Abstract
DR. C. A. BARBER, Government Sugar-Cane o Expert, Madras, continuing his studies on Indian sugar-canes, has given an account of the classification of two new groups which he describes as Saretha and Sunnabile (Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Botanical Series ix., No. 4). In the course of study of the. Indian canes a sharp distinction was observed between two classes. There was, on one hand, a large series of thick, juicy canes commonly grown on a crop-scale in the more tropical parts, or in the northern parts usually in small plots under high cultivation near large towns, in which they were used for eating as fruit. A second series of thin, hardy canes, grown under field conditions all over India, especially in the north, were unfitted for chewing, but were crushed and made into “jaggery” or “gur.” It is this second series which includes the subject of the memoir. In contrast with the first series these thin canes are considered to be indigenous to India, and were found to include several well-defined classes. A number of apparently isolated forms from all parts of the country were, at first difficult of arrangement, but were afterwards found to fall into two groups, characterised by bending or erect leaf-tips and presence or absence of circlets of hairs at the nodes; the canes known as Saretha and Sunnabile have been selected to give names to the new groups. In classifying varieties under these two groups the characters usually employed in systematic work, such as differences in o the floral organs and size of organs and plants, have o not been found helpful, but dependence has been placed on a series of minute local differences. Thus in-all the Saretha group there is a minute incrustation on the rind, as if it had been attacked by a small mite, whereas this is absent in the Sunnabile group. The density of bloom is greater in the Saretha group, but the blackening of this bloom by fungus is sharper and more circumscribed in the Sunnabile group. Thickness of stem and size and vigour of plant seem to be of no value; and the existence of insignificant characters in canes differing considerably in external appearance, and extending through wide stretches of country under varying climatic and cultural conditions, adds to their importance. Some sixty to seventy such characters are dealt with in detail.
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Some Indian Sugar-Canes and their Origin . Nature 104, 14–15 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104014a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104014a0