IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 97 
or sweetness of juice, notably so in the case of the 
yellow cane, about an acre of which I saw growing 
on Mr. RICHARD MEARS’ property on the Hastings, 
at the time in possession of M. GEORGE MORRISON, 
a recent arrival from the West Indies—who assured 
me that it was the genuine Otaheite cane, from which 
indeed it was hardly'to be distinguished. But subse- 
quent inquiry convinced me that it had originated 
in a similar sport from the ribbon cane, than which it 
is said to be a good deal sweeter. Ihave discovered this 
disposition to ‘‘ sport” in other kinds of cane, as for 
instance in the dark and light purple, from each of which 
I obtained permanent varieties of handsomely striped 
canes and which | named respeétively Somerville’s and 
Bale’s ribbon, from the farms where I first saw them 
growing.” 
In Queensland reports for some years after the date of 
this paper, reference is not unfrequently made to the 
yellow “ sport” from the ribbon cane, 
It is an interesting coincidence that the variety des- 
cribed as yielding bud sports by Dr. HORNE was probably 
the same as the one described by Mr. HALL. 
In 1886 at Dodd’s in Barbados, Mr. BOVELL discovered 
what he believed to be a bud sport among a plot of a 
variety of cane named “Naga,” a variety which had 
been received a short time previously from Jamaica. 
Personally I was never satisfied that this was a true 
sport. While I was in. Barbados this “ sport” closely 
resembled the variety from which it was obtained, the 
canes being almost identical in average size and giving a 
very similar weight of canes per acre. But later, judging 
from Mr. BOVELL’S Reports, it underwent a remarkable 
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