WHERE OUR STTGiai-CA^-E CAME FROM. 



69 



is pacted in large cylmdiical baskets of bamboo, 

 and is ready to be taken to market and shipped 

 abroad.* 



Three species of the sugar-cane are recognized by 

 botanists: the Saceh-arum dnemis of China; the 

 Saechcmim offieiimrum of India, which was introduced 

 by the Arabs into Southern Europe, and thence trans- 

 ported to our own country f and the West Indies ; and 

 the Saccliarum violacmm of Tahiti, of which the cane 

 of the Malay Ai'chipelago is probably only n variety. 

 This view of the last species is strengthened by the 

 similanty of the names for it in Malaysia and Poly- 

 nesia The Malays call it tabu ; the inhabitants of 

 the Philipj)iues, tuhu ; the Kayans of Borneo, turo ; 

 the natives of Floris, between Java and Timur, and 

 of Tongatabu, in Polynesia, tan ; the people of Tahiti 

 and the Marquesas, to ; and the Sandmch Islanders, ho. 



It is either a native of the ai^ehipelago or was in- 

 troduced in the remotest times. The Malays used to 

 cultivate it then as they do now, not for the purpose 

 of making sugar, but for its sweet juice, and great 

 quantities of it are seen at this time of year in all 

 the markets, usually cut up into shoit pieces and the 

 outer layers or innd removed. These people appear 

 also to have been wholly ignorant of the mode of 

 making sugar from it, and all the sugar, or more 

 properly molasses, that was used, was obtained then 

 as it is now in the Eastern islands, namely, by boil- 



* Darmg 1865 the goTerament sold 250,000 pictili (16,666 tons) of 

 flugur, but the total esported from Java was two million iiiculs. 



t Our word sugar comes from the Arnbic mkar^ and that from the 

 Sanscrit wfewra, thoB indicating m its name bow it first came to be 

 known to Europeans. 



