28 



HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 



The form introduced into Europe during Pliny's time seems to 

 have been on the order of the sweet sorghums, even though it is not 

 known to have had a sweet juice. It is noted as having stout culms, 

 7 feet high, and abundant black seeds, the color doubtless referring 

 to the inclosing glumes. Most sixteenth to eighteenth century writ- 

 ers who mention these details describe this sorghum as having red- 

 dish seeds and black glumes, with culms from 7 to 10 feet or more 

 in height and heads about 9 inches long. Many writers from the 



tenth to the eight- 

 eenth century de- 

 scribe also the white- 

 seeded sorghum used 

 by the inhabitants of 

 Asia Minor, Arabia, 

 and Mesopotamia, 

 but none records its 

 introduction into Eu- 

 rope. All references 

 to its growth in Ci- 

 cilia, or Sicilia (Sic- 

 ily), are misprints 

 for Cilicia. This 

 form has been dis- 

 cussed under the 

 heading " Southwest 

 Asia." 



About 1775 Ardu- 

 ino began at Padua, 

 Italy, his experiments 

 in sugar production 

 from sorghums. He 

 carried on this work 

 for fully ten years, 

 and in 1786 pub- 

 lished a comprehen- 

 sive paper in which 

 he described six supposed botanical species of sorghum and gave full 

 notes on their culture and uses. He seems to have been the first 

 author who gathered together and grew for a number of years all 

 the forms he could secure. Of the six varieties thus described as 

 species, one was a new sweet sorghum from " Cafreria " (Natal), 

 South Africa, one was the white durra of southwestern Asia, and 

 the other four were forms long cultivated in Italy. The six species 

 were all splendidly illustrated on folio plates, which are here repro- 



175 



Fig. 12.- 



-Heads of Holcus sorghum. L., and Holcus sacchar- 

 atus, L., after Arduino, 1786. 



