348 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



result of such impregnation. Such has proved to be the case. The influence 

 of the pollen on the fruit of the same year is such as to communicate to it 

 the characteristics of the plant furnishing the pollen. But M. Naudin finds 

 that true species, undoubtedly distinct, can scarce be made to hybridize, 

 and that extensive and ready hybridation takes place only among varieties 

 of one species. Dr. Gray has shown me recently an ear of corn exhibiting a 

 hybridation more or less common. It was sweet corn, in which kernels of 

 hard, smooth, yellow corn were irregularly distributed, contrasting with the 

 white, wrinkled kernels of the sweet. Here the mere impregnation of the 

 germ of white corn by the pollen of the yellow had been sufficient to convert 

 those grains which it touched into perfect yellow corn. 



The sports and varieties of corn have a strong bearing upon the question 

 of the specific identity of these varieties of Sorghum. Though some bota- 

 nists have made species out of the varieties of Indian corn, it is generally 

 believed that these are all the results of cultivation on one species. One pe- 

 culiarity of one form claims attention here. The plant has been found grow- 

 ing, apparently wild, 'with the grain entirely covered by the glumes, which 

 project far beyond it. But it is said that, after a little cultivation, these 

 glumes disappear, or become so abbreviated as to allow the grain to be 

 entirely uncovered, as in our garden growths. This same difference is to be 

 seen in the varieties of Sorghum under consideration. The Dourrha most 

 exhibits this abbreviation of glume and prominence of grain, and this vari- 

 ety is that which is known to have been longest under cultivation. 



The question, then, arises, whether plants would so freely hybridize and 

 exchange peculiarities, were they of different species. Does not this hybrid- 

 ity point to identity? We do not see other grasses, which grow broadcast in 

 our fields, hybridizing naturally, and so perfectly as to become diversified in 

 an inextricable series of graduated forms. The Poas, Panicums, and Fes- 

 tucas, which abound in our fields and meadows, do not interchange their 

 specific peculiarities, but grow side by side and maintain their identity. But 

 the Sorgho is no sooner placed side by side with Broom Corn and Dourrha, 

 than the three hybridize, and produce an offspring combining the peculiari- 

 ties of all. 



The Sorghum rulgare has been cultivated for untold centuries as a forage 

 plant, and as food for animals and man. The question of its production of 

 syrup and sugar is by no means a recent one. Experiments were made 

 upon it more than half a century ago in Europe, and one of its names arose 

 from the saccharine secretion of its culm. Its native country is unknown; 

 but it is supposed to originate in the same places where it has been so long 

 cultivated. Its grains have been found in Egyptian sarcophagi; and these 

 are said to have produced plants identical with the modern Dourrha or Juari. 

 After this long cultivation in all kinds of soil and climate, and under such 

 varied treatment, it would be strange indeed if it did not exhibit a wide 

 departure from its normal type. If the Indian corn has become so astonish- 

 ingly changed in a shorter period of time, we may well understand that the 

 Sorghum should wander into all the varieties upon Avhich botanists have 

 sought to found distinct species. 



I am induced to believe, therefore, that Broom Corn, Sorgho sucre, Impltee, 

 and Dourrha, are varieties of one primitive species, the Androporjon Sorghum 

 of authors, or, allowing the genus Sorgum to stand, SORGHUM VULGAKE. 



The establishment of this fact will answer many of the questions which 

 have been asked regarding its economic value. If they be one species, they 



