36 HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SORGHUM. 



duction of this crop and should have increased in number as the plant 

 became more widely distributed among tribes and nations. 



By the beginning of the sixteenth century sorghum was to be found 

 throughout Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, and Germany under a 

 great variety of names. A very large number of these names were 

 used in different parts of Italy. Melica, melega, and milica were de- 

 rived from either " mel " or " mellis " (honey), or more probably 

 from " melligo " (a honey-like juice). Sagina, or saggina, was de- 

 rived from the Latin vw sagino," to fatten. Sorghi, sorgi, sorgho, 

 sorgo, sorghum, and surga are derivatives from the Latin " surgo," 

 to rise or tower, in reference to its towering high above all other crops. 

 In Germany there was applied to it the distinctive name " Welschen- 

 hirse," i. e., foreign, or, more particularly, Italian millet, and also 

 " Sorgsamen." In Belgium the name " sorgsaet " was given it. The 

 derivation of these last names from the Italian b * sorgho " is obvious. 

 It was known also as Milium indicum, M. i?isubrum, M. sabaeum, and 

 M. saracenicum, as the seed was thought by the various writers to be 

 of Indian, Xorth Italian, Arabian, or Saracenian origin, respectively. 



Throughout the past century all writers on sorghum in cyclopedias 

 and agricultural and botanical works have reiterated that the name 

 sorghum, or sorghi, is the common name of this plant in the Orient. 

 There is not the slightest evidence in support of the theory; on the 

 contrary, as early as 1592 Porta had pointed out its origin from the 

 Latin " surgo." 



Early Authors and Early Names. 



It is impossible to take, up in detail the statements made by the 

 many medical and agricultural writers of the sixteenth century and 

 earlier. The latter repeated the facts and also the errors of the earlier 

 authors, with additional notes of their own. The following is a 

 chronological list of the more important pre-Linnean authors, show- 

 ing the names under which they discuss sorghum. In most cases they 

 also cite other names by which sorghum was known among the differ- 

 ent nations of their time : 



Pliny, first century, " Milium ex India." 

 Ruel, 1537, " Mellica." 

 Creseenzi, 154.2, " Saggina," " Meliea." 

 Fuchs, 1542, " Sorgho." 

 Tragus (Bock), 1552, " Panicum." 

 Scaliger, 1556, " Sorghum." 

 L'Obel, 1576, " Sorgho," " Melica Italorum." 

 Dodoens, 15S3, " Melica " or " sorghum." 

 Csesalpini, 15S3," " Melica," " Sagina." 

 Porta, 1592, " Sagina," " Melica," or " Surgo." 

 Mattioli, 159S, " Milium Indicum." 

 Belon, 1605, " Sorghum Insubrum." 

 175 



