182 CLXxm. GRAMiNE^. (J. D. Hooker.) [Andropogon. 



above, involute below; II awnless; III byaline, 2-iierved ; lY entire or 

 2-fid and awned in the cleft, rarely awnless. Lodicules (in the Indian 

 species) ciliate. 



35. A. halepensls, Brot Fl. Lusit. i. 89; perennial, tall, stout or 

 slender, panicle decompound, rachis of spike fragile, joints bearing a 

 circular scar with entire margius, pedicelled spikelets usually male about 

 as long but narrower than the sessile, pedicel = ^ the sessile spikelet. 

 Sibtk. FL Or^c. i. t. 68 ; Kunth Enum. PL I 502, Suppl. 412, t. 40, f- 1; 

 Steud. %n. Cham. 394; Thw. Enum, PI ZeijL 366. A. arundmacens, 

 Scop. FL Carn. Ed. ii. 274. A. avenaceus, H. B. & K. Nov, Gen. f bp- 

 i. 189. A, controversus & dubitatus, Steud. Syn. Gram. 391, 394. A. 

 laxus, Roxh.FL Ind. i. 271 (non Willd.). A. miliaceus, Boxb. lc,tll\ 

 Hack. Monogr, Androp, 541. A. miliformis, SchuU. Mant. ii. 448. A. 

 Sorghum, snbsp. halepensis, Hack. Lc. 501. Sorghum capense, Hero. 

 Heyne ex. Wall. Cat n. 8778 C. S. dubinm, 0. Koch in Linn^a, ^^^ 

 (1848) 443. S. giganteum, Edgew. in Journ. As, Soc. Beng. (1852) W> 

 S. halepense, Pers. Si/n. 101 ; Reichh. Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 54; T. Nees Gen. /^ 

 Germ. Monocot. I n. 54, t. 91 ; JSTees Fl, Afr. Austr. 88 ; Griseb. Fl. Bnt. ^• 

 Jyid, 560 ; Benth, Fl. AustraL vii. .^40 ; WalL Cat^ n. 8778 ; Trim. Gat. Ley i^ 

 PL 108; AitcJiis. Cat. Panjab. PI. 175; Buthie Grass. N.W. Ind.^^^> 

 Fodd. &rass. N. Ind. 40, t. 27. S. saccharatum, Hohen. PL Nilyhm, n- 

 1284 {non Pers.). S. Schreberi, Tenore FL Neap. SylL App. iv. 4. Blumen- 

 bachia halepensis, KoeL Deser, Gram. 29. Tractiypogon avenaceus, iVe 

 Agrost.Bras. 354. Holcus halepensis, Unn. Sp. PL 1047; Sost Oram. 

 Austr. i, t. 1; Schreb. Beschr. Grses. i. t. 18; Jac^. Edog. Gram, t ^' 

 H. decolorans, Willd. Sp. PI iv. 931. H. Catamucha, Sam. ex T^ alL Oaf. 

 n. 8778 F. 



Throughout Ikdia, Bubma and Ceylon in open places.— DiSTBiB. Most warm 



countries. . * 



RooU creeping, stoloniferoui. Stem 3-15 ft., erect, leafy, simple or l^^^^^^H 

 nodes pubescent. Leaves 8-18 in., or more, up to 3 in. broad, narrowed to the roun ^^ 

 base, tip filiferous, glabrous except towards the often yillous base, flat or waved, m^^ 

 broad, margins scabridly serrulate ; sheath terete ; ligule rounded. Panicle t) • 

 2 ft., very variable in form and amount of ramification, typically pyramidal ^^*^ ,. ^^^ 

 subereot or spreading or drooping whorled brancbes, axils often bearded. ,^P^^^ .t\Q 

 1-3 rarely 5-7 pairs of spikelets, sometimes reduced to a triplet of a sessile tert^ 

 and 2 pedicelled male rarely neuter spikelets, joints of rachis and pedicels ^"^.^ 

 or compressed, glabrous or shortly ciliate. Sessile spikelets | to nearly i * ^ 

 usually lanceolate, green or purplish, callus sparsely bearded; gl. I *^^^^J^^%ed 

 sides embracing the others, more or less silkily hairy, rarely glabrous, ^^^ ^"^L^r. 

 above, there keeled and ciliate tip depressed or not hyaline ; II subcoriaceou^ c 

 taceous and keeled above, margins ciliolate ; III shorter, elliptic-oblong, hy* ^^ 

 2-nerved; IV smaller, ovate, obtuse, entire or 2-fid, awned or not, awn ^-i^"' , 

 shorter ; palea linear-oblong, obtuse, ciliate. Pedicelled spikelets linear- lanceolate, j|^ 

 I glabrous. 5-9-nerved, margins inflexed, keels subpectinately ciliate; II lanceolate,^^^^ 

 nerved ; III and IV, if present, hyaline.— I have restricted the synonymy of this f^ ^^ 

 chiefly to Indian names, and those under which good figures are given. ^^ i 

 doubt the wild form of the following (.4. Sdrghum) and its grain has long ^^"^^be 

 by natives of India. But whether the Sorghum form originated from cultivation o^^^^^ 

 wild in India, or in Africa, where both are very common, can be only * "^jjj^j. 

 of conjecture. Both seem to be now cultivated in India according to Watt ( 

 of Economic Products of India) and others, and transition forms are 'f*'^ ^^^f 

 H ickel, who treats A. halepensis as a subspecies of A. Sorghum, subdivides it . 

 5 varieties and 6 subvarieties, founded on characters too variable for use. -^Z' . of 

 who has studied the African species as well as the Indian, proposes 2 varieti » 





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.. -1 



il 



