IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. III 
in the canes grown from seed ; these two charaéteristics 
do not descend from the original seedlings to canes raised 
from their cuttings; the saccharine richness of the parent 
cane is no guidance to that of its progeny, nor is the 
relative richness of the parent variety; the seedling 
variety does not appear to be affected as regards size by 
that of its actual parent, but is, in the majority of cases, 
governed by that of the parent variety ; that in the cases 
of self-coloured canes the majority of the seedlings 
more or less closely resemble in colour the parent variety, 
while in those of striped or ribbon canes the widest 
possible ranges of variation in colour, in size, and in 
saccharine contents occur. ‘The best varieties for obtain- 
ing seed from in hope of getting better kinds appear to 
be the White Transparent and the Red Ribbon canes. 
With many varieties the tendency among the seedling 
progeny is to deteriorate rather than to improve, and this 
is markedly more the case with varieties raised from the 
seeds of seedling kinds, many of which are remarkably 
prolific, than with varieties which for untold generations 
have been propagated only by cuttings. We have raised, 
to our disgust, many kinds of seedlings some of which have 
given canes, perfe€t canes which at their proper time 
arrowed, not thicker than a stout lead pencil, and others 
which resembled tufts of coarse grass with little or no 
tendency to torm stalks. 
It is very evident that with seedling varieties the 
kinds obtained are merely sports, the tendency to varia- 
tion being so very wide that, in my opinion, it is almost 
useless to attempt improvement by artificial cross ferti- 
lisation or by raising plants from seeds of seleéted 
parentage. 
