914 NATURAL AFFINITIES—INFERENCES. 
Nor is there any greater difference between the Chinese 
cane and the Imphee, or between the Imphee and the 
Doura, than the peculiarities of climate and soil are uni- 
formly found to enstamp upon plants or animals exposed 
to them — or than the diversity of physiognomy of the races 
of men native to those regions—the Mongul and the Caf- 
fre, or the Caffre and the Copt. ¥ 
The history of sorghum sugar cane is buried in such deep 
obscurity that it is almost useless to inquire what was the 
original type of the species. One variety—the Doura or 
Guinea corn—has been known to Europeans, perhaps, 
longer than any other. It was introduced into Jamaica, 
and thence into our Southern States, in the last century.* 
The brief sketch given in Chap. I. embraces nearly all 
the information respecting the Chinese sorghum accessible 
at present. The Chinese assert that they have made sugar 
for 3000 years. In the neighboring Islands of Japan much 
of the common sugar in use is made from sorghum, as we 
are told by the Rev. Dr. Betelheim, recently a missionary 
in that country. To what extent, if at all, the plant is 
used for the same purpose in the north of China, which has 
a similar climate, cannot yet be determined. From the 
best information hitherto obtained, the climate of Niphon 
(one of the Japanese Islands) and of the northern parts of 
China corresponds closely in temperature to the midland 
regions of this country in the latitude of St. Louis, Mo., 
or the climatic belt in which sorghum culture has heretofore 
proved the most successful. 
In Eastern Asia, however, the geographical range of the 
plant northward is abruptly checked by the great rainless 
plateau, or Desert of Shamo, the southern limit of which 
follows closely the northern boundary of China, or the 
* Morse, Geog., p. 764. 
