A paper on "The Formation of Sugar in the Sugar-cane" was recently read
by M. Aimé Girard before the Paris Academy of Sciences. By comparative
investigations of the amount of cane sugar and grape sugar in different
parts of the sugar-cane in the afternoon and before sunrise, the author
has found that only in the substance of the leaves does this quantity
vary, and that the quantity of cane sugar sinks during the night to
one-half, while the quantity of reducing sugar remains almost unaltered.
He finds further that the quantity of sugar-cane in the leaves increases
with the illumination, on very bright days reaching nearly one per
cent., considerably less on dull ones, and in either case diminishing
during the night by one-half. From this the author concludes that the
formation of saccharose from glucose takes place entirely in the leaves
under the influence of sunlight, and that the saccharose thereupon
ascends the cane through the petioles, etc., and collects there.
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A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this
office.
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