132 



GRASSES OF IOWA. 



^--^r<i^' -" ' ' ' 





: Iff ^ l^\\l/^ 



Fig 70. Andropognn sorghum and some of Its varieties. 1, Kafir corn; 2, Jerusalem 

 corn; 3, Amber sorghum (Kansas State Board of Agrl.) 



for it, nor could it have been anciently cultivated in Europe, 

 since the Lake Dwell-rs did n t use it, nor did the writers of 

 ancient Greece or Italy sp ak of it. The durra in its allied 

 forms is wild in tropical Africa, and there is every reason to 

 believe that its cul ure spread from South Africa to Europe 

 and As^a. 



Foxtail millets. — These millets belong to the genus Setariaor 

 Chaetochloa. . S me writers c nsider the Hungarian millet 

 {Setaria Germanica) d'stincii from the German millet, S. Italica. 

 The mille's a'e of very ancient culture in temperate parts of 

 the world and have been grown si. ce prehistoric times. The 

 grain seems to have existed in a wild form in China and Japan 

 and in the Indian Archipelago, and early spread to India, where 

 ancieut Sanskrit names occur. In China this is one of five 

 plants which the emperor* sows each year in a public ceremony, 

 according to a c )mm nd given by Chin-nong 2700 B. C. 



De CandoUe thinks han the Lake Dwellers of the stone age 

 seem to have known the Setarias. It was also anciently culti- 

 vated in China, and the -S^. germanica seems to have escaped 

 from cultivation in Japan. By some writers it is supposed to 

 have originated from S. viridis, Beauv. , our common foxtail or 

 pigeon grass. 



•De Oandolle. Origin of Cult. PI. 380. 



