314 APPENDIX. 
although evidently inexact as to generic characteristics, it has the ad- 
vantage of being known, and of never having been applied to other 
plants. 
The plant on which were undertaken the experiments made at Flor- 
ence in 1766, by Pietro Arduino, for the manufacture of sugar, did, 
very probably, belong to the same species, but must have been another 
variety, since he describes the seeds as being of a clear brown, whilst 
those of this newly imported plant are black, and in appearance en- 
tirely identical with the black sorgho of the older collections. 
The sugar sorgho is a tall and slender plant, attaining the height of 
two or three metres, or more, in rich ground (a metre is thirty-nine 
inches—O.) The stalks are straight and smooth, the leaves flexible 
and drooping ; in appearance it is much the same as the Indian corn, 
but much more graceful It ordinarily forms a top, composed of eight 
or ten separate stems, each terminated by a tuft of conical shape, and 
covered with blossoms, green at first, then passing through different 
shades of violet, to acquire a deep purple hue when completely matured. 
It is probably an annual, and its cultivation and time for ripening 
agree with corn (maize). In the climate of Paris it must be sown as 
soon as the ground is warm, that is, at the time for the first sowing of 
beans (haricots) ; the maturity of the seeds will be more probable, if 
the plant has been grown in a sheltered nursery, or, better still, in a 
hot-bed ; but, for the extraction of sugar, it will be sufficient to sow it 
in the open field, provided the soil be light and moderately warm. 
The product of the sugar sorgho, consists in the sap contained in 
abundance in the pith of the stalks, which furnishes three important 
‘products : sugar, alcohol, and a fermented beverage similar to cider.* 
In truth, this juice, when one has obtained it with care, in a small 
quantity, by depriving the cane of its green envelope, is nearly color- 
less, and contains, so to speak, simply water and sugar. Its density 
varies from 1:050 to 1-075, and the proportion of sugar from ten to 
sixteen per cent. I include here the total of the two sugars, crystal- 
lizable and unerystallizable, of which the latter sometimes makes a 
third of their mixture. It is to this quantity of uncrystallizable sugar, 
* See the “ Moniteur Universel” of 13th November, 1854; “ Reveue Horticole,” 16th 
November; “Journal d’ Agriculture Pratique,’’ 20th November. 
