CHAPTER IY. 



VARIETIES OF THE CANE. 



Owing to lack of communication between sugar-growing districts, and 

 to absence of systematized work in all but the more recent phases of the cane 

 sugar industry, great confusion has arisen in the nomenclature ; a cane intro- 

 duced from one district to a second receives a name usually connecting it with 

 the introducer or with the district whence brought ; the same cane travels 

 from the second district to a third, and there receives a name connecting it 

 with the second district, and not with its original home. On the other hand, 

 two different canes may be introduced from one district into two widely 

 separated countries, and in this case they may receive, in both cases, the same 

 name. In these ways, names for the principal varieties have multiplied until 

 a variety may have as many as twenty titles, and to add to the confusion some 

 of these titles may be applied to other quite distinct varieties. 



Much of the confusion has been cleared away by means of the detailed 

 descriptive lists of canes growing in the botanical gardens and experiment 

 stations in Jamaica, Louisiana, Demerara, and Java, published by Fawcett 1 , 

 Stubbs 2 , Harrison & Jenman 3 , and by Soltwedel 4 . Comparison of these lists 

 lays bare many irregularities due to the causes mentioned above. Eckart and 

 Deerr 5 made an effort to reconcile many of these statements, and to collate 

 the literature of the subject. Eelow are described, in detail, the more 

 important varieties of the sugar cane. 



The Otah.ei.te Cane. Wray 6 , in 1848, described two canes under 

 this topographical heading, the yellow and the purple striped; in this section 

 only the former is considered. From the island of Otaheite a yellow cane or 

 canes has been introduced into many cane-growing districts; instances are that 

 by Captain Bligh into Jamaica in the 18th century, and into Hawaii by Captain 

 Pardon Edwards in 1854 ; also in the 18th century a yellow cane was intro- 

 duced into the French West Indies from the island of Bourbon. Wray gives 

 the presumptive origin of this last as the Malabar coast of India. 



The principal names that have been applied or identified as belonging to 

 this cane are Bourbon (British West Indies), Lahaina (Hawaii), Otaheite (Cuba 

 and Java), Louzier, Keni-keni, Portii, Cuban. China, Bamboo II., and 

 Cayenne are also names connected with this cane. 



There is considerable reason for supposing that this cane includes two 

 very similar but distinct varieties, for Stubbs 2 identifies the canes growing at 

 Audubon Park under the names of Yellow, Otaheite and Louzier ; and those 



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