SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM.-COMMON SUGAR-CANE. 
Class III. TRIANDRIA.— Order' II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, GRAMINE^. THE GRASS TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) is intended to represent the entire plant reduced. (6) A flower magnified. (c) The same closed, 
(d) A portion of the panicle, with the flowers of the natural size. 
The Sugar-cane, which is supposed to be a native of the East Indies, though now introduced into the tro- 
pical parts of the western continent, and the West India islands, is one of the most valuable in a commercial 
point of view, as well as one of the most beautiful productions of the vegetable kingdom. The Chinese date 
the cultivation of this precious plant from periods of the most remote antiquity: but Dr. Roxburgh ascertained 
that the sugar cane of China was different from the S . officinarum, and he has published it as the S. Sinense. 
That the sugar-cane is indigenous to the south-eastern parts of Asia, we have the strongest reason to believe, 
for Marco Polo, a noble Venetian, who travelled in the East, about the year 1250, found sugar in abundance 
in Bengal. Vasco de Gama, who doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, relates that a considerable trade 
in sugar was then carried on in Calicut. From the East Indies, the sugar-cane was carried, towards the 
closp of the thirteenth century, to Arabia, whence the cultivation of it soon extended to Nubia, Egypt, and 
.Ethiopia. Mr. Bruce found it in Upper Egypt; and John Lioni says, that a considerable trade was carried 
on in sugar in Nubia, in 1500; it abounded also at Thebes, on the banks of the Nile, and in the northern 
parts of Africa about the same period. 
The root of the sugar-cane is perennial, jointed, solid, and fibrous ; sending up several simple, erect, 
round, smooth, leafy, jointed stems, to the height of ten or twelve feet. At each articulation of the stem is 
a double or triple row of deep greenish punctures. The leaves are three or four feet long, and three inches 
broad, linear-lanceolate, and arise singly from the joints, embracing the stem at the base to the next joint 
above their insertion : they are smooth, spreading, entire, flat ; with the midrib prominent on the under side, 
the edges sharply toothed, and ciliated near the base with rigid white hairs. The flowers are small, and pro- 
duced in a terminal loose panicle, about two feet in length, composed of numerous subdivided whorled spikes, 
with long flexuose down which conceals the flowers, and gives to the plant a very elegant appearance.* 
The flowers are all hermaphrodite, and stand in pairs, at the joints of the smaller divisions of the panicle. 
The calyx is 2-flowered, consisting of two oblong-lanceolate, pointed, erect, concave, nearly equal, beardless 
glumes, enveloped in long hairs from the base. The corolla is shorter than the calyx, and composed of 
two very minute, pellucid valves, the innermost very slender. The filaments are three, capillary, longer than 
the corolla, and bear oblong, yellowish anthers. The germen is ovate, bearing two styles, terminated by 
brownish feathery stigmas. 
It is a remarkable fact, that the sugar-cane in the West Indies never perfects its seeds ; the plant being 
propagated always by cuttings from the roots. Dr. Roxburgh, who resided many years in India, never saw 
the seed of this plant. 
The oldest stock of canes cultivated in the W est India islands, is said to have been brought from Spain. 
“ There cannot be a doubt indeed, says Dr. Macfayden, “but that the sugar-cane is not indigenous to any 
part of the New World. We are, it is true, informed by the early voyagers and travellers, that canes were 
found growing wild on the banks of the Mississippi, and other rivers of continental America ; and Labat 
mentions that the first French settlers met with them in Martinique and some of the other islands. It is 
most probable that they mistook for them some other of the reedy grasses, such as the wild Arundo sagit- 
tata, or some species of the genus Arundinaria — all of which are common on the banks of rivers in these 
latitudes, and all, by their appearance and manner of flowering, might readily deceive an inexperienced eye. 
Besides, were the sugar-cane a native, it would be difficult to account for its being at present found no where 
in a state of nature.” 
There are several varieties of the common sugar-cane. Louriero mentions three sorts, differing in the 
culm, viz. the white sugar-cane, the red sugar-cane, and the elephantine sugar-cane. In Ceylon, there are 
three varieties, the common, white, and purple. In the Mysore, two kinds of cane are chiefly cultivated, the 
testali and putta putti. In the West Indies, the oldest variety is commonly known by the name of the Coun- 
try Cane. It is readily distinguished by its diminutive size, its spindling stem, approximate joints, and 
* In the West Indies, the planters commonly assert that the sugar-cane never blossoms ; their observations being made on plants 
cultivated in a most luxuriant soil, where they increase much by root, and are cut before they produce flowers. 
