88 
W. G. Freeman. 
are now cultivated on an extensive scale not only in the West Indies 
but in other parts of the world. 
The other difficulty has been due to the small size of the flowers 
combined with the general habit of the plant. The inflorescence of 
the sugar-cane consists of a feathery plume not unlike that of the 
more familiar Pampas-grass, borne some 12 or 15 feet above the 
ground,and consequently rigidly controlled hybridization as practised 
on flowers of large size and readily accessible appeared almost 
impossible. At first no selection was made at all, but any seeds 
whatever their parentage were taken and plants raised in the hope 
that some might prove to be of value. An advance upon this method 
was to select certain canes as parents and to collect seed from 
these only, but in these cases although the female parent was known 
the parentage on the male side was unknown and the result found 
in various parts of the world was that the majority of the seedlings 
were inferior to the plants from which they were produced. 
To ensure the best results it is essential that it should be 
possible to select both parents and various methods have been 
suggested and tried to ensure the crossing of chosen varieties. 
Adjacent plots, or alternate rows in one plot, ol two selected 
varieties know to flower at the same time were arranged but although 
some of the seeds produced were doubtless the result of cross 
pollination too much was left to chance to ensure very satisfactory 
results. 
Another method, easy to carry out, was to ‘ bag’ the infloresences 
of the selected mother canes and when the pistils were ripe to shake 
into the temporarily opened bags pollen from the infloresence of the 
other selected variety. By this means some, but not necessarily 
all the seeds would probably be the result of cross pollination 
between the two varieties. 
In 1894 Wakker discovered in Java that the Cheribon cane had 
practically unisexual flowers the pollen not being fertile, and Kobus 
planted plots with alternate rows of this Cheribon cane and of an 
Indian cane,Chunnee,with normal flowers. With proper precautions 
the fertile seeds must have been the result of the pollination of the 
Cheribon by the Chunnee, and several thousand hybrid canes were 
raised. 
In 1904 in Barbados Lewton Brain succeeded, under consider¬ 
able practical difficulties, in actually emasculating and bagging 
inflorescences of one variety and definitely pollinating the flowers 
later with pollen from another variety. A few seedlings were raised 
