584 GRAMINE.fi. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



65. SORGHUM, Pers. Broom Corn. 



Spikelets 2-3 together on the ramifications of an open panicle, the lateral 

 ones sterile or often reduced merely to their pedicels ; only the middle or ter- 

 minal one fertile, its glumes coriaceous or indurated, sometimes awnless : other- 

 wise noarly as in Andropogon. Stamens 3. (The Asiatic name of a cultivated 

 species.) 



1. §. nutans. (Indian Gkass. Wood-Grass.) Culm simple (3°- 

 5° high), terete ; leaves linear-lanceolate, glaucous ; sheaths smooth ; panicle 

 narrowly oblong, rather crowded (6'- 12' long) ; the perfect spikelets at length 

 drooping (light russet-brown and shining), clothed, especially towards the base, 

 with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the twisted awn ; the sterile 

 spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced to a mere plumose-hairy 

 pedicel, y. (Andropogon nutans, L.) — Dry soil; common, especially south- 

 ward, where it exhibits several more or less marked varieties. Aug. 



S. vulgAre, Pers., the Indian Millet, has several cultivated varieties or 

 races, such as the Guinea-Corn and Broom-Corn. 



Zea Mats, the Indian Corn, is a well-known Pariiceous Grass. 

 Sacchakdm officinarum, L., the Sugar-Cake, is a tropical Grass, 

 closely allied to Erianthus, p. 582. 



