262 VARIETIES OF SUGAR. 



plant, sometimes called the Nipa palm ( Nipa fruticans), but which belongs 

 rather to the screw pines. The sap, obtained by simple tapping, yields by 

 evaporation large-grained sugar. 



The manufacture of date -sugar has been noticed in the Technologist 

 (p. 12). Each tree yields about 180 pints of sap. Every 12 pints give, 

 by boiling, 1 lb. of goor or syrup, and 7 lb. of sugar. The sugar-yielding 

 variety (Plmnix sylvestris) is known as the wild date of Bengal ; 35,000 tons 

 of sugar were made yearly from it in 1854-58. Tapping commences about 

 the 1st of November. The processes of manufacturing maple -sugar and 

 maize -sugar will be found fully detailed in Simmonds's 'Commercial 

 Products of the Vegetable Kingdom.' 



Darwin speaks of a palm the (Jubcea spectalilis), which appears to 

 abound in the more central provinces of Chile, that is valuable on account 

 of a syrup called miel de palma (palm honey), made from the sap. The 

 pahns are, for their family, ugly trees ; their stem is very large, and of a 

 curious form, being thicker at the middle than at the base or top. On 

 one estate near Pitorea they tried to count them, but failed after having 

 numbered several hundred thousand. Every year, in the early spring, 

 in August, very many are cut down ; and when the trunk is lying on the 

 ground, the crown of leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately begins 

 to flow from the upper end, and continues so doing for several months : 

 it is, however, necessary that a thin slice should be shaved off from that 

 end every morning, so as to expose a fresh surface. A good tree will give 

 90 gallons, and all this must have been contained in the vessels of the 

 apparently dry trunk. It is said that the sap flows much more quickly on 

 those days when the sun is powerful ; and likewise that it is absolutely 

 necessary to take care, in cutting down the tree, that it shoidd fall with its 

 head upwards on the side of the hill ; for if it falls down the slope, scarcely 

 any sap will flow, although in that case one wordd have thought that 

 the action would have been aided, instead of being checked, by the force of 

 gravity. The sap is concentrated by boiling, and is then called treacle, 

 which it very much resembles in taste. — (Darwin's 'Journal of Researches.') 



The Peruvians, as well as the Mexicans, made sugar from the green 

 stalks of the maize plant, and sold it in their markets. Cortez, in one of 

 his letters to the Emperor Charles V., speaks of it. At Quito these green 

 stalks are brought to market, and the Indians suck them as the negroes 

 do the sugar-cane. About ten years ago, the manufacture of sugar from the 

 sap of the Indian corn attracted some attention in the United States, but 

 was not persevered in. In America, a patent was, however, granted in 1850 

 for making sugar out of Indian-corn meal, which is worthy of notice. 

 Twenty-five bushels of corn meal are mixed with 150 gallons of water 

 at a temperature of 175 deg., and to this is added 25 lb. of vitriol, to which, 

 after stirring well, 50 more gallons of water are added, and the whole run 

 into a boiler (a leaden one, we presume), when the contents are boiled by 

 high-pressure steam. The boiling is continued until, by the trial of a little 

 iodine with a portion of the mixture in a saucer, it does not turn blue, 



