CANE STJG-AB. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE CANE. 



The sugar cane is a grass belonging (following Engler's classification) to 

 the cohort Glumiflorce, natural order Graminea, tribe Andropigonece, genus 

 Saccharum. 



The genus Saccharum is divided by Hackel 1 into four sub- genera, (a) 

 Eusaccharum, (i) Sclerostycha, (c~) Eriochrysis, (d") Leptosaccharum. A detailed 

 account of these sub-genera will be found in Kriiger's Das Zudcerrohr? The 

 cultivated species Saccharum officinarum, belongs to the first sub-genus, and is 

 itself divided by Hackel into three groups. 



(a) genuinum. Stein pale green to yellow, darker yellow near the 

 ground. Leaf, grass- green, underside sea-green. 



(b) violaceum. Stem, leaf sheath, lower side of leaves, panicle, violet. 



(c) litteratum. Stem dirty green or yellow, marked with dark red stripes 

 at equal intervals. 



In the group genuinum is to be included the S. sinense, or Chinese cane ; 

 the group litteratum would include all ribbon canes, but as these sport fre- 

 quently from self-coloured canes and vice versa, the distinction must not be 

 pushed too far. Cordemoy 3 divided the canes known in the island of Bourbon 

 into S. officinarum, S. violaceum, and S. sinense (the Chinese cane) ; elsewhere 

 in the literature of the cane the purple transparent or Black Cheribon cane is 

 sometimes found incorrectly called S. violaceum. The true S. violaceum occurs 

 indigenously in the Hawaiian Islands, and is known under the native name 

 of Manulele. 



The complete cane may be divided into the roots, the root-stock, the 

 stem, the leaf, including leaf-sheath and blade, and the inflorescence. 



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