CONTENTS 



Page. 



Introduction 7 



Key to the principal groups of sorghum 8 



Agricultural history and distribution of sorghum 8 



Origin 8 



Antiquity 10 



Geographical distribution 11 



South Africa 13 



Natal 13 



Orange River Colony 14 



Transvaal and Rhodesia 15 



Madagascar 15 



Equatorial Africa 16 



German and British East Africa 16 



Sudan 16 



French Sudan 16 



Upper Guinea 17 



British-Egyptian Sudan 17 



Abyssinia 17 



North Africa 18 



Egypt 19 



Barbary States 19 



Southwest Asia 20 



India 21 



China 23 



Pacific islands 25 



Europe 26 



South America 31 



West Indies and Central America 31 



United States 32 



Canada 35 



Botanical history and nomenclature of sorghum 35 



Pre-Linnean period, first century to the year 1753 35 



Origin of popular names 35 



Early authors and early names 36 



Sixteenth century writers 37 



Seventeenth century writers 39 



Eighteenth century writers 41 



Linnean period, 1753 to 1850 41 



The species of Linne and Forskal 41 



The species of Arduino 42 



Numerous species of later authors 44 



Recent period, 1850 to the present time 45 



Beginnings of classification 45 



Summary 48 



Agricultural history and distribution 48 



Botanical history and classification 49 



Bibliography 51 



Index 55 



175 



5 



