BOTANICAL NOTICE AND HISTORY. 203 
Besides this, we all know that the Romans had a very 
excellent general knowledge of the products of Ethiopia, 
in which varieties of the //olcus saccharatus are to be 
found; and they, no doubt, knew that the natives ate, or 
rather chewed, its stalks, for the “sweet juices,” contained 
in them. 
The native traders who took a coarse kind of goor, or 
jaggery, to Muciris and Ormus, always said that they ob- 
tained it from a “reed ;” and I have no doubt that they 
did really obtain it from this reed-like plant, until the 
sugar cane superseded it in their estimation, and was 
cultivated in its stead. 
I could enlarge much upon this interesting question, 
had I the space to do so; but the confined limits of this 
treatise compels me to bring this chapter to a conclusion 
as soon as possible. 
I venture to consider the Holcus saccharatus as the 
connecting link between the sugar cane and the grain- 
yielding sorghuws; and so strong an impression did 
my mind receive when I first saw the extremely tall 
‘“'Vim-bis-chu-a-pa” and “ K-a-na-moo-dee,”* that I al- 
most persuaded myself that they were in reality hybrids, 
between the sugar cane and the Kaffir corn (Sorghum 
vulgare.) 
Such, however, is not the case; but it remains to be 
* The two largest of the imphee kind. 
Note-—Wilkinson says, that the Holcus saccharatus (Arabic name 
Dokhn,) is grown about Assouan, in Nubia and the Oasis. 
Of sorghums, there are, in Egypt, six kinds, namely, Doura sayfee, 
or baalee; D. humra, D. kaydee, D. byood, or diméree ue: 
owaygeh, D. saffra. 
