Andropogon.} CLXXIII. GRAMINEJS. (J. D. Hooker.) 183 



rather prevalent forms, between which transitions occur, both vary in habit and in 

 having awned mucronate or awnless spikelets ; they are a. genuinus, of which 

 ' miliaceus, Roxb., may be regarded as the type with sessile spikelets ^ ^ in. long, it is 

 Wall. Cat. n. 8778 A. B. C. And b. effusus, with sessile spikelets nearly in., it 

 includes A. laxus, Roxb., A. halepensis, Wight Cat. n. 1672. and Wall. Cat. n. 8778 

 D. E. F. H. 



36. A. SORGHUM, Brot. Fl. Lusit. i. 88; annual, tall, usually very 

 robust, panicle decompound usually thyrsiform with crowded whorls of 

 erect branches and branchlets and spikes rarely subeff use, rachis of spike 

 tenacious, joints when forcibly separated leaving a ragged scar at the tip, 

 pedicelled spikelets usually nejiter, pedicels short. toxb. Fl. Ind. i. 273 ; 

 Kuntli Enum. PI. i. 5bl ; tfteud. Syn. Gram. 393. A. Sorghum, subsp. 

 sativus, Hack. Monogr. Androp. 505. Holcus Sorghum, Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1047 ; Gsertn. Fruct. ii. 2, t. 80 ; Lamk. Encycl. t. 838 ; Grah. Cat. Bomb. 

 PI. 238 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. Fl. Suppl. 99. 



Cultivated throughout the warmer parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Intro- 

 duced into America, Australia, &c. 



Under A. halepense I have alluded to A. Sorghum as the cultivated form of that 

 plant. Of the early history of its culture nothing is recorded, it having no Sanskrit 

 name, and there is no evidence of its being known to the ancients of Europe or 

 the East. Variable as it is, its forms appear to be much less fixed than those of 

 wheat and barley, which gives rise to the suspicion that they are of comparatively 

 recent origin. Many authors have endeavoured to limit by botanical characters 

 some or all of its known varieties, and more have applied specific names to forms 

 they could not, or did not try to identify with known ones. The result is a 

 redundancy of names, and an inextricable synonymy. Watt's " Diet, of Economic 

 Products of India" has treated in great detail the culture of many varieties, but 

 under names that have little or no significance. Hackel has essayed to clean this 

 Augean stable, and has devoted 15 pages of his Monograph to the forms of A. 

 Sorghum, of which he describes 37 varieties and 12 subvarieties. His earnest and 

 meritorious attempt has the great advantage of approximately harmonising most of 

 the Indian citations and synonyms, and I therefore give a precis of it. It, how- 

 ever omits characters of the glumes which Dr. Stapf, in working up the African 

 forms, has studied, and which characters appear to be of far more importance 

 than those relied on by Hackel. Unfortunately it is not possible to combine the 

 two classifications, for the obvious reason that Stapf's characters have been neglected 

 in the descriptions of previous investigators, and it remains for the Indian botanists 

 in this case, as in that of Pennisetum typhoideum, and indeed many other cultivated 

 plants, to remove this reproach to Indian botany. Hackel' s Indian varieties are as 

 follow : 



Var. Roxburghii, Hack. 1. c. 510 ; panicle lax ovate-oblong, rachis elongate, 

 branches drooping, sessile spikelets ovate awnless, gl. I keeled in the upper third, 

 grain white. A. saccharatus, Roxb. FL Ind. i. 271; Dalz. fy Qibs. Fl. Suppl. 

 99 (nonKunth). 



Var. ffightii, Hack. 1. c. 511 characters of var. Roxburghii, but panicle more 

 dense, branches scabrid, spikelets broadly elliptic, gl. I hairy in the' upper half. 

 Herb. Wight n. 185. 



Var. vulgaris, Hack. 1. c. 515 ; panicle dense, branches erect or erecto-patent, 

 sessile spikelets i in. obovoid or subglobose obtuse awned ; A. Sorghum, Roxb. I. c. 

 269; Sorghum vulgare, Pers. Syn. i. 101; Reichb. Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 80; Duthie 

 Grass. NJr. Ind. 23, Field Sf Gard. Crops. 25, t. 6, Fodd. Grass. N. Ind. 41; 

 Holcus Sorghum, Linn. 



Var. cernuus, Koern. Handb. Getreit. i. 314 ; very robust, panicle drooping 

 ovoid obtuse compact, rachis and appressed branches short suberect subvillous, 

 sessile spikelets i- in. broadly obovoid or rhomboid obtuse awned whitish 

 densely silkily villous or glabrescent dorsally, grain globose white with a black 



