660 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



of the manner of its production, and set forth many fanciful theories upon the subject. 

 According to some it was a kind of honey, which formed itself without the assistance 

 of bees. Others thought it, like the manna in the wilderness, a shower from heaven 

 which fell upon the leaves of blessed seed. Others, more nearly correct, believed it 

 to be a concretion of the juices, formed by the plant itself in the manner of a gum. 



During the dark ages which followed the fall of the Roman Empire, all previous 

 knowledge of the Oriental sugar-plant became lost, until the Crusades, and, still more, 

 the revival of commerce in Venice and Genoa reopened the ancient intercourse between 

 the Eastern and the Western world. From Egypt, where the cultivation of the sugar- 

 cane had, meanwhile, been introduced, it now extended to the Morea, to Rhodes, and 

 Malta; and at the beginning of the twelfth century we find it growing in Italy, on the 

 sultry plains at the foot of Mount Etna. After the discovery of Madeira by the Portu- 

 guese, in the year 1419, the first colonists added the vine of Cyprus and the Sicilian 

 sugar-cane to the indigenous productions of that lovely island ; and both succeeded so 

 well, as to become after a few years the objects of a lively trade with the mother country. 



Yet, in spite of this extension of its culture, the importance of sugar as an article of 

 international trade continued to be very limited, until the discovery of tropical America 

 by Columbus opened a new world to commerce. As early as the year 1506 the sugar- 

 cane was transplanted from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola, where its culture, 

 favored by the fertility of a virgin soil and the heat of a tropical sun, was soon found 

 to be so profitable, that it became the chief occupation of the European settlers, and 

 the principal source of their wealth. The Portuguese, in their turn, conveyed the 

 cane to Brazil ; from Hispaniola it spread over the other West Indian Islands ; thence 

 wandered to the Spanish main, and followed Pedrarias and Pizarro to the shores of 

 the Pacific. 



Towards the middle of the last century, the Chinese or Oriental Sugar-cane had 

 thus multiplied to an amazing extent over both hemispheres, when the introduction of 

 the Tahitian variety, which was found to attain a statelier growth, to contain more 

 sugar, and to ripen in a shorter time, began to dispossess it of its old domains. This 

 new and superior plant is now universally cultivated in all the sugar growing European 

 colonies ; and if Cook's voyages had produced no other benefit than making the world 

 acquainted with the Tahitian Sugar-cane, they would for this alone deserve to be reck- 

 oned by the political economist among the most successful and important ever per- 

 formed by man. 



The sugar-cane bears a great resemblance to the common reed, but the blossom is 

 different. It has a knotty stalk, like most grasses, frequently rising to the height of 

 fourteen feet, and produces at each joint a long, pointed, and sharply serrated leaf or 

 blade. The joints in one stalk are from forty to sixty in number, and the stalks rising 

 from one root are sometimes very numerous. As the plant grows up, the lower leaves 

 fall off. A field of canes, when agitated by a light breeze, affords one of the most 

 pleasing sights, particularly when, towards the period of their maturity, the gold«n 

 plants appear crowned with plumes of silvery feathers, delicately fringed with a lilac 

 dye. The cane has this peculiarity, that each joint while contributing its share to the 

 general growth and nutriment, is at the same time, by a separate system of vessels and 

 chambers, providing for its own development. Thus every joint is in a manner a 

 distinct plant ; and if placed in the ground will send up a perfect cane. This is 



I 



