SUGAR 133 



Coimbatore do not appear to be at home in their new 

 surroundings. The examination which I have thus far 

 been able to make has chiefly resulted in noting minute 

 differences in the cut canes and series of measurements 

 of the length and thickness of the joints and the size of 

 leaves and leaf sheaths that is, such characters as can 

 best be observed in the laboratory. 



About sixty varieties of canes have been passed in 

 review, some proving to be duplicates under distinct 

 names from different places. It has been possible to 

 separate four main groups very clearly, as they have a 

 number of common characters, while differing from other 

 groups in their distribution and agricultural qualities. 

 These may be called, after their most prominent members, 

 Chin, Nargori, Rheora, and Pansahi. 



I propose to deal seriatim, with some of the characters 

 upon which I have been led to lay stress, using these 

 groups chiefly for illustration, and, later on, to give a 

 brief synopsis of the characters of some of them, in order 

 to indicate the lines on which I am working. I have 

 selected for brief mention the following : habit, colour, 

 joint, bud; and it will become easy to read between the 

 lines and see how complicated and detailed the study may 

 easily become. The difficulty has not been so much to 

 find differences as to select among them those that are 

 likely to be of general use in classification. 



HABIT. I have chosen erectness, leaf-endings, and 

 tillering for discussion here. 



(i) Erectness. Upon examining the first seedlings 

 obtained (some forty or fifty) it was noted that compara- 

 tively few were quite erect, many were oblique, and some 

 were so depressed as to lie flat on the ground. This habit 

 is naturally to be deprecated because, although subsequent 

 shoots become ascending, the plant takes up too much 

 room from the crop point of view. Attention having 

 been thus drawn to this character, it was found that the 

 first shoots of many of the Indian canes are oblique, as 

 in the Cheni and Saretha varieties, while members of 

 the Nargori group are perfectly erect. This character 

 appears to be inherent and permanent as long as the 

 canes are propagated in a vegetative manner that is, by 



