THE CHINESE SUG All- CANE. 17 



imeiifcs that have been made with it during the 

 past two years. 



D. J. Browne, Esq., who is connected with the 

 Patent Office, and who, I believe, first introduced 

 the Chinese sugar-cane into this country, gives 

 us the following full and valuable account of it, 

 in the report of 1854 He says it is '* a new 

 gramineous plant, which seems to be destined to 

 take an important position among our economical 

 products ; was sent some four years since from 

 the north of China, by M. de Montigny, to the 

 Geographical Society of Paris. From a cursory 

 examination of a small field of it growing at 

 Verrieres, in France, in autumn last, I was led 

 to infer that, from the peculiarity of the climate, 

 and its resemblance in appearance and habit to 

 Indian corn, it would flourish in any region 

 wherever that plant would thrive. But how far 

 it will subserve the purpose ascribed to it in 

 France, should it even succeed in every part 

 of the United States, can only be determined 

 by extended experiments. 



*' There appears to be a doubt among the sci- 

 entific cultivators in Europe as to the botanical 

 name of this plant. Holcus Saccharatus, which 

 is evidently an error, has been provisionally 

 adopted by M. Louis Vilmorin, of Paris ; but, as 



