266 Transactions.— Botany. 
I kept the juice in the evaporator constantly boiling till I found the 
thermometer indicate 220° F. as the boiling-point. The temperature, 
however, must have been much higher, as the original boiling-point of the 
juice indicated only 210°, and I subsequently found that my thermometers 
could not be relied upon at those high temperatures. As soon as 220° was 
indicated I drew the fire, but the syrup, which had then thickened very 
rapidly, continued for a long time in a state of ebullition. All the time of 
evaporating I kept the juice stirred with wooden paddles to prevent burning, 
but, in spite of all my care, a portion of the syrup got burnt. As soon as 
possible I ladled out the syrup, which was now of the consistence of thick 
treacle, into a 25-gallon cask, and found that I had about 10 gallons of syrup 
of arich brown colour. The cask I placed in a room with a fire to keep 
the temperature up to 80°, the atmospheric temperature being only 66°. 
Next morning I found one of the hoops had slipped, and treacle was oozing 
through between some of the staves. For several days the heat was kept 
up to 80° to 84°, but, there being no sign of crystallization, I drew off the 
treacle, of which there were about 5 gallons, the remainder seeming to be 
a yellowish treacle in a frothy condition. I have since been informed that 
this was saccharate of lime. 
On the 10th April I tried a second experiment with the balance of Mr. 
Banks’ cane supplemented by sufficient of my own to make up a ton. This 
we crushed at the rate of 21 gallons per hour. The fresh juice weighed 
11:5 lbs. per gallon, showing a density of 12 at a temperature of 68° F. 
Obtained 80 gallons of juice from the ton, but, in the boiling, just after 
adding the lime, the whole thing suddenly boiled over and was destroyed. 
The cause I cannot tell, unless it may be connected with the state of the 
juice from Mr. Banks’ cane, which had lain exposed to heavy rain for 
three days. 
On the 11th I again crushed a ton of cane. This was of my own grow- 
ing, fresh cut, and much riper than the former cane used. From it I 
obtained 78 gallons of juice, showing a density of 13°5 at a temperature of 
62° F. This I boiled as before, but on this occasion used pure shell lime, 
which gave a much better result in clearing the juice, so that, when it came 
into the evaporator, it was a light amber colour. Added sulphurous acid as 
before to neutralize excess of lime, and continued evaporating carefully to 
avoid burning until the syrup had obtained, as I thought, a sufficient 
density —as I could not trust my thermometers. When it cooled, however, 
I found it had not been sufficiently evaporated, so that on this occasion 
also I failed to produce a crystallizable syrup. My publie duties pre- 
vented my further experimenting during the past season. I may here 
mention, however, that Mr. Skey, the Government Analyist, in the month 
