58 SORGHUM. 



Sorghum. — Spikelets at the ends of twigs of a branching panicle — either 

 female, male, or neuter — dissimilar. Outer glumes, two ; in the fertile and male 

 spikelets coriaceous, hardening with scarcely obvious immersed nerves; in the 

 neuter spikelets membranous, nerved; flowering glumes thinly membranous 

 ciliate, the lower neuter, the upper fertile, with a short twisted awn, or awnless» 

 Palea small, narrow scales, fimbricate. Seed thick, short, hard, closely- 

 wrapped in the hardened glume and palea. 



* Nees, 1. c, p. 85 : 



Tall, strong, broad-leaved grasses, with villous or pubescent glumes; grain 

 used as food in India. 



Holcus cafFrorum, described by Thunberg, in his " Flora Capensis," 

 and later (1780) introduced from South Africa into Italy by Peter 

 Arduino, was found by Sprengel to be identical with S. saccharatum, 

 to which he also referred S. arduiui, Jaqu., and the S. cafFrorum, 

 Beauv. 



Nees agrees with Sprengel ; but states decidedly that two distinct 

 species ai'e cultivated on the Cape of Good Hope ; as is seen from a note 

 appended to his description of the following species : " Species altera 

 in hortis Colouiae culta quae Holcus caftrorum. Thunb. Flora. Cap." 



Sorghum Usorum. N. v. E. 



This species, referred to above by Nees, has been described by 

 Thunberg, in his Prodromus Floro Capensis, as Holcus cafFrorum, and 

 has subsequently been mentioned as S cafFrorum panicula compactiori. 

 Roem and Schlut. 



Recognizing it as a proper species in his Agrostographia Capensis, 

 Nees applied to it the name of the Cafiir tribe, " Us," among whom 

 Drege found the plant extensively cultivated. 



Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, Ala., who has recently invfestigated 

 the subject, writes, that 



There can scarcely be any doubt that all the South African varieties, with 

 more or less closely contracted panicles, can be referred to this species. The 

 many forms under cultivation can be reduced to those specifically distinct 

 types. Adopting the view that Sorghum vulgare is the parent plant of these 

 species, and all of them can be separated in two races, distinct in habit and 

 geographically in their ancestry, as has already been shown by Pech, in his 

 Botanical History of Sorghum (Annual Report, Department of Agriculture, 

 1865): 



1. The race of the sorghos chiefly of Asiatic origin, with the branches of the 

 expanded panicles more or less drooping, characteristic of the Sorghum sac- 

 charatum. 



2. The race of the Imphees, or the exclusively African race, the closely con- 

 tracted panicle more or less dense, with erect adpressed ramifications, the type 

 of Sorghum Usorum. 



