Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

31

  • WHILE Procyon1 reigns yet fervid in the sky;
  • While yet the fiery Sun in Leo2 rides;
  • And the Sun’s child, the mail’d anana,3 yields
  • His regal apple to the ravish’d taste;
  • And thou green avocato, charm of sense, [420]
  • Thy ripened marrow liberally bestow’st;
  • Begin the distant mountain-land to plant:
  • So shall thy Canes defy November’s cold,
  • Ungenial to the upland young; so best,
  • Unstinted by the arrow’s deadening power,4 [425]

  • Long yellow joints shall flow with generous juice.

  • BUT, till the lemon, orange, and the lime,5
  • Amid their verdant umbrage, countless glow
  • With fragrant fruit of vegetable gold;
  • ‘Till yellow plantanes6 bend the unstain’d bough [430]
  • With crooked clusters, prodigally full;
  • ‘Till Capricorn7 command the cloudy sky;
  • And moist Aquarius8 melt in daily showers,

VER. 418. the mail’d anana] This is the pine-apple, and needs no description; the cherimoya,9 a South-American fruit, is by all, who have tasted both, allowed to surpass the pine, and is even said to be more wholesome. The botanical name of the pine-apple is bromelia. Of the wild pine-apple,10 or ananas bravo, hedges are made in South-America. It produces an inferior sort of fruit.

  1. Alpha Canis Minoris, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor. ↩︎

  2. Leo is the fifth sign of the zodiac; the sun enters it in mid-July and exits it in mid-August. ↩︎

  3. The pineapple (Ananas comosus) originated in Central or South America. It was brought by Amerindians to the Caribbean (Higman 188). ↩︎

  4. Refers to Sagittarius, the southern zodiacal constellation depicted as a centaur aiming an arrow; popularly known as the Archer. By “the arrow’s deadening power,” Grainger means the November cold. Sagittarius is the ninth sign of the zodiac; the sun enters it in mid-November and exits it in mid-December. ↩︎

  5. Members of the genus Citrus. Citrus fruits originated in Southeast Asia and spread from there to the Mediterranean and Spain. Columbus brought sour oranges (Citrus aurantium), sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis), limes (Citrus aurantifolia), and citrons (Citrus medica) to the Caribbean. He probably also carried lemons (Citrus limon) (Higman 175). ↩︎

  6. Plantains (family Musaceae) are closely related to the banana, and they both formed an important part of the diets of the enslaved (although plantains were more important than bananas). Wild species of plantain and banana originated from and were first cultivated in ancient Southeast Asia, but cultivated species reached Africa in prehistoric times. They were then introduced to Spain by the tenth century and the Canary Islands by the fifteenth. They subsequently were introduced to the Caribbean by the Spanish (Higman 134). ↩︎

  7. Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac; the sun enters it in mid-December and exits it in mid-January. ↩︎

  8. Aquarius is the eleventh sign of the zodiac; the sun enters it in mid-January and exits it in mid-February. ↩︎

  9. Annona cherimola, a fruit that originated in South America and is perhaps native to Ecuador. ↩︎

  10. Bromelia pinguin. Its native range is Mexico and the tropical Americas. ↩︎