317 
Station have spent eight weeks at Kew in the study of African 
plants and products in the houses and museums a bw ok with 
this establishment, and in acquiring information in the city and 
elsewhere respecting the commercial value and method of dd 
ment of subjects likely to be successfully remnunsiatively taken 
up in West Africa 
DLXXVIIL—IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR-BEET 
AND SUGAR-CANE 
It is not sufficiently recognised that the development of the vast 
industry which has been founded on the beet has been only 
yie 
was made to ons. i ilmorin, who has ha 
in bringing the sugar beet i its present condition asa ave ee 
source of sugar. The following interesting letter was received in 
reply. It gives a striking picture of what can be agian by 
persistent selection. 
Mons. H. L. DE VILMORIN to ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
17, Rue de Bellechasse, Paris, 
December 30th, 1896. 
DEAR Mn. THISELTON-DYER, 
I can very easily send iden the desired information, as the 
subject of sugar-beet is one which my father and myself 
devoted much time and shed n 
Both the beet-root and the leaf-beet are derived from Beta 
maritima, L., a native of the shores of the Mediterranean and of 
e western coasts of Europe. It wa ce own to the ancient Greeks 
imd Romans under both garden form 
In the eighteenth century large vanua of the beet-root were 
transferred from the garden to the field, used as Sunk for cattle, 
rst in Germany, afterward in France and in tain. 
When Achard initiated the manufacture of sugar rad beet-root 
the white field variety was judged the most suitable for sugar- 
making; it contained 8 to 10 per cent. of its weight in pure 
sugar. Selection was then brought to bear on the pairing variety, 
and in fifty years slightly increased the percentage of sugar, 
raising it to 12 or 13 per cent. er the gross weight of the root). 
After 1850 more m o rtaini 
cent. of sugar. The fibrous tissues of the root which hold most 
sugar had been apaa mal the cellular tissues reduced to the 
utmost extent ; hence the root became small, ha ry and easily 
deformed. Ever since are object has been to unite a better 
shape with an equal amount of sugar.  Beet-roots containing 
more than 18 per cent. pun cease to Jost» properly and die. 
