24 
discoveries in some sort are accidental. They often lie, so to speak, 
t 
done in the matter was to put it on record and give it a scientific 
verification. For my part, I have no doubt, looking at the whole history 
of the improvement of Бегма plants, that the discovery, for so Т 
think it, of Messrs, Harrison and Bovell has been the starting point of 
a new era in the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and with time and patience 
I do not see why even the aspirations of Mr. Neville Lubbock should 
not be realised. But it will require both. 
At the moment of sending this paper to press I have received the 
following important communication from the Director of Forests and 
Botanical Gardens, Mauritius. It shows that the advice given from 
Kew in 1886, as to the possibility of effecting something for the 
improvement of the sugar-cane by taking advantage of “ bud variation,’ 
though based upon theoretical considerations, was fully justified. do 
not, howe ever, pit one method against the other. I simply point out 
that the cultivator in quest of new varieties has, so to speak, two strings 
to his bow. 
W. T. THISELTON DYER. 
Roxar BOTANICAL GARDENS, Млокиттоз, to ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. 
The Gardens, Curepipe, Mauritius, 
DEAR pate 9th December 1890. 
* * * Raising canes from seed to get improved 
varieties will be a long and tedious affair, and there will be many 
n before a really good mt sugar-yielding variety will 
ained. I think 
ink it probable that more and better results will be 
bathed by good cultivation and by new Vias from bud sports. Of 
these last we have eight or nine in alone, e 
ve 
hardier than their parents and yield more sugar. They are mostly 
obtained from new canes recently introduced. The sudden change of 
climate, soil, and other circumstances cause them to be thrown off. More 
of them might t be obtained if the planters were more grees than 
they are, and closely followed the cane cutters when cutting the canes. 
Thus they would range all their fields over, perhaps, areas amounting to 
1,500 acres, matching each cane as it is seen cut. Аз things are, a new 
variety is only observed should it chance to dem б up in an outside row. 
our 
eet) José Horne. 
W. T. Thiselton Dyer, Esq., C.M.G., F.R.S 
