglazed earthen vessels of a conical shape, with 

 a hole at the apex, but placed in an inverted position, and the base, after the 

 sugar is poured in, covered with clay. When thus drained of its impurities, 

 it is taken out of the mould, wrapped in paper, and dried or baked in a close 

 oven. It is now the loaf sugar of the shops, and according to the number 

 of operations it undergoes, is called single or double refined. The operation 

 of refining is seldom or never performed by the growers, but forms a sepa- 

 rate branch of business. 



Sugar-candy is formed by dissolving loaf sugar in water over a fire, boil- 

 ing it to a syrup, and then exposing it to crystallize in a cool place. When 

 crystallized upon strings put into the syrup, it is called rock-candy. This 

 is the only sugar esteemed in the East. 



Barley-sugar is a syrup from the refuse of sugar-candy, hardened in 

 cylindrical moulds. 



Rum is distilled from the fermented juice of sugar and water.] 



57. The Bamboo Bambu'sa (from the Indian name Bam- 

 bos) an arborescent plant of the equatorial regions, also belongs 

 to the family of Grami'nea3. The bamboo is applied to a great 

 variety of purposes. In India it is used for building- houses and 

 bridges, for masts, for boats, for making boxes, baskets, cups, 

 mats, tables, chairs, fences, paper, and a variety of other pur- 

 poses ; and the tops of the tender shoots are, in the West Indies, 

 pickled. It grows about forty feet high. The genus Bambu'sa, 

 belongs to the class Hexandria, order Monogy'nia of Linnreus. 



58. The FAMILY OF PALMS Palma'cece^fig. 140) is com- 

 posed of monocoty'ledons with perigy'nous stamens; the stem, 

 which is cylindrical and resembles a column, is crowned by a 

 fasciculus of large leaves. We have already spoken of its struc- 

 ture (page 26). Their flowers, which are generally unisexual, 



formed sackchar, and modern European nations sugar. The genus Sac' 

 charum belongs to the class Tria'ndria, order Trigy'nia, of the Linneoan 

 arrangement. 



57. What is bamboo ? To what uses is it applied ? 



58. How is the family of Palms characterized' What is sago? 



