M. VILMORIN’S RESEARCHES. 313 
RESEARCHES ON THE SUGAR SORGHO.* 
BY M. LOUIS VILMORIN. 
Translated for the “ Working Farmer,’’ by H. 8S. Olcott. 
Tus grass, which seems destined to occupy an important position ta 
the list of our industrial plants, has, as well as the “Igname de la 
Chine,” been introduced by M. de Montigny, and was included in the 
same package addressed to the Geographichal Society.* We still 
hesitate as to the botanical name by which it should be known. That 
of Holcus saccharatus is manifestly an error ; not but that the plant is 
probably the same as the one previously known under this title, but 
because the portion of this genus characterized by the presence of a 
little male spikelet, pedunculated, by the side of each fertile spikelet, 
has been rejected long since from the Holcus family, in the genus An- 
dropogon or Sorghum. In all probability, the species Sorghum vul- 
gare (Andropogon Sorghum,) should include in the number of its varie- 
ties, the plant in question, as well as the Andropogon, cafra, bicolor, 
&e., of Kunth. A recent, and still unpublished work by Mr. Wray, 
which he has had the kindness to send me, notices, as growing on the 
south-west coast of Caffraria, about fifteen varieties of this plant ; and 
we ourselves recollect, that in a collection of the grains of Abyssinia 
sent to the Museum in 1840, by M. d’Abadie, and which contained 
about thirty species or varieties of the sorgho that certain plants at- 
tracted our particular attention by the sugary taste of their stalks. 
Here, as you see, are many causes of confusion, and, at the same time, 
the elements of a critical work, with which my colleague, M. Groen- 
land, is, at my instigation, occupying himself. 
I trust that his researches, aided by the comparative cultivation of 
different known varieties, will enable us to assign tnese different varie- 
ties to the botanical types whence they are derived. In the meanwhile, 
the name of Holeus Saccharatus may be provisionally adopted, since, 
*See the “Revue Horticole,” February, 1854, Holeus Saccharatus ; July, 1354, 
* Tgname de la Chine ;” “ Bulletin du Comice Agricole de Toulon,” 1853, “Liste de 
Venvoi Montigny ” 
2205." 
