360 NATURAL HISTORY. 



mainly as provender for horses, and in this quality is 

 superior to any other grain. Besides the meal contained 

 in its chaffy fruit, it possesses an aromatic property, 

 which an accomplished cook can turn into all the uses of 

 vanilla. Nevertheless, it makes bad bread. Q. 



The Sugar Cane (Saccharum officinarum), plate 28, fig. 

 1, has a stalk containing a solid pith, which is filled with 

 a saccharine juice. Leaves linear-lanceolate, long, broad, 

 acuminate. Flowers white, bloom in panicles, loosely 

 branching ; florets invested at base with tufts of long 

 silky hairs. The true home of the sugar cane is Mes- 

 sopotamia ; man has therefore been acquainted with the 

 use of sugar since the earliest times. In the middle ages, 

 this plant was introduced by the Arabians into Crete, 

 Malta, and Spain, and, after the discovery of Amer- 

 ica, transplanted by the Spaniards into the West Indies. 

 The following slight description will give our readers an 

 idea of the process by which sugar is made. The sugar 

 cane is rarely permitted to flower, but after twelve or 

 eighteen months' growth at which time the stem is sup- 

 posed to contain more sap than at any other the stalks 

 'are cut off with a sickle, and put into a kind of press or 

 mill. This press, however, is very different from that 

 used in the making of wine, already described, and consists 

 of three iron rollers, placed vertically or horizontally, 

 between which the canes are passed and repassed, and 

 which, pressing out the sap, leaves them completely dry. 

 The machinery is propelled by steam or water power. 

 The sap or juice is at first brown, and contains, besides 

 the crystallized portion of saccharine matter known as 

 sugar, a quantity of sweet but watery syrup, containing 

 also a portion of essential oil and mucilaginous gum. 

 This syrup is separated from the granulated sugar, 



