Occasional Notes. 135 



warded to the Botanic Gardens of the colony, are now 

 so far advanced, that an analysis has been made of one 

 of them and the results published. 



Among other individuals, and by special request, 

 Mr. D. Morris of Kew Gardens was supplied with 

 spikelets containing fertile seeds, and germinating 

 seeds preserved in glycerine. These, or corresponding 

 examples raised by him from the seeds supplied, were 

 figured and exhibited by him at the March meeting of 

 the Linnean Society — and the next that is seen of the 

 matter is the ascription of the discovery of the cane 

 seed to Mr. Morris by some of the most influential 

 of the Home journals and papers, as the result of the 

 Linnean meeting. Meantime no attempt seems to have 

 been made by him to contradi6"t the false ascription in 

 the journals referred to ; and science workers in the 

 West Indies who are familiar with the fa6ls of the case, 

 are wondering when justice will be done to the work of 

 the colonial investigators. 



A long chapter might be written on the history of the 

 subje6t, for several individuals, at various times, and in 

 various parts of the world, appear to have noted the 

 production of seed by the sugar-cane. The earliest of 

 these observers seems certainly to have been Mr. J. VV. 

 Parris, as related by the Barbados Agricultural 

 Reporter, and the Liberal, 1859. 



The Su^ar Cane (June 2nd, 1890) is responsible for 

 the statement that Mr. Alfred Fryer, " having heard 

 in Antigua a tradition that the cane had formerly been 

 grown from seed, brought seed to England (about 1872) 

 and handed it to the authorities at Kew, who successfully 

 endeavoured to raise plants from it." Possibly this 



