XV 



The stems of the' Sugar Cane present an exception, though far 

 from being a solitary one, to the general character of the Grass 

 stem, in not being fistular or hollow between the joints ; a circum- 

 stance to which the abundance of juice yielded by them under pres- 

 sure is chiefly due. This juice contains the Sugar, which is brought 

 into a crystallizable state by boiling it with quick- lime to neutralize 

 the oxalic and other vegetable acids associated in its composition. 

 The interest attaching to a Grass-product that has now for more than 

 two hundred years constituted an essential ingredient in the diet 

 of all classes of the European race, in every part of the world over 

 which it has extended, renders a glance at its history a necessary 

 item in our general review of the extensive family of plants before 

 us, however brief and limited the plan of our Introduction. 



Neither record nor tradition affords any evidence concerning the 

 period at which the cultivation of this important Grass was com- 

 menced, nor of the people among whom it was first practised. To 

 the more ancient civilized nations of Europe, sugar seems to have 

 been long unknown, honey supplying its place as food and condi- 

 ment; and, when in later times, as commercial intercourse with 

 the peoples of the East became extended, it reached them in small 

 quantities, it was only employed as a costly medicinal agent to 

 moisten the mouth in fevers, under the name of Indian Salt. 

 Indeed, it was not until about the tenth century of the Christian 

 era that its supply became sufficiently plentiful to supersede honey 

 in the practice pi physic, to which it was, during four or five cen- 

 turies afterwards, almost exclusively confined, unless in those parts 

 of Europe bordering upon the Mediterranean. 



The Indian, or rather Sanscrit, name Sarkara, rendered by the 

 Arabs through whom it probably first reached our continent, 

 Sukhir or Soukar, is little altered by its transference into the lan- 

 guages of modern Europe. In the times of the early Crusades the 

 Sugar Cane grew in Syria ; whence its cultivation was successively 

 introduced into Italy, Spain, and the islands of the Mediterranean, 



