REPORT OF M. TURREL. gon 
because their variety was not as rich in sugar as the new stock, its 
culture was abandoned. 
The Botanic Garden at Toulon has for a long time possessed a speci- 
men of this plant in its collections. M. Robert, who was the director, 
cultivated it at one time, but neglected, and finally lost it entirely. 
These historic facts go, your Excellency, to substantiate the strong 
claims which M. de Montigny has upon the gratitude of the entire 
country. 
It is through the means of the Geographical Society that I had 
the pleasure of receiving, in 1851, a small specimen of ten grammes 
of seeds of the sorgho. M. Jomard, President of the Society, sent 
me a package of thirty-two kinds of grains or roots, and I should, 
as Secretary of the Assembly, acknowledge the zealous cooperation 
of my colleagues in the experiments made with them. 
It is to M. Robert that is due the honor of propagation of the 
sugar sorgho ; a single seed ripened with him in 1851. ’Tis the plant 
springing from this single seed which has produced all the seeds dis- 
tributed by him in the department. It is by means of the seeds thus 
obtained by M. Robert, that M. Rantonnet has been able to make 
his extensive experiments. 
The Sugar Cane of the North of China, which is the name by which 
we are acquainted with this plant, was recognized, immediately on its 
development, as botanically identical with the Holcus saccharatus, or 
sugar sorgho. As soou as the crop could be gathered, one of my 
colleagues, Doctor Ardoin, experimented with the juice which he 
obtained by expressioa, and he presented to the Assembly, in the 
month of August, a specimen of molasses of a brownish yellow color, 
the flavor of which was beyond doubt strongly saccharine. 
The committee on which I had the honor to serve with Messrs. 
Hugolin, Letscher, Ardoin, de Beauregard, and C. Burle, divided 
amongst themselves the various experiments, and the results arrived 
at confirmed the hopes awakened by the first experiments by Dr. 
Ardoin. 
We obtained from 50 to 60 per cent. of swect juice from stalks 
stripped of their leaves and put through the press, and in this juice 
we found a per centage of saccharine matter varying from 10 to 20 
per cent. The liquid was not examined in the polarizing apparatus ; 
