AND SPECIES HYBRIDS WITHIN THE GENUS SACCHARUM 99 
cane, but that of six of these kinds only sprouted. Yellow Hawai-cane 
alone however gave strong plants 1). Consequently it was SOLTWEDEL 
who proved in 1887 that sugar-cane could produce good seed. 
From this moment on, the efforts to obtain sugarcane-seedlings have 
been diligently pursued. The seed, or, more correctly, the fruit has first 
been described and pictured by BENECKE ca 
Independently of SOETWEDEL, J. B. HARRISON and T. R. BOVELL !) 
obtained sugarcane from seed in Barbados in the year 1889. In 1890 al- 
ready 2500 seedlings were present on that island. 
In the beginning many seedlings perished in Java, as waslater found, 
because they were raised in sand in the shadow. 
MOQUETTE ®) found in 1891 that sugar-cane seedlings should be al- 
lowed to develop in rich soil in full sunlight. By this method he could 
transplant, the next year, about 5000 seedlings, derived from 38 diffe- 
rent kinds, on the fields. At that time Java cultivated almost exclusive- 
ly Black Cheribon-cane, which suffered much from the sereh-disease. 
The goal to be held in view consequently was the obtention of kinds of 
sugarcane, by means of crossing, with a high percentage of sugar anda 
high or complete immunity against the sereh-disease. One tried to ob- 
tain this result by crossing the highly productive Black Cheribon. with 
other kinds with a high resistance against sereh. 
Advised to do so by MOQUETTE 4) Bourictus crossed in 1893 Black 
Cheribon with Canne-morte or Fidji and obtained 21 seedlings. In 
1894 he reported that Fidji-cane resists sereh so well, that bibit-planta- 
tions in the mountains were superfluous 5), even a third generation of 
this cane was entirely free of sereh.The seedlings unfortunately not. In 
18956) he found already the sereh-disease among the clones obtained 
from the 1893 seedlings J. H. WAKKER, at that time Director of the Ex- 
perimentstation „Oost- Java” at Pasoeroean and J. D. Kogus intended 
*) J. D. Kogus, Historisch overzicht over het zaaien van suikerriet. Archief I 
Deby: 
?) F. BENECKE, Over suikerriet uit ,,zaad’’. Mededeelingen van het Proefsta- 
tion ,Midden- Java” te Semarang 1889. 
5) MOQUETTE, Is het kweeken van suikerriet uit zaad op groote schaal moge- 
lijk? Teysmannia, 3e deel. 1892, p. 610. 
fr 
4) R. J. BOURRICIUS, Zaaien en kruisen van suikerriet. Archief I, 1893, p. 500. 
5) R. J. Bourricrus, Kruisingsproeven vanCheribonriet met Canne-morte. Ar- 
chief II. 1894, p. 807. 
°) R. J. Bourricrus, Archief III. 1895, p. 976. 
