BOTANICAL NOTICE AND IIISTORY. - 199 
Thompson (a distinguished botanist) their true botanical 
description; although we certainly have no plants of the 
Kaffir corn, or Guinea corn, with which to contrast 
them. 
I will, however, venture to say, that I entirely agree 
with Linnzus, Brown, and others, in the botanical name 
which they have bestowed upon the Imphcee, namely, /ol- 
cus saccharatus, the Kaffir or Guinea corn being Sorghum 
vulgare, or Sorghum halapense, or Sorghum andropogon, 
as its several kinds are called by various authors. 
Inawork entitled ‘‘ Wortus Americanus,” published very 
many years ago, in Jamaica, by Dr. Barham, the Guinea 
corn, so universally cultivated in the island for its grain, 
is described as ‘ Holcus Sorghum, or Sorghum vulgare ; 
native habitat, Coast of Guinea, Africa; natural order, 
Graminea ; class, Polygamia ; order, Monecia;” and the 
general account therein given of it agrees in every respect 
with my own observations. 
Many other sorts of the same grain are grown by the 
Zulu-Kaffirs, on the south-east coast of Africa, but are all 
comprised under the one general name of Mabaalee, al- 
though much difference exists between them, not only in 
the peculiarities of the seed-heads, ete., but likewise in the 
juice of the stalks, being slightly sweet in some, whilst in 
others scarcely a trace of sweetness can be detected. They 
are all cultivated for their gram, and for that alone; 
whereas, the imphee, or Holeus saccharatus, is grown only 
for its sweet juice, and never, to my knowledge, for its 
erain, which the Kaflirs say cannot be used as human 
food, in explanation of which I must state that they never 
grind their Mabaalee to extract the flour, but boil it whole, 
