THE CLASSIFICATION OP INDIAN SUGAR-CANES. 

 By C. A. BARBER, Sc. D.Cantab., F.L.S. 

 Government Sugar-cane Expert in India. 



ANY attempt to improve the indigenous canes of India 

 must be prefaced by a thorough knowledge of their 

 characters and the reasons why they vary so much from 

 place to place. Lists have been published from time to 

 time of the varieties inhabiting different tracts or Pro- 

 vinces, but most of these are far from complete, and no 

 attempt has been made to work out their synonymy and 

 the variations of the same cane under different conditions. 

 In this respect, however, the United Provinces stand out 

 from the rest in that, in Hadi's survey of the canes of 

 this region, the distribution of the various kinds has been 

 tabulated in great detail, and valuable notes as to their 

 relationship have been recorded. The canes of certain 

 parts of Bengal, and especially Bihar, have been collected 

 and studied in recent years at the Agricultural College at 

 Sabour, and a partial survey of the Punjab canes has 

 just been completed. In the two last-named cases collec- 

 tions of the different varieties have been maintained on 

 Government farms, and these have proved to be of the 

 utmost value in the attempts at classification detailed 

 below. 



But a very brief study of these collections and those 

 at Aligarh, Pusa, the Central Provinces, and elsewhere 

 has shown that many canes, almost identical in character, 

 bear entirely different names, while the same name is 

 sometimes attached to canes of entirely different character. 

 And the various attempts at classification, although often 

 on right lines, have paid little attention to morphological 

 differences, have, in fact, been agricultural rather than 

 scientific, have dealt rather with the general behaviour 

 and appearance of the cane in the field than with definite 

 botanical characters. 



