132 SUGAR 



Classifications of sugar-canes in other parts of the 

 world with which I am acquainted are of little use 

 intrinsically, and the canes dealt with in them, being thick, 

 juicy, tropical ones, are on a different plane from those 

 growing in India. The classification of Indian canes may 

 thus be regarded as entirely new work. And it has this 

 difficulty about it, that no starting-point has been 

 indicated, and no one has as yet made any careful 

 morphological study of the sugar-cane. In these circum- 

 stances, the only method which has suggested itself to 

 me has been to make an exhaustive study of each cane 

 as it has come into my hands, which has naturally resulted 

 in a constantly expanding series of characters, each new 

 cane providing one or two in which it differs from others 

 previously examined. Many of these characters, at first 

 of apparent value, have broken down after the study of 

 further specimens, while others of great use in distin- 

 guishing closely allied forms have no general application. 

 Added to this, there is the constant fear that some of 

 the characters are unstable, and will vary according to 

 the treatment of the cane and the locality in which it is 

 grown. Most of the canes thus far studied have been 

 grown under like conditions of soil and climate, and this 

 question of permanence of characters has still to be 

 studied. The results here recorded will, therefore, have 

 to be considered to a certain extent as preliminary and 

 tentative. 



The series of Bihar and Bengal canes collected at 

 Sabour have been classified according to their habit and 

 appearance, and this method of grouping them appears 

 to be an excellent one. It is, in fact, a curious circum- 

 stance that such features as erectness, the bending of 

 the leaves, the thickness of the stems and length of the 

 individual joints, tillering, the colour of the leaves, the 

 arrangement of the leaves at the ends of the shoots, all 

 of which can be observed in the field in moderately large 

 plots, appear to be among the most constant for the 

 variety. I have been debarred from much study in this 

 direction because of the wideness of the field covered 

 and the shortness of my stay in any one place, and also 

 because the North Indian canes collected on my farm at 



