36 е7 
eané-sugar. Yet it is remarkable - little has been sen - e 
investigate the life-history of the sugar-cane, and to ascertain the m 
avourable conditions for the formation of kan p its stie. 
The only rem at present in the British Empire where any scientifie 
study of the sugar-cane has been made is at Dodd's Reformatory, 
bados, where, as pointed out in the Kew Bulletin (1888, p. 295), 
« cultural and chemical Maus with various kinds of sugar-canes 
ha 
s the importance of the subject it is a matter of regret that 
г knowledge of what may be called the internal economy of the sugar- 
бале is far inferior to that which has been obtained in the case of a 
The great desideratum with the sugar-cane, as in the past with == 
beet, has been to increase its productiveness in cane-sugar. The las 
word on the subject is the statement of Mr. J. R. Bovell, the Superis 
tendent of Dodd's Reformatory, in his most recent report: — “ No 
* information has yet been obtained with regard to increasing the 
* richness of the canes, — eu the manures or "by growing them from 
* portions ofthe cane rich in sugar 
` "The problem of the ийиндин ‘of cane- -sugar in a plant is a some- 
what obscure one. ‘The purpose of this article is to draw attention to 
the slender information which we have about it. Cane-sugar is one of a 
large number of chemical cope whicli play a most important part 
composed of the three lanii carbon, кейга , and oxygen, the tw 
latter elements being present in the same pesci as they exist in 
water. 
Starch, from the botanical point of view, is the primitive carbo- 
hydrate. The whole series of substances found in the plant, which, in 
their ultimate constitution, are found to conform to the carbo-hydrate 
type, undoubtedly derive from starch by virtue of chemical changes 
brought about, for the most part we know not how, within the plant 
organism. 
Starch is — in the leaves of plants from carbonic acid 
absorbed fro sm atmosphere and from water supplied by the plant. 
The йрй до ous oxygen is retur ied to the ame here. Hence we get 
a rough justification of the term carbo-hydrate ; ке may be regarded 
as welded together with the constituents as ter, though this is not 
an altogether accurate description of the н я by which starch is 
produced. Roughly, ча passage ks! starch, and = more intractable 
analogue cellulose into sugars of various composition may be regarded 
as a variation in e proportions with which the proe carbon is 
grees with wate 
as has bes n said, is formed in the leaves. It supplies 
веры trom which ull the solid parts of plants are built up. It 
must therefore, in some form or other, be capable of transport from the 
only be distributed through their structures in the soluble form. Starch, 
having been once formed, is practically locked up as long as it remains 
To be available for the purposes of plant-growth it is necessary, 
for the most part, that it should be converted into a soluble sugar. 
One of the most striking changes of this description is that which 
takes place in the germination of starchy seeds. e process of malting 
is only an arrested germination. The seeds of barley are allowed to 
germinate sufficiently to convert ali their starch into starchy sugar, or 
