THE SUGAR CANE. 581

ll'ink, the opinion of Salmasius , that the latter writers meant the siliceousrfocluct of the Bamboo , viz. tabasheer; for, in the first place, as they~ange B with honey, it was probably sweet, which tabasheer is not;pondly, the Sanscrit name for sugar is sarkura (Royle’s Essay, p. 83);lrd ly, a passage in Lucan (iii. 237) seems distinctly to refer to theu Sar cane —“ Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos.” Surelyone will pretend that the bamboo is a “ tenera arundo ?” (References

Fig. 87.

passages in other ancient authors will be found in the notes to Valpy’sd U. of Pliny ’s Hist. Nat. vol. iv. 2193.)

Botany. Gen. Char. — Spikelets all fertile, in pairs, the one sessile,116 other stalked, articulated at the base, two-flowered, the lower floret"euter, with one palea, the upper hermaphrodite, with two palese.^Urnes two, membranous. Palea; transparent, awnless, those of theer maphrodite flower minute, unequal. Stamens three. Ovary smooth.Rifles two, long; stigmas feathered, with simple toothletted hairs.c ales two, obscurely two or three-lobed at the point, distinct. Cary-°Psis smooth (?), loose (?) ( Kunth ).

&P- Char. — Panicle effuse. Flowers triandrous- Glumes obscurely

one-nerved, with very long hairsFig. 88. on q le ( Kunth ).

The stem is solid, from six totwelve feet high. Leaves flat.Panicle terminal, from one to threefeet long, of a grey colour, fromthe long soft hair that surroundsthe flower. Paleae rose-coloured.Four varieties of the sugar caneare admitted : a) commune, with ayellow stem; /3) purpureum (fig.88), with a purple stem, yieldinga richer juice; y) giganteum, witha very large light-coloured stem ;3) tahitense, from Otaheite , saidto make the finest sugar (Porter’sNat. and Prop, of the Sugar Cane,p. 28, 1830).

Hab. —It is cultivated in bothIndies. Its native country is un-certain.

Manufacture of Sugar. —Thecanes, when ripe, are cut close tothe ground, stripped of leaves, andcarried in bundles to the mill-house,l ' d 'ere they are twice subjected to pressure between iron rollers, placede ither vertically or horizontally. The cane-juice thus procured is an°Paque liquid, of an olive green colour, saccharine taste, and balsamic° d °ur. Its specific gravity is P033 to 1T06. It consists of water,Sll gar, gum, green fecula, extractive, gluten, acetic and malic acids,? c states of lime and potash, super-malate and sulphate of lime, and lignin,111 the form of fragments of the cellular and fibrous tissues of the canes.

Prom the mill the juice is conveyed to a copper cauldron, called theclarifier, where it is mixed with lime, and heated. The clear liquor is

rum

^accharum officina,

S. offic.

P) purpureum.