28 INOSA, 30
Kcclary oftwo large, broad cuneate. creni.bte, Heshy scales, which
occupy the two posterior sides of the germ, opposite to ihe
two valves of the corul.
This new spccies, for such it appears to me, was introduced
from China into the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, at the close of the
•ith the lic.pes of li
; it in some respects better
ted over India, and hitherto it has
promised considerable advantage ; particularly as the cane is so
solid and hard, as to resist the forceps of the whice-ants and teeth
of .the jackal, two great enemies to our East Indian sugar plantations.
At the same time it bears drought much better than the
sorts in general cultivation. Lasts (ratoons,) so as to be a profitable
crop even to the third year; (while the common cane oflndia
must be renewed every year;) and yields juice of a richer quality.
I t seems to be the sort employed over China for making their
sngsrs from, as appears from the following extract of a letter from
Mr. A. Duncan, the Surgeon to the Factory at Camon, to Richard
I k l l , Esq. President, «cc. Select Committee, dnted Canton, 26ch
October ]7!)G, which accompanied this cane from China; explaining
the mode of cultivation, and manufacturing the sugar in
the Province of Canton,
« Of sugar-cancs, two sort.? are cultivated in the Province of
" Canton; one which is small, compact, and highly saccharine,
" is manufactured into .sugar : whereas the other of a larger size,
<' and looser texture, is generally cut into joints and ate by the
" natives, either raw or gently iieated.
•< The culture of sugar-canes commences about the middle of
" March, or beginning of April, in proportion to tlie tempcrance
" o f the weather, when a good, light, sandy soil is thrown up
" into beds of about four feet diameter, leaving intermediate
<• spaces of one and a half, which serves as drains, and passes
" for the husbandmen. A compost of human manure and water
" is now thrown over the beds ; and lops uf sugar-canes, fifteen
" inches long (the Chinese are here ceconomical) are planted in
a slanting position, and occasionally watered at sun-set, till the
" young shoots rise a cubit high, when the husks and refuse of
" ihe groimd-nut, or of some oleaginous seeds, after tlie oil is
<• extracted, are well beaten into a kind of powder, and put round
<' the roots of the plams in small quantities, and afterwards
" covered over with earth. The canes are now left to the fertility
of the soil, except it proves such a dry season, that watering
becomes requisite till they arrive at maturity, and are cut down
"about the first of November. The first sort planted in the
foregoing manner, generally yields three crops, while the
" second requires fresh planting.
" Tlie su»ar canes are now removed from ihe grounds to the
mill for expression. The juice being extracted, is carefully
" strained, mixed with a small quantity of chunam lime water,
- then poured into large warm iron pans, placcd on a platform
" of brickwork, with fire places below ; it is now boiled for a
" length of time, and being removed from the fire, and allowed
ing agaii mcd t.
' the pans, the boiling is repeated fo till i
quires a saccharine consistence. The sugar, still very moist,
" is now put into cylindrical jars, which have a small hole in
" each of their bottoms, for the intent of draining, and their lops
" covered over wiih about half an inch of clayey moist earth ;
' these are placed on stands, and remain for three or four days,
' when the old earthen covering is removed, and a fresh one put
- on; they continue in dial situation for three or four days more;
" the covering is then taken off, and the .sugar being sufficiently
- clarified, is removed from the jars, and .spread out on flat bas-
" kets, exposed to the sun till dry, when it h fit for use. The
" mill for expressing the juice, (of which I have sent a very exact
" miniature model) appears, so far as I rccollcct, preferable to
" chose used in India. The machine is wrought by a buffalo
yoked to the small end of the crooked beam, while its thick end
•• is fastened to ihe long axle of one of ihe cylinders ; the canes
" having undergone one expression, and consequently in a split
" stale, are not thrust a second time tlirough, till all the irons are
greased. The cylinders are not always of the same dimensions,
•• ihose 1 eKuinined were two cubiis high, and one and two-thirds
In diameter, these are the common si.c ; I am however told
• they a ich I
. . , ut the benefit ihat may accrut :ulti of
sugar cane, it may be necessary to add the following copy of a
lct°er from Mr . Richard Cardin, supcrintendant of the Honourable
Company's rum and sugar works at Mirzapore, in Bengal, to
Dr. Roxburgh, dated l.ith August ISOl, nearly five years after
the introduction of the cane.
" With respect to the produce of the common Bengal sugar
" canes, I have never been able to collect an account that can be
" depended upon; the natives generally manufacture the juice
•• into jaggery in my neighbourhood, which yields them nearly
" 1 -1 cutcha muds (niaunds) of CO sicca weight per biggah on an
average, and a profit of about ! 1 or 12 rupees per biggah. Nei-
" ther the whi t e ants or jackals have committed any depredations
on ihe China canes that I have planted, alihough the latter has
'' often been seen among them, wh ich certainly gives these canes a
•• decidcd preference to the Bengal sugar-canes. I do noi think
" the China degenerate in the least, nor do they improve ; they
appear to me to remain nearly in the same state. If planted at
" the same time the natives put their canes in the ground, they
will not make such good returns as the Bengal sort ; but planted
'• in the West India mode, in the month of October or September,
" and suffered to remain on the ground till the December or
- J a n u a r y twelvemonths, they will then yield double the returns
of what the Bengal canes do, which is owing, in part, to the
" length of lime they are in the ground, and principally to the
<'anis and jackals not destroying them ; whereas, if the Bengal
" cane was to remain so long on the ground, ihc natives would
" have great difficulty to prevent the most of them from being
" destroyed, and the young shoots sufler very much from the hot
" winds and ants, which I wiinesscd the second year I came to
Mirzapore ; but the China shoots from these cancs I cut last
"January, stood the last hot season uncommonly well, and will
- next January, I have reason to believe, from ihe present appearance',
make half, or nearly ihreo-fourihs the quantity of sugar
• ' i h e y did last January, and that wiih the trifling expense of
•< cleaning them twicc, culling and manufacturing ihejuice. I
should be extremely happy lo have sent you a more particular
account, which is not in my power, as the slate.nent ol the
<• natives is not lo be depended upon. I did purchase 12 cotlahs
- of the best Bengal canes lastjanuary, merely as an e.Nperimeni,
" which yielded just lialf the quaniity of sugar my Cliina cancs
" did."
253. HYDROPHYLAX MARITIMA.
Liwu. sp. pLed. Willden. I.p. 581.
.Sarissus anceps. Garl. setn. ¡.p. 118. 25./. 4.
DESCRIPTION,
Ron/ perennial.
.SVtfww no other than many long, slender, variously bent, straggling,
round, colouied branches, running over the sand, and often
striking root from the joints.
Leaves opposite, approximate, short-petioled. elliptic, fleshy, recurved,
rather acute, smooth, deep green, with hisped
margins.
Comiecling membrane, with the petioles form a deep, stem-clasping,
dentated cup.
Flowers axillary, subsessile, one or iwo together, of a pale pink
colour.
Calj/x above, four-parted; divisions broad-ensiform, permanent;
tube hairy on the inside near the bottom.
Corel campanulate ; lube hairy on the inside near ihe bottom;
the four divisions of the border ovate, spreading, with their
api( /olui
Filaments four, erect, shorter than the corol, and inserted on the
mouth of its tube, opposite to its fissures. Attlheri purple.
GtJ-m oblong. Stijle length of the corol. Sliginaoitwo round lobes.
Pe'icaTp, when ripe a dry Bevnj, of a lanceolate shape; crowned
with the remaining calyx, two-celled, with a single, linearoblong
seed in each, &c. as described and figured by G;ermer,
under the name Sarissus anceps.
OBSERVATIONS.
A native of the sand hills along the shores of Coromandd and
Malabar, where it is in blos.som most part of the year.
234. TRAPA BISPINO.SA.
Mils with two opposite, straight, barbed, spinous horns. jYeclary
cup-shapcd, curlcd.
Sringataca, Asiatic rcsrnr. vol. 2. p. 350.
Sringata, iis Sanscrit name. See Asiatic resear. vol. i.p. 253.
Singhara, of the Bcngalese and Hindoos,
?:uiover-Tsjcraua.i?/;iii/. Mai. v. 11./;. (5 5. I. 33, is evidently
intended for ihis plant, and noi Ibr T, natans.
DESCRIPTION.
Rnv! numerous, simple, capillary fibres, issue from the under
margins of the cicatrizes of ihe fallen leaves.
Stems sloloniferous, olien several feel long, floating, or when ihe
water dries up, running along tlie mud.
Leaves petioled, alternaie, approximate round the apex of the
shoots; ol a rhomboidid-rcniform shape, with the posterior
margins eniire, and the anterior .serrate-demate ; above
smooth, deep green ; villous and purple underneath ; from
.B to 4 inches broad, and scarce so long,
Pe/iWii villous, lengthening with ihe age of ilie leaves ; towards
the apex much swollen ; this part contains many inflated
vesicles, which render the whole plani veiy buoyant.
Stipules two-pair ; ihe superior simple, semi lanceolate, aiul caducous
; the inferior pair at first simple and filiform, by age
become very ramotis like roots, and arc permanent, as in the
figure.
Peduncles axillary, solitary, shorter than ihe pt-tioles, one-flowered,
incur;ed until the blossoms begin to decay, afier that iliey
bend down under the surihce of the waier, where the fruit
grows and comes to maturity.
Flmuers pure white, expand above the surface of the water late in
the afternoon.
Cali/x four-leavcd, in opposite pairs ; leaflets lanceolate, villous,
one of the pair permanent.
Corol contorted ; petals four, at the base coniracced into a tube by
the firmness of the calyx ; above greatly broader, and expanding
; margins much curled.
.\'ectary cup-shaped, on ihe.top of the germ round the swelled base
of the style, eight-grooved, with margin minutely lacerate,
and curled.
/•//«»(«iif four, incurved. Anikers ovai, incumbent.
Gem beneath. Sti/U length of the stamens. Stigma large, and
nearly hemispheric.
.'Vh/ turbinate, armed with two opposite, very-sharp, barbed
spines, formerly, the two larger leaflets of the calyx onecelled.
Ìiirt! solitary, large, conforming to the shape of the nut, which it
completely fills. Emhrijo lodged in the top of ihe albumen,
immediately under the remains of the style.
This is evidently a species perfectly distinct from the two
already described, viz. nataiis and bicornis. From ihe former it
differs in having only two horns, and from the latter in these horns
being sti-aight, very sharp, and barbed,
OBSERVATIONS.
Found floating on sweet standing water, over Bengal, and many
other parts o( liidia. Flowering time ihe rainy season.
The nuts are sold in most bazars when in season, ,so much do
the Hindoos admire their kernels.
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES.
1. Part ofa plani
2. A small porti ion of the stem, \ vith jsart ( )f the petiole . (a) of
a leaf, and pan . of peduncle (b) ^ •vith the u ippcr pair of • stipu-
Itis (cc) and h .nver pair, (dd) c .ne of the m beginning ; to be
fibrous.
3, Asmallportio n of ihe stem, to show the i oots(a) issuii, ig from
the margins of t h e p i t o f a f a l l e r I leaf, beti' reen the noa>
inferior pair of 'stipules (b b).
The above are all of the natural si?
-1, Partofafl o wer magnified, tc . show the plaited necta
5. The nut, n; ilural size.
6. Section of t he same, with tJie embryo ii 1 the apex.