VARIETIES OF THE CANE. 



Striped Tanna = Big Ribbon = Guingham = Maillard. 



White Tanna = Yellow Caledonia = Malabar. 



Of the Black Tanna no synonyms, as far as the writer is aware, exist. 



The Striped Tanna is beyond any reasonable doubt the cane described by 

 Wray as the Otaheite Ribbon, and which he particularly distinguishes from 

 the ' Ribbon Cane of Batavia ' (Striped Cheribon). The latter he states 

 is smaller than the Otaheite Ribbon, and is striped blood-red on a transparent 

 straw-coloured ground, compared with the broad purple stripes on a greenish- 

 yellow ground. In addition Delteil 12 states that the Otaheite Ribbon of Wray 

 is synonymous with the Guingham and Maillard. A cane mentioned by 

 Wray 6 as peculiar to the island of Tanna, and identified by him with the 

 Tibboo teelor, or egg cane, is described in terms applicable to the White Tanna. 

 He remarks on its extreme cleanness, or absence of cane-itch, habit of shedding 

 its dry leaves, brittle nature and large eyes ; he however mentions that this 

 cane has a habit of bulging between the nodes, a characteristic which is not 

 usually found in the White Tanna. 



Of these three canes the light self-coloured variety is by far the most 

 important ; at the time of writing, under the name of Yellow Calendonia, 

 it forms the bulk of the cultivation on the unirrigated estates in the Hawaiian 

 Islands; as Malabar, it is the favourite cane of Fiji, and as White Tanna 

 covers extensive areas in Mauritius. All three of the Tanna canes are also 

 cultivated in Australia on the large scale, on the Clarence River the striped 

 variety being incorrectly known as Daniel Dupont. 



The striped variety is distinctly short- jointed in proportion to girth, a 

 character which is less pronounced in the white and black varieties ; all contain 

 more fibre than does the Otaheite cane ; in Hawaii, when grown under the 

 same conditions, the Yellow Caledonia cane will contain 13 per cent, fibre 

 when the Lahaina contains 12 per cent., and the percentage of sugar is in a 

 reverse ratio. They all possess a hard rind, and are thus protected to some 

 extent against the attacks of insects, and are so to be considered comparatively 

 immune to fungus diseases. The megass afforded by them is of such a 

 mechanical structure that it offers a serviceable fuel, but their hard nature 

 offers considerable resistance to milling, and makes a crusher or other 

 preparatory appliance a necessity ; generally speaking they are deep rooters, 

 and suffer only to a limited extent from the effects of drought. These three 

 canes are shown in Figs. 13, 1^ 15* The White Tanna is represented as of a 

 reddish tint; this coloration is very pronounced at certain stages of its growth, 

 while at others the colour is yellow. 



In parts of Australia the name Daniel Dupont is applied to the Striped 

 Tanna ; an imported cane of this name at the H.S.P.A. Experiment Station is 



* See Coloured Plates. 



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