IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 99 
Soniat, after the owners of the plantation ; second, a light 
striped, No. 59, Nicholls, after the Governor of our State ; 
third, a light purple cane, No. 64, Bird, after the Com- 
missioner of Agriculture: fourth, a dark striped, No. 65, 
Garig, after the other member of the Board of Agricul- 
ture. These canes, except the white, are entirely different 
from any other cane in our colleétion.”’ 
It must, I think, be admitted that the evidence, so faras it 
is available, with regard to the occurrence of “ bud” sports 
in the sugar cane, is somewhat meagre, but that, on the 
whole, it points to the occurrence of bud variation as a very 
rare manifestation on the part of the sugar cane. Hence, 
I do not consider that the improvement of the sugar cane 
by means of bud sports can be considered as a praétical 
method, orone likely torepay the enormous amountof work 
necessary to search through many square miles of sugar 
canes in search of what, at the best, must be of extremely 
rare occurrence. ; 
(c) By the production of gratt-hybrids. 
Attention has been recently direéted towards the possi- 
bility of the produétion of new varieties of sugar canes 
by grafting canes of one variety with scions of another 
kind, by an assertion which appeared in the Sydney 
Daily Telegraph, that successful experiments had been 
made by grafting buds of a variety of cane upon stocks of 
a different variety which had resulted in the produétion of 
a hybrid combining in itself the properties of both 
“parents. Those who have made a study of the literature 
of the sugar cane are aware that claims of this sort have 
been made from time to time, but that beyond the claim 
nothing afterwards has been heard of the discovery. 
Probably, this last claim would have speedily followed 
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