136 



POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Cane-sugar was known to the ancient Greeks and Eomans, 

 and was considered by them to be a species of honey. Possibly 

 Herodotus refers to it when he says that the Zygantes make 

 honey in addition to that which they get from bees. Theo- 

 phrastus calls it mel in arundinihus (honey in reeds) ; Dios- 

 corides terms it adicxapov {saccharo7i) ; Pliny^ saccharum. 

 Humboldt adopts, too hastily, I think, the opinion of Sal- 

 masius, that the latter writers meant the silicious product 

 of the bamboo, viz. Tahasheer; for, in the first place, as 

 they arrange it with honey, it was probably sweet, which 

 tabasheer is not ; secondly, the Sanscrit name for sugar is 

 sarhira; thirdly, a passage in Lucan (lib. iii. v. 237) seems 

 distinctly to refer to the sugar-cane : ' Quique bibunt tenera 

 dulces ab arundine succos.'' Surely no one will pretend 

 that the |3amboo is tenera amnio (slender reed)."'"' 



All we know of the origin of the sugar-cane is, that it was 

 first known in Asia, and that it has not been found wild in 

 any other part of the world; its cultivation has however 

 spread from the Old World to the American continent and 

 islands, where it now forms perhaps the most important 

 vegetable product. 



The sugar-cane is a gigantic grass, growing from six to 

 twelve feet high ; it is solid, being filled with pith and sac- 



