AGRICULTURAL HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 



31 



Mm /\;., ,_/,- Tav III 



A white durra is found in occasional cultivation in Europe. It 

 is the form prevalent in northern Africa rather than that of Arabia 

 and Syria, and has come largely from Algeria by way of France 



(fig. C>, o). 



South America. 



No sorghum varieties are indigenous to the New World. Andro- 

 fogon hdlcpensis itself is an introduction, though now found abun- 

 dantly in tropical 

 and subtropical 

 America. In South 

 America broom corn 

 is quite widely but 

 not extensively 

 grown. Amber sor- 

 g h u m from the 

 United States is 

 sparingly intro- 

 duced. No other 

 varieties are found, 

 except occasionally 

 u n de r trial at ex- 

 periment stations. 



«<-- 



West Indies and Cen- 

 tral America. 



Throughout the 

 West Indies and 

 sparingly on the east 

 coast of Central 

 America a variety is 

 found quite similar 

 to blackhull kafir in 

 the characters of the 

 head. In its vig- 

 orous stooling and 

 abundant leaves it 

 still more closely re- 

 sembles other Afri- 

 can varieties. It was introduced long ago from the Guinea coast of 

 Africa with the slaves, whose food it had been in their native home. 

 Sloane records it as widely cultivated in Jamaica in 1T07. In the Eng- 

 lish islands it was, and still is, known as " Guinea corn," in the French 

 islands as " petit millet," and in Honduras as "maysillo ,, (probably 

 "little corn "). It is quite generally cultivated for human food for 



175 



Kit- 



Fig. 15.- 



l'lant and head of IIolcus cernuus, after Arduino, 

 1786. 



