154 OEiaiN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



species grows in the whole of South America as far as 

 five thousand feet of altitude. It is mentioned^ in 

 Jamaica, Antigua, Dominica, and Ouba, but it must 

 be observed that it multiplies easily by . suckers, and 

 that it is often planted fer from dwellings to form 

 fences or to extract from it the fibre known as pite, and 

 this makes it difficult to ascertain its original habitat. 

 Transported long since into the countries which border 

 the Mediterranean, it occurs there with every appearance 

 of an indigenous species, although there is no doubt as 

 to its origin.'' Probably, to judge from the various uses 

 made of it in Mexico before the arrival of the Euro- 

 peans, it came originally from thence. 



Sugar-Cane — Saccharwm officinartum, Linnseus. 



The origin of the sugar-cane, of its cultivation, and 

 of the manufacture of sugar, are the subject of a very 

 remarkable work by the geographer, Karl Ritter.* I need 

 not follow his purely agricultural and economical details ; 

 but for that which interests us particularly, the primitive 

 habitat of the species, he is the best guide, and the facts 

 observed during the last forty years for the most part 

 support or confirm his opinions. 



The sugar-cane is cultivated at the present day in aU 

 the warm regions of the globe, but a number of historical 

 facts testify that it was first grown in Southern Asia, 

 whence it spread into Africa, and later into America. 

 The question is, therefore, to discover in what districts 

 of the continent, or in which of the southern islands of 

 Asia, the plant exists, or existed at the time it was first 

 employed. 



Bitter has followed the best methods of arrivmg at a 

 solution. He notes first that all the species known in a 



• Grisebach, M. of Brit W. Ind. Is., p. 582. 



• Alph. de Caudolle, Q4ogr. Bot. Raiaonnde, p. 739 j H. Hoffmann, in 

 Begel's Gartenfiora, 1875, p. 70. 



• K. Eitter, Vober die GeograpMsche Verbreitung des ZwHterrohrx, 

 in 4to, 108 pages (acoordingf to Pritzel, Thes. Lit. Bot.) ; Die Cultur 

 des Zucherrohrs, Saccharwm, in Asien, Geogr. Verhreitv/ng, etc., etc., in 

 8vo, 64 pages, without date. This monograph is fall o£ learning and 

 judgment, worthy of the best epoch of German science, when English 

 or French authors were quoted by all authors with as much cai'e as 

 Germans. 



