86 



cas. From Caraccas it passed to Cucuta and 

 San Gil in the kingdom of New Grenada *. In 

 our days it's cultivation during twenty-five years 

 has almost entirely removed the apprehension, 

 which was at first entertained, that, transplant- 

 ed to America, the plant would by degrees de- 

 generate, and become as slender as the Creole 

 cane. If it be a variety, it is a very constant 

 one. The third species, the violet sugar-cane, 

 called Cana de Batavia, or de Guinea, is cer- 

 tainly indigenous in the island of Java, where 

 it is cultivated m preference in the districts of 

 Japara and Pasuruan -f*. It's foliage is purple 

 and very broad ; and it is preferred in the pro- 

 vince of Caraccas for rum. The tablones, or 

 grounds planted with sugar-canes, are divided 

 by hedges of a colossal gramen ; the latta, or 

 gynerium with distich leaves. At the Tuy men 

 were employed in finishing a dyke, to form a ca- 

 nal of irrigation. This enterprise had cost the 

 proprietor seven thousand piastres for the ex- 

 pense of workmanship, and four thousand pias- 

 tres for the costs of lawsuits in which he was 

 engaged with his neighbours. While the law- 

 yers were disputing about a canal, of which only 



* Under the name of Cana sokra. See a paper by D. 

 Eloy de Valenzuela, incumbent of Bucaramanga, in the Se- 

 man de Santa Fe t torn, ii, p. 13. 



+ Raffles, Hist, of Java, torn, i, p. 124. 



