GRAMIXEyE. 



293 



Internodc's short. Leaves flat, liuear-lauceolate, c]asj)ing, like the leaves of 

 maize. Flowers in a panicle, 2 feet long ; racemes thread-like, erect, and 

 spreading, clothed with silky hairs. 



Sugar cane grown from the seed spcn-ts freely, hence there are many species. 

 — The following have been found growing witliout cultivation : S. contractum, 

 S. polystachyum. S. dubium, S. rubicundum. S. atrorubens, S. fragile. 



(Jeofjnip/ii/. — The sugar cane is a tropical and subtropical plant. The 

 geographical range is a belt extending around the earth, including the torrid 

 zone and some twelve additional degrees l)oth north and scjuth of the tropics. 

 The West Indies, Brazil, Mexico, and the southern United States, in America, 

 the Isle of Mauritius, southern India, the islands of the Pacific, and uortliern 

 Australia produce most of the sugar of commerce. In the United States, 

 Louisiana is the sugar-producing region. A small part of Mississippi, and also 

 of Missouri, produce cane. 



Etymology. — The name sacchantm is from 

 the Arabic name sakknr, snk-kar, corrupted into 

 sfifjai-. The specific names are all due to some 

 characteristic of the plant ; as, officinarum, of 

 the shops ; contractum, smallness of the whole 

 plant, etc. 



History. — The sugar cane is a native of 

 Cochin China ; but where it was first brought 

 under cultivation is not known. Circum- 

 stances point to India. It is known that the 

 Venetians imported it thence by way of the 

 Ked Sea as early as the middle of the twelfth 

 century ; and ])revious to the discovery of 

 America it was grown upon the islands of the 

 eastern Mediterranean, — having been intro- 

 duced by the Saracens, and carried to southern 

 Spain by the same enterprising people. Soon 

 after the discovery of the \Vest Indies the Dutch 

 manufactured sugar in the Isle of St. Thomas, 

 in 1610, and the English, in 1643, commenced 

 its manufacture in Barbadoes and Jamaica. 

 Pliny and (lalen both speak of sugar as " sweet 

 salt," which was used at that time as a medical 

 remedy. It was first substituted for honey in compounding medicines by 

 Actuarius, a physician of the tenth century, and was then called "Indian 

 salt," which points to India as the country of its origin. 



Five hundred years ago sugar as an article of food was not known in 

 Europe, now it is (jue of tlie neces.saries of life thnmghout the civilized world, 

 and has largely superseded honey, whose sweetness was so mucli extolled 

 hy the ancients. About the end of the sixteenth century the Portuguese 

 began to import it from Brazil ; it was then used in medicine or as a great 

 delicacy. 



L'p to 1872 the varictv known as the Creole liad been cultivated in the 

 LTnited States to tho exclusion of all others. It was found to have greatly 

 degenerated, and this led to efforts to introduce new varieties. Mr Ln]iice. 

 one of the largest and most ex])erienced sugar ])lanters. visited the Ea.st Indies 

 and the islands of tlie Pacific to examine the chnracter and condition of the 

 cane. Selecting what seemed to liim the best, he sent lioiue a sliii> loaded 



SACCHARrM OFFICIXARC.M 



(Sugar Cane). 



