92 THE SUGAR CANE. 



comes to the conclusion that the "Saccharon" of the 

 ancient world could not have been our sugar. lie shows 

 that solid sugar was not known, even in India, until 

 some time between the third and sixth centuries A. D. 

 The Sugar Cane (Sacchariim officiuariiin) is \'er\' 

 like our reed, and, like it, also belongs to the Grasses. 

 Fine specimens ma\' be seen in the Gardens of La Mor- 

 tola. The Sugar Cane has been cultivated from time 

 immemorial, and as it has been entirely propagated b^' 

 off-shoots it has almost lost the power of producing 

 seeds. Indeed until a short time ago it was taken for 

 granted that the Sugar Cane ne\'er fruited; careful 

 observations, however, particularh- in Java, have shown 

 that this sterilit^- is not absolute. The ;home of the 

 Sugar Cane is probably in Bengal, that province which 

 for long ages has been called the "Garden of India" on 

 account of its inexhaustible fertility'. Towards the close 

 of the third centur\- the Sugar Cane reached China from 

 India, and two hundred ^■ears later had travelled west- 

 ward to Gondisapur. This town la^" on the river Karun, 

 whose divided waters flowed part into the Tigris and 

 part into the north of the Persian (julf. The Xestorians 

 fled thither when the Council of Ephesus in 431 A. D. 

 pronounced their teaching to be heretical. They carried 

 to the East the germs of classical culture and of scientific 

 medicine, and particularly the elements of cliemistr\-. 

 As a consequence of the relations of Gondisapur with 

 India the influence of Indian medical lore was felt there, 

 and a school arose which not only adopted the Greek 

 natural sciences and medicine but also improved upon 



