[f. SUGAR sb. + CANE sb.1 Cf. F. canne à sucre, † de sucre, Sp. caña de azucar, Pg. canna d’assucar.] A tall stout perennial grass, Saccharum officinarum, cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical countries, and forming the chief source of manufactured sugar.
African or Chinese sugar-cane: see IMPHEE, SORGHO b, SORGHUM 1 b.
1568. trans. Thevet’s New Found Worlde, lxxvii. 126. The stalke groweth like to Suger Canes.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. xi. 28. By these messengers were presented … three Sheepe, many Orenges, and Sugar Canes.
c. 1592. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, IV. 1814. The Meads,… Instead of Sedge and Reed, beare Sugar Canes.
1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, IV. 149. Their mighty wealth of Sugar canes, being first transported from the Canaries.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 135. Sugar Canes, eighteen foot long, and seven inches about.
1779. F. Hervey, Nav. Hist., II. 203. The first introduction of the sugar-cane into the English West-India settlements, is said to be in the year 1641.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food of Man, 382. The Sugar-Cane … must be considered … a native of China.
1857. H. S. Olcott (title), Sorgho and Imphee, the Chinese and African Sugar Canes.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 697. Holcus saccharatus or Sorghum saccharatum, is called the North China Sugar-cane or Sweet Sorgho.
1878. Morley, Diderot, II. 243. A gang of negro-slaves work among the sugar-canes.
attrib. 1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 625. The substances which he found in sugar-cane juice.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1195. Sugar-cane mill.
1876. Nature, 14 Dec., 150. The Sugar-Cane Disease in the May River District, Queensland.
