200 THE AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. 
in which form they consider the grain of the imphee to 
be highly deleterious. 
The great and essential differences really existing be- 
tween the Sorghum andropogon and the Holcus sacchara- 
tus are certainly not those unluckily relied upon by some 
of our modern botanists, and shown in the following: 
‘‘ But most botanists seem to agree that there are only 
two main types, to which all the others are subordinate. 
Sorghum vulgare has an oval, rigid, more or less compact, 
panicle or head of flowers, with ascending branches, while 
Sorghum saccharatum* has a loose panicle, with lax, 
elongated, weak, and sometimes pendulous, branches.” 
For at least three or four sorts of imphee, namely, 
Koom-ba-no, Shla-goon-dee, and Oom-see-a-na, have pani- 
cles as rigid and compact, with branches erect, and as 
short and stiff as can well be. 
The “two main types,” therefore, are entirely fanciful 
and valueless, forming no criterion whatever. 
Another writer says: “ Millet seed, the produce of 
Holcus saccharatum, is imported largely into this country 
(England) from the East Indies, for the purpose chiefly 
of making puddings; and by many persons it is preferred 
to rice.” Of this I may simply say, that itis nothing of 
the kind; it is quite a different millet. 
To make confusion worse confounded, some botanical 
writers likewise call the broom corn, Sorghum sacchara- 
tum, making upon the whole a nice medley of those 
really simple distinctions. 
In spite of all these scientific complexities, however, I 
think we may safely hold the imphee (of all kinds) to be 
* Meaning, of course, Holcus saccharatus.—L. W. 
