cultivating Sugar Canes . 251 
only a fingle joint each year, fifty-two years of exiftence 
in Europe are not more than fifty-two weeks exiftence 
in America^. 
RECITAL OF FACTS. 
I ft, I have never feen, either in my own plantation 
Or that of any other perfon, a cane which had more than 
(a) When I firll made this fuppolition, I rather conje£tured what mufl be 
than what I knew exa&ly; but lince that time, Mr. thouin* * of the King's 
Botanic Garden at Paris, has rid me of the little anxiety I could not help feel- 
ing at having ventured an aflertion of the truth of which I was not accurately 
fure. He fhewed me a cane which, he believes , to have been planted twelve 
years ago : it has thirty joints. In order to be convinced that it has grown at 
the rate of two joints and a half a year, one fhould be fully fatisfied that it was 
planted twelve years ago; but he likewife fhewed me one which he knows was 
brought from America iri a pot ten years ago, and this has only two joints out 
of the ground. Conclude we then, as I faid before, that, in order to know a 
plant thoroughly, we fhould fludy it in the climate to which it belongs. 
forty 
d’un noeud par chaque annee, 52 annees d’exiftence en Europe n’equivaudroient 
qu’a 52 femaines d’exiftence en Amerique *. 
EXPOSONS DES FAITS. 
i e obfervation, Je n’ay jamais vu chez moi ni ailleurs de cannes qui euffent 
* Lorfqueje hazardois cette fuppofition je ne faifois qu’imaginer ce qui pouvoit etre M t.thouin, du 
Jardin du Roy a Paris, m’a mis en etat d’apprecier une idee fur laquelle je n’etois pas fans une efpece 
d’inquietude ; il m’a fait voir une canne quil croit plantee ily a douze ans : elle a trente noeuds ; pour 
etablir qu’elle a C-ru a raifon de deux noeuds et demi par an il faudroit etre certain qu’elle a ete plantee il 
y a douze ans ; mais il m’a fait voir aufii une canne qu'il fcait avoir ete apportee d’ Amerique dans un pot 
it y a deux ans, elle n’a que deux noeuds hors de terre : concluons du moins comme je l’avoir dit que 
pour coapoitre une plante? il faut la fuivre dans le climat qui lui eft propre. 
K k 2 
au 
