322 



Will these peculiarities continue fixed, or will the varieties lose 

 their distinctiveness when grown in company with one another ? 



The specimens consist of portions of the panicles of 18 vari- 

 eties of Zulu Kaffir Imphee, grown in South Carolina, on the 

 plantation of Gov. Hammond, from seeds ripened in France, and 

 received from Mr. Leonard Wray. These sjiecimens were gath- 

 ered in a field, where they grew promiscuously, by Mr. Olcott 

 himself, in company wnth Mr. Wray, who identified the varieties, 

 and furnished the Kaffir names. There are four specimens of 

 Dourrha, the seeds of which w^ere received from France in the 

 same package with the Imphee, and planted in the same field. 

 Also, four specimens of Doiirrha, Broom Corn, and their hybrids 

 with Sorgho sucre, grown by Mr. Olcott in Westchester. I have 

 added to these four specimens of Imphee, grown in the District 

 of Columbia, and presented to the Society by Dr. Jackson, that 

 the suite of specimens may be yet more full. My remarks upon 

 these specimens will be confined to the fruit alone, as I have not 

 seen the growing plants, and cannot, therefore, speak of the diffiir- 

 ences which may exist in their foliage and port. 



Steudel, in his synopsis of the grasses, enumerates the following 

 allied species of Andropogon growing in Asia and Africa : — A. 

 Sorghum, Auct. ; A. riibens, Willd. ; A. suhglahrescens, Steud. ; 

 A. saccharatus, L. (sub Holcus) ; A. verticillijiorus, Steud. ; A. 

 niger, Kunth ; A. cermms, Roxb. ; A. bicolor, Roxb. ; and he 

 implies that most of these may be varieties of the Androjwgon 

 Sorghum. Besides these, is A. Drummondii, Nees, from New 

 Orleans. These so-called species are, in all probability, founded 

 on permanent varieties of the grass which has been grown for its 

 grain and foliage for centuries in the East Indies and Africa. 

 It was placed first in the genus Holcus by Linnaeus, but has been 

 separated from it and ranked in that of Andropogon. It is still 

 kept there by some of the best botanists of the day ; but by oth- 

 ers it is placed in that of Sorghum, a genus separated from An- 

 dropogon mainly from its paniculate inflorescence and coriaceous 

 glumes. The species named for Drummond by Nees is probably 

 a form of the same plant which had established itself at New 

 Orleans. An authentic specimen in Dr. Gray's herbarium does 

 not appreciably differ from some of the varieties grown in South 

 Carolina. 



