SACCHARUM. 721 



palm wine ; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled 

 from toddy is Arrack. 



Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, Phoenix silvestris Roxb., which 

 is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more 

 important. The coco-nut palm, Cocos micxfera L.; the magnificent 

 Palmyra palmj Borassus flahellifoi'mis L.; and the Bastard Sago, Ccwyota 

 iirens L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian 

 Archipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of Arenga saccharifera 

 Mart., which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines 

 and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from Kipa fruticans 

 Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy. 



De Vry^ has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as 

 the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous 

 solution of sugar : that as no mineral constituents are removed from the 

 soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and 

 destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants 

 as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms 

 are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil unsuitable 

 for any cereal. 



Maple — In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with 

 that of the cane are obtained in the woods of the Northern United 

 States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species 

 chiefly employed are Acer sacchamnum Wangenh., the Common Sugar 

 Maple, and its variety (var. nigrum) the Black Sugar Maple. A. Penn- 

 sylvanicuin L., A. Negundo L. {Negundo aceroides Moench.) and A. 

 dasycarpuTii Ehrh. are also used ; the sap of the last is said to be the 

 least saccharine. 



As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent, of 

 sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The 

 manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on 

 only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be 

 procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North 

 America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N, lat. We are not 

 aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The 

 Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring 

 to its manufacture in that State : — 



1850 1860 1870 



2,326,5251b. 2,768,9651b. l,545,917lb.2 



Sorghum — Another plant of the same order as Saccharum is 

 Sorghum saccharatum Pers. {Holcus saccharatus L.) a native of Northern 

 China,^ which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant 

 both in Europe and North America ; yet without any great success, as 

 the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty. 

 As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystal- 

 lizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain 

 reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly 

 increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for 



^Joum. de Pharm. i. (1865) 270. — Sicard, Monographie de la CanneA sucre 



^ Consul Kortright, in Consular Reports de la Chine, dite Soi^ho a sucre, Marseille, 



presented to Parliament, July 1872. p. 988. 1856; Joulie, Jotirn. de Phnrm. i. (I860) 



^ Introduced into Europe in 1850, by M. 188. 



de Montigny, French CJonsul at Shanghai. 



2z 



