CANE SUGAR. 



The Flower. The inflorescence of the cane is a panicle of soft silky 

 spikelets, borne on the end of an elongated peduncle, called the arrow, arising 

 from the terminal vegetative 

 point of the cane. 



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In Fig. 2 is given a drawing, M I M M I / 



enlarged 30 diameters, of a single 

 flower of Lahaina cane. At 1 is 

 the ovary, the growth of which 

 produces the seed ; it is ovoid and 

 sessile; from the ovary proceed 

 two styles of a reddish colour, 

 bearing the plumose stigmas, 2. 

 At 3 are the three anthers which 

 produce the pollen, that serves to 

 fertilize the stigmas ; at 4 are the 

 two lodicules, the function of 

 which is, by swelling at the 

 proper time, to open the cane 

 blossom; at 5 is the innermost 

 palet of the cane flower, and at 7, 

 6, and 8 the remaining palet and 

 the glumes ; at 9 are the bristles 

 that surround the base of the 

 flower. It is only exceptionally 

 that the cane forms fertile seed. 

 Some varieties never flower, and 

 others do so only in the tropics. 

 The age at which the cane 

 flowers varies from eight to 

 fifteen months, and is dependent 

 on variety and climate and also on 

 time of planting. Flowering 

 takes place at certain definite 

 times of the year, varying in the 

 different cane-growing regions, 

 and if the cane is not sufficiently 

 mature at the flowering time in 

 its first year, no formation of 

 flowers occurs until the second 

 year. In this way a delay of a 

 few weeks in planting will retard 

 flowering for twelve months. FIG. 2. 



