516 t ’ S A C C II 
from Sicily and Spain, to Madeira, and the Canary islands; 
and afterwards to the West Indian islands, and to Mexico, 
Peru, and Brazil. On the discovery of the western hemi¬ 
sphere, however, the sugar-cane was found on the continent, 
and in some of the islands; but the art of making sugar, it 
is said, never was practised by the native inhabitants of the 
islands of South America. Of this there may be some doubt 
with respect to Mexico. 
Thus far is certain, that before the discovery of the West 
Indies, in 1492, by the Spaniards; before the discovery of 
the East Indies by the Portugueze, in 1497; and before the 
discovery of the Brazils by the same nation, in 1500; abun¬ 
dance of sugar was made in the islands of Sicily, Crete, 
Rhodes, and Cyprus. The sugar-cane is supposed to have 
been brought to these islands originally from India, by the 
Saracens; and thence transplanted into some parts of Italy; 
and to Spain, from Africa, by the Moors. In Spain, the 
sugar-cane was first planted in Valencia, and afterwards in 
Granada and Murcia. Sugar was formerly produced in 
great quantity in these southern provinces, and some is still 
made in the two latter. 
From Valencia, the cultivation and manufacture of sugar 
were carried by the Spaniards to the Canary islands, in the 
15th century; but prior to this period, the Portugueze, in 
1420, carried the cane, and the manufacture from Sicily to 
Madeira. Hence the culture of the sugar-cane, and the art of 
making sugar, were extended to the West Indian islands and 
the Brazils. 
But the sugar-cane itself was found growing near the mouth 
of the Missisippi, when Europeans first went to that part 
of America. Father Hennepin, who was there in 1680, says 
that the banks of that river were full of canes, from thirty 
leagues below Maroa down to the sea. 
5. Saccharum polystachyon, or inany-spiked sugar-cane. 
—Flowers panicled, spikes filiform, very long fastigiate, 
florets rather remote. Height from three to four feet. Culm 
round, jointed, smooth. Leaves whidish, acute, smooth: 
sheaths smooth, except at the neck, which is hairy.—Native 
of the Island of St. Christopher; 
6 . Saccharum arundinaceum, or reedy sugar-cane.—Pa¬ 
nicles clustered, with the peduncles divided, florets two to¬ 
gether, one sessile, the other pedicelled, corollas three-valved 
polygamous. Culm, as high as ten feet, thick, leafy. Leaves 
wide, in whorls, approximating to the stem.—Native of the 
East Indies. 
7. Saccharum Benglialense, or Bengal sugar-cane.—Pa¬ 
nicles clustered, with the peduncles divided, florets two to¬ 
gether, one sessile, the other pedicelled, corollas two-valved, 
'hermaphrodite.—Native of Bengal. 
8 . Saccharum repens, or creeping sugar-cane.—Panicle 
patulous, florets two together, sessile, awned, leaves flat, 
sheaths hairy.—Native of Guiana. 
9. Saccharum Raverinae, or Italian sugar-cane.—Panicle 
loose, with the rachis woolly, flowers awned. Culm the 
thickness of the finger or thumb, upright, smooth. Leaves 
smooth, serrate, with the midrib white.—Native of Italy, 
Provence, and Mount Atlas, on the banks of streams. 
10. Saccharum cylindricum, or cylindric sugar-cane.— 
Panicle spiked cylindric, peduncles one-flowered, flowers 
awnless, two-stamened, leaves flat, joints bearded. Roots 
long, slender, twisted, white. Culm often branched at the 
base.—Native of the South of France, Italy, Sicily, Candia, 
Smyrna, Barbary, and the East Indies. 
11. Saccharum Thunbergii, or Thunberg’s sugar-cane.— 
Panicle spiked, cylindric. peduncles one-flowered, flowers 
awnless, two-stamened, eaves convolute, joints smooth. 
This is a very tall grass; with the panicle more contracted, 
and twice as long as in the preceding, with the wool rather 
yellowish.—Native of the East Indies. 
Propagation and Culture. —The sugar-cane is preserved, 
by way of curiosity, in several gardens invEngland; but being 
too tender to thrive here, unless it be preserved in a warm 
stove, it cannot be brought to any great perfection. Some 
of the plants arrive at the height of seven or eight feet, and 
are as large as a common walking cane. 
ARUM. 
It is propagated by slips taken from the sides of the olde r 
plants; those which grow near the root, and have fibres to 
them, will most certainly grow; so that when the shoots are 
produced at some distance from the ground, the earth should 
be raised about them, that they may put out-fibres before 
they are separated from the mother plant. These slips 
should be planted in pots, filled with rich kitchen-garden 
earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tanner’s baric, 
being careful to shade them from the sun until they have 
taken new root, after which they must be treated in the same 
way as other tender plants from the same countries. They 
must be constantly kept plunged in the tan-bed in the stove; 
and as their roots increase in size, the plants should from time 
to time be shifted into larger pots; but this must be done 
with caution; for if they are over-potted they will not thrive: 
they will require to have water frequently, but sparingly. As 
the leaves of the plants decay, they should be cleared from 
the stalks ; for if these are left to dry upon them, it will 
greatly retard their growth. The stove in which thisplant 
is placed, should be kept in winter to the same tempe¬ 
rature of heat as for the pine-apple, and in hot weather there 
should be plenty of free air admitted to the plants, otherwise 
they will not thrive. 
It should always be observed in the planting of fresh 
land with canes, to allow them more room than is 
generally done ; for as the ground is strong, so there will be., 
a greater number of shoots come out from each plant, and 
not having room to spread at bottom, they will draw each 
other up to a great height, and be full of watery juice, the 
sun and external air being excluded from the canes by the 
multiplicity of leaves, which are both absolutely necessary 
to ripen and prepare the salts during the growth of., the 
canes. 
If the ground be proper for the sugar-canes, and they are 
planted at a good distance from each other, and the land is 
carefully managed, the same plantation may be continued 
about twenty years without replanting, and produce good 
crops the whole time; whereas in the common method, they 
are generally replanted in six or seven years, and in some 
poor land they are continued but two or three. 
The canes are in warm countries propagated by cuttings 
or joints, of proper lengths; these are from fifteen to twenty 
inches long, in proportion to the nearness of their joints or 
eyes. 
The distance which the canes are usually allowed in plant- 
ing, is from three to four feet, row from row, and the hills 
are about two feet asunder in the rows. 
In planting of the canes, make a trench with a hoe, which 
is performed by hand; into this drop the cuttings,at the dis¬ 
tance the hills are designed ; these are by others placed in 
their proper position. 
If the right use of ploughs were well known in sugar- 
countries, the work might be much better performed, and for 
less than half the expense; if, instead of making a trench 
with a hoe, a deep furrow were made with a plough, and 
the cuttings properly laid therein, the ground would be 
deeper stirred, and there would be more depth for placing 
the canes. 
A more recent method of cultivation is as follows:— 
Employ the whole of the first six months of the year in the 
business of the crop, and in May and June plant the canes 
which have been cut in January. This of course induces 
a necessity of cutting the rattoons (or the canes proceeding 
from the old stumps) at the end of the eleventh instead of 
the end of the twelfth month, and the planted canes, which 
would otherwise stand fifteen months, at the end of the year; 
so that the whole plantation is cut every year. It is a fun¬ 
damental principle to plant the canes in the only season 
fitted to accelerate and preserve them. Now, in the Wind¬ 
ward islands, the weather is commonly dry from the 15th of 
February to the 15th of May, and the rains are moderate 
till August, and copious the two or three following months, 
and afterwards decrease till February: under this plan, 
therefore, the progression of the rain keeps pace, as it were, 
with that of the canes. With regard to the maturity of the 
can©, 
