Straits of Malacca, where it is cultivated by the Malays. In appearance, it is much like the yellow-violet, except in the peculiarity of its colour, which is rather greenish with a pink shade in parts; in some of the lower joints, this pink colour is very bright and pretty, whilst in the upper it is more faint and delicate. The joints are seldom more than from 3 to 6 inches apart. In height, size, and foliage, it closely resembles the yellow-violet; it differs from it in being much softer, more juicy, and less hardy in habit. In a rich soil, it is prolific, and ratoons well; its juice is rich, clarifies easily, and gives a fine sugar; but, on the whole, it is inferior to the Otaheite variety, while requiring an equally rich soil.

4. East Indian canes.—The large red canes of Assam are very juicy and sweet; the sugar produced from them is of an exceedingly fine grain and good colour; they are, moreover, strong in growth, and much less apt to fall over than the Otaheite, to which they are fully equal in size, as well as in quantity and quality of juice. They flower when only 8 months old; consequently they could be cut and manufactured in 10 months from the day of being planted.

In Lower Bengal (near Calcutta), and in the Straits of Malacca, a large red cane abounds, which bears a very close resemblance to the preceding variety.

The red cane of Bengal is a large and fine cane, much used about Calcutta for sugar manufacture; sugar made from it by the natives, in their own rough and primitive way, exhibits a grain of good size, strength, and brilliancy. The Malay name is Tibboo Merah.

The next large canes are the black and the yellow Nepal, large-sized and fine-looking canes, fully equal in appearance to the Assam.

As to the small-sized canes cultivated in India, they are very numerous, the most common being the Kajlee and the Pooree. They are immeasurably inferior to our Colonial kinds.

5. The Chinese sugar-cane possesses the advantage of being so hard and solid as to resist the forceps of the white ant and the teeth of the jackal-two great enemies to the East Indian sugar plantations. It is difficult to express the juice with the Bengal native sugar mill; but the cane bears drought much better than the sorts in general cultivation, producing a profitable crop even to the third year, while the common cane of India must be annually renewed. It is extremely hard and prolific; during very hot seasons, it remains uninjured in every respect, whilst other canes are all either burnt up, or eaten out of the ground by the white ants. As the rains come on, the China cane springs up wonderfully, many roots having no less than 30 shoots, which, by September, become fine canes, about 12 feet in height, 3 inches in circumference, and with joints from 6 to 8 inches apart. These, cut in October, may be planted out during a tolerably severe winter, the cold having little or no effect in checking their growth. These facts are sufficient to establish the China cane as a variety well suited to India, although it is very far inferior to the Otaheite, wherever that cane can be cultivated successfully. It was introduced into India in 1796, and is now common throughout Bengal, although the natives think it indigenous, from its having been so long amongst them. Its neglected cultivation during many years in India has caused it to degenerate very much. It is very small-sized, being rarely more than 1 or 1 inch in diameter; but it is sweet, and makes fine fair sugar. The Chinese assert that it is better adapted than any other cane for making sugarcandy. It must not be confounded with the Chinese cane experimented with in Demerara in 1854-5, which was Holcus saccharatus (see Sorghum-sugar); though it gave 3 or 4 crops in a year, the aggregate annual yield fell short of that from the common cane.

6. The "elephant" cane of Cochin China has been stated to reach a height of 11 feet and a diameter of 7 inches in

6 months. This variety is only cultivated for eating or chewing, and might prove to be a good sugar-producing cane. But as varieties, especially in the case of sugar-canes, often improve by change of climate, perhaps this might succeed better elsewhere. The dimensions of diameter and height, to which this variety attains, depend on the length of time during which its growth continues. In a good soil, it requires

2 years to reach 10 feet in height. After 5 or 6 years, it will reach 16 to 32 feet; such specimens may be seen near native houses, where it is allowed to grow undisturbed as an ornamental plant. In the province of Mytho, this variety is cultivated in humid alluvial soils on a considerable scale, but simply for sale in the bazaars and for chewing. It has the peculiarity of possessing a very brittle epidermal layer, so that, instead of becoming pressed out, and giving up its juice, when passed through the wooden mills employed in Cochin China, it breaks up into small fragments.

7. The Straits Settlements grow eight kinds of sugar-cane, foremost among which is the Salangore, called by the Malays Tibboo Cappor or Tibboo Bittong Beraboo, and often termed "the Chinese cane" by the planters of Province Wellesley, from the simple fact of its having been cultivated there by the Chinese immigrants since a time long antecedent to the European occupation of the district. This is one of the finest canes known, attaining a weight of 25 lb., a length of over 13 feet, and a diameter of 3 inches, under favourable conditions. It is remarkable for the prevalence of setæ ("caneitch") on the portion of the leaf attached to the stalk. The leaves are very broad, deeply serrated, and have a considerable droop; they are some shades darker-coloured than the Otaheite, and adhere so firmly to the stem even when dry as to require taking off by hand. The cane "ratoons" better than any other kind in the Straits, and has been known to yield there 40 piculs (a picul is 133 lb.) of granulated undrained sugar on I orlong of ground (an orlong is 1 acres)

as third ratoons. As "plant canes," they have given an average of 65 piculs of granulated sugar from each orlong, or 6500 lb. to the acre, sometimes increasing to 7200 lb. The Salangore cane grows firm and strong, remaining much more erect than the Otaheite; it affords an abundance of juice, which is sweet, easy of clarification, boils well, and produces a very fine fair sugar, of bold and sparkling grain.

The Salangore cane has been introduced into Brazil, and the British and French West Indies. In the former, it has been attacked by disease; but in the two latter, it is well spoken of, growing with great vigour under irrigation. Planted pretty wide apart (2 yards by 2 yards), and properly manured, in 5 or 6 months it forms such a thick vigorous growth as to keep down weeds, and greatly reduce the labour usually expended on their eradication. The clumps yield from 25 to 40 canes, thus producing a weight per acre much in excess of ordinary canes. As many as 16 clumps have been cut from 40 square yards, giving a net weight of over 800 lb., or at the rate of more than 80,000 lb. to the acre, while the ordinary canes vary from about 21,600 lb. to 32,000 lb. The "begass" of the Salangore cane constitutes so much fuel that only a small addition of straw is required to supplement it, while still leaving as much refuse on the ground as other kinds.

8. The South Pacific Islands are by some regarded as the original home of the sugar-cane, and they certainly produce a number of forms which are strictly local. Cuzent enumerates the following kinds in the Society Islands: (a) To Uti: large stalk, of fine violet colour, pith of same hue, and rich in juice; it is cut at about 14 months. It is not indigenous, but was introduced from Batavia in 1782. (b) Rutu or Rurutu: stem of a clear violet, with white pith, the young leaves also violet-coloured. It comes from Cook's Archipelago. (c) Irimotu large, green, fragile stem, which breaks with a straight fracture and no splinters, the pith being white; it is rich in juice, but is little cultivated, because of the pubescence

(hairiness) of its stem, the hairs attacking both the skin and the respiratory organs during the harvesting operation. (d) Oura: the common "ribbon" cane, having a violet stem with longitudinal bands of bright-yellow, the pith being white; it attains a great size, especially in humid soils. (e) Piavere : the Creole cane; it has a light-red stem, grows to a less size than the preceding, its internodes are less distant, its pith is white, and the juice is less rich than the other kinds, whence it is regarded as inferior. (f) Vaihi-uouo or Uouo: the stalk is white, and contains less juice than the average kinds, but the juice is richer in crystallizable sugar. It was introduced from the Sandwich Islands. (g) Avae: a yellow stalk banded with clear green, having some resemblance to the lastmentioned; the pith is white, tender, and very juicy, hence the natives chew it in preference to the others, but the sap is not very rich in crystallizable sugar. On the flanks of some of the mountains, two other varieties are met with. They are both small, and are known collectively by the name To-Aeho; one, distinguished as To-Patu, is red, and contains more juice than the other, which is white. Canes growing in the Pacific Islands have been asserted to yield 25 per cent. more juice and 15 per cent. more crystallizable sugar than the bulk of the canes raised in our Colonies; but this statement requires confirmation: thus 15 per cent. more crystallizable sugar means a juice containing 2 to 3 lb. of crystallizable sugar per gallon, whereas even 2 lb. would be an extraordinary figure. The Otaheite or Tahiti canes cultivated in the West Indies degenerate in course of time, and should be renewed by the importation of fresh stock from the Pacific groups, and perhaps New Guinea. The Sandwich Islands are accredited with 35 to 40 distinct varieties of sugar-cane. One of these varieties, called Puolleæ, grown on 30 acres of good land under irrigation, gave an average yield per acre of 12,000 lb. (6 hhds.) of No. 16 sugar. It is reported to be hardy, and to grow freely up to 2000 feet elevation in its native country.