CHAPTER IV 

 VARIATION IN THE CANE AND CANE VARIETIES 



IN the various systems of classification, plants are divided and subdivided 

 into related groups. 



There hence appear such terms as Family, which includes a number of 

 Orders, comprising in their turn Genera, which are again divided into Species. 

 In more detail still a species can be divided into a great number of Varieties, 

 each of which can be distinguished and recognised by certain minor char- 

 acteristics, which are not of sufficient importance to raise the variety to the 

 dignity of a species. Within a variety may be found a Strain, a term which 

 is often used to apply to characters fixed by artificial selection. A typical 

 example of a strain is to be found in the beetroot, in which by continually 

 selecting plants rich in sugar as mother beets several very sweet strains have 

 been acquired. 



Following Hackel 1 the genus Saccharum is divided into four sub-genera : 

 Eusaccharum, Sclerostycha, Eriochrysis, and Leptosaccharum. These four 

 genera include in all twelve species which are in their turn subdivided into 

 a number of varieties. The cultivated sugar cane is termed Saccharum 

 officinarum, and is divided by Hackel into three groups. 



(a) Genuinum. Stem pale green to yellow, darker yellow near the 

 ground. Leaf grass-green, underside sea-green. 



This group is again divided into (i) Commune, (2) Brevipedicellatum. 



(b) Violaceum. Stem, leaf sheath, lower side of leaves, panicle, violet. 



(c) Litter atum. Stem dirty green or yellow, marked with dark red 

 stripes at equal intervals. 



The inclusion of Litteratum as a sub-group is to be deprecated. The 

 y erm was first used by Hasskarl 2 with reference to a striped cane in Java. 

 There are, however, many striped " varieties with many combinations of 

 colour. As shown later, these striped canes are to be regarded as chimeras, 

 and arise from self-coloured canes, and in turn themselves afford self-coloured 

 canes as sports or bud mutations. 



From ~ the seventeenth century onwards the sugar cane has been fre- 

 quently described by botanists, and very considerable confusion has arisen. 

 Generally in the older literature three varieties of the sugar cane are referred 

 to : S. officinarum, S. violaceum and 5. sinense. As used by Tussac, 3 

 S. violaceum refers to a cane with a violet stem, the purple Batavian cane, 

 and in this sense it is also used by Humboldt 4 and some other early writers. 

 The term should, however, be confined to a sub-group characterized by the 

 possession of violet leaves. This property is not uncommon, and may 

 be found in a certain degree in the Badilla cane at present cultivated to some 

 extent in Fiji and Australia. It also occurs amongst some canes indigenous 

 to the Hawaiian Islands and still growing there in isolated districts. The 



