260 
SACCHARUM OFPICINARUM. 
abundantly in the East Indies, Persia, Brazil, and the Canary Islands, 
the greater part of the sugar consumed in Europe is the product of 
the West India Islands. 
The sugar cane is a perennial plant ; the root is knotted and 
fibrous, from which spring several simple, jointed, smooth, round 
stems, rising to the height of ten or eighteen feet ; the leaves are 
lanceolate, three or four feet in length, and from two to three or 
four inches in breadth, and arise singly from the joints, embracing 
the stems ; the flowers are small, and produced in a terminal loose 
panicle, two or three feet in length, and composed of subdivided 
spikes, with long flexuose down, which conceals the flowers, and 
hides them from the sight ; the calyx or gluma is of two valves, 
which are oblong, or lance-shaped, pointed, erect, concave, and 
equal ; the corolla is composed of two valves, shorter than the 
calyx, and of a fine delicate texture ; the filaments are three, capil- 
lary, longer than the corolla, and bear long yellow anthers; the 
germen is oblong, and supports two feathery styles, terminated by 
plumose stigmas ; the seed is oblong, pointed, and is invested in the 
valves of the corolla. 
The plant above described affords the sugar in common use, but 
there are several vegetables which secrete a sweet or saccharine 
juice, easily convertible into sugar. The Arundo Bambo distils from 
its joints a fluid, which, by the heat of the sun, concretes into sugar, 
and is collected for use ; from the Acer Saccharina, a species of 
maple, a considerable quantity of sugar is annually obtained in 
America ; and the inhabitants of New Spain procure sugar from the 
Agave Americana ; sugar may also be obtained from the Asclepias 
Syriaca, Zea Mays, Heracleum Syphondylium, Fucus Saccharinus, 
and from the roots and fr^iit of many other plants. In the West 
Indies the sugar cane is propagated by cuttings of the stalk, taken 
from near its top, and laid horizontally in the ground : it requires 
a rich fertile soil ; that composed of alluvial matter, mixed with 
clay and sand, produces the greatest number of shoots: good land 
is said to furnish five crops of shoots without transplanting. In 
Jamaica, and the other West India Islands, the canes are cut for the 
purpose of making sugar, between the sixth and thirteenth month of 
their growth, when the stems have acquired from seven to twelve feet 
in height, which usually takes place in the months of February, 
March, and April. As soon as they are cut, the canes are stripped 
of their leaves, and crushed between iron cylinders, to express the 
juice, which is received into large leaden vessels, called receivers ; 
from thence it is removed into large coppers, named clarifiers, where it 
