Canadian Record of Science. 463 
little do we often know about the commonest things in life. 
The cane has now been cultivated for nearly a thousand years, 
but almost entirely in tropical countries, and, therefore, 
under the management of tropical peoples. Genius, we are 
told, lights her lamps in northern latitudes, and the way in 
which northern nations have succeeded in competing in 
the sugar markets of the world, through the sugar-beet with 
the sugar-cane, is certainly a most pointed instance of the 
truth of the old proverb. For it is only in the last few 
years that intelligent work is keing done in the cane sugar 
countries, and that under the stimulus of German and 
English engineers. Buteven yet, the waste on a cane sugar 
estate is appalling to the scientific sugarmaker of Europe, 
and things are altogether in a backward and inefficient 
state. In cons:quence, we have not the same accurate 
knowledge concerning the cane as a plant that we have 
about the beet. 
The sugar-cane is a sort of enormous grass belonging to 
the genus Saccharum, and known as the Saccharum officina- 
rum. ‘There are an immense number of kinds, but prob- 
ably all are from a single species of which they are 
varieties, the differences being induced by cultivation in 
different soils and countries, and, indeed, consisting often in 
only a different name. The vast area over which the cane 
is grown has resulted, indeed, ina greater number of names. 
We have, for instance, the Bourbon cane, the Otaheite cane, 
the Batavian cane, the large red cane of Assam, the black 
and yellow Nepaul cane, the Chinese cane, the Seelangore 
cane, the last named being, perhaps, the finest kind known. 
The South Pacific islands, probably the original home of 
the cane, produce many varieties with unpronounceable 
names. 
The principal differences are in the colors of the leaves 
and stalks, which range from black or purple to green or 
red. The yield per acre and the percentage of sugar is 
also most variable, and has hitherto been a matter more of 
accident than anything else, owing to the backward state 
of the whole industry which I have mentioned above, 
