able abundance, from the stems of certain plants and trees. The Chinese, who were acquainted with the art of printing, the use of the compass, and with that revolutionizing material, gunpowder, long before Europeans, are said also to have had the sugar-cane in cultivation two thousand years before it was introduced into Europe. From China, it was, in course of time, carried to different countries of the East, and to North Africa; thence it passed to the south of Europe, and, soon after the discovery of the New World, it was conveyed to the West India Islands, and to South America.

The sugar-cane is a plant varying in height from 6 to 20 feet, having a peculiar jointed stem, with long, straight leaves springing out from each joint, and a feathery, grass-like flowering spike. The outer portion of the cane is hard, and somewhat brittle; but within this is a soft pith, which contains the sweet juice. The plant involves considerable care and labour in its cultivation, and takes from a year to eighteen or twenty months to become mature, or ripe for cutting. When the canes are cut, they are tied together in bundles, and brought to the mill, where, according to Mr. Lewis, the cleanest women are appointed, one to put them into the crushing-machine, and another to draw them out after the juice has been extracted, and throw them down an opening in the floor, for negroes below to collect and carry away as fuel. Under the action of the crushing-cylinders, the juice, at first of a pale ash colour, pours out, and foams along in streams down a wooden gutter into a copper in the boiling-house. If it were now

allowed to stand, it would take on the acetous

fermentation-turn acid-in from twenty to thirty

minutes. It is, therefore, at once subjected to heat, and lime is added, to effect the separation of feculent matters; and these having been, in great degree, carried off, the liquor is briskly boiled, so as to evaporate the watery parts, and give the syrup a higher consistence. It is then passed into shallow vessels, in which, as it cools, granulation takes place. From the coolers it is transferred to hogsheads, and left to settle for a time, during which, the juice that will not crystallize, or the treacle, drains off into a cistern beneath. That which remains in the hogsheads, constitutes the raw sugar, as brought to this country; the liquid portion that drains off, called molasses or treacle, is used to make rum. By the refining processes carried on in this country, the sugar is purified and bleached, and the clayed and loaf sugar result. In order to produce the loaf, brown sugar is dissolved in hot water and filtered through canvass bags, by which process it becomes a clear syrup with a reddish colour. This colour is removed by filtration through powdered charcoal. The syrup thus clarified is boiled in a vacuum in a large copper vessel, called the pan, at a temperature of about 140°, and when its evaporation and concentration are completed, it flows along a pipe into what is called the granulating vessel, where it becomes partially crystallized. It is next transferred into conical moulds, which are now generally made of iron, and in these it becomes white and perfectly crystallized; any syrup that will not crystallize passing out of the mould by an opening in the bottom.

Sugar is extracted from other plants than the sugar-cane. In France there are no less than

X

three hundred and three manufactories, in which sugar is extracted from beet-root; these pro

duced, in 1850, about 160,917,900 pounds. In America, a large quantity of sugar is manufactured from the maple-tree.

A SUGAR PLANTATION.

Whether used in the light of a condiment, to correct acidity, or give character to insipid articles, or, in a dietetical point of view, on account of the purpose that it serves in the system, or whether had recourse to as a medium for the preservation of various fruits and vegetable substances, sugar is invaluable in the services it renders to man. Although, as has been shown, it does not contribute to the support or growth of the human body, it fulfils an important purpose in furnishing elements necessary to the maintenance of animal heat. What is not required for such purpose will contribute to the development of fat; indeed, Negroes have been observed to fatten during the period of the gathering of the cane, in consequence of the unusual quantity of sugar they then eat. As a rule, sugar should be taken in combination with other nutritive materials; if taken alone, or in too great a quantity, it is very apt to derange the stomach, and induce a disposition to maladies of a serious nature.

The notice of trees from the trunk of which starchy nutriment is extracted, brings us once more among the stately palms. Sago is produced from the pith or soft inner part of the trunk of many trees belonging to this tribe of plants. It constitutes one of the principal articles of food with the inhabitants of the Molucca and other islands in the Indian Archipelago. A similar material is extracted from the trunk of palmtrees by the rude aboriginal tribes of South America. Speaking of the vast uncultivated plains of this continent Humboldt remarks that "this region, which may be regarded as peculiarly the habitation of wild animals, would not