SUGAR. 24] 



Gerard planted the sugar-cane in his gar- 

 den in Holborn, (now Hatton-garden, or in 

 that neighbourhood,) about the year 15$6, ;is 

 in the following year he published his Herbal, 

 wherein he informs us, " that the sugar-cane 

 groweth in many parts of Europe at this 

 day, as Spain, Portugale, and Olbia, in Pro- 

 uence. It groweth also in Barbaric, gene- 

 rally almost euery where in the Canarie 

 Islands, and in those of Madeira, in the East 

 and West Indies, and many other places. 



" Myselfe did plant some shootes thereof in 

 my garden, and some in Flanders did the 

 like: but the coldness of our clymate made 

 an end of mine ; and I think the Flemmings 

 will haue the like profit of their labour." 



Evelyn observes in his Diary, as late ;is 

 1645, " that the canes for sugar were then 

 cultivated in the neighbourhood of Naples." 



The natural situation of the sugar-cane is 

 from about twenty to thirty degrees on each 

 side of the Equator ; beyond these limits, it 

 has never been propagated with any great 

 degree of success, notwithstanding its culti- 

 vation has been attempted as high as forty- 

 three degrees north latitude. We may 

 conclude, from the accounts of the early 

 writers, that it is a spontaneous production 



VOL. II. R 



