32 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



of the juice to syrup, quite as great a loss taking place in the juice 

 of sugar-cane by defecation, skimming and inversion (change into 

 glucose or grape-sugar). The committee considered this new 

 Sorghum-industry placed already on a safe and profitable footing. 

 Sorghum-stubbles are of surprising value as pastoral feed. Sugar- 

 Sorghum was introduced into the United States for rural purposes 

 only 30 years ago ; but its culture spread with unexampled rapidity 

 there, having only its counterpart in the tea- and cinchona-culture of 

 the last decennia in India. The process of manufacture of sugar 

 from Sorghum is not more difficult than that of cane, and less com- 

 plicated than that of beet. Some varieties mature in 80 days, 

 others require twice that time, the Orange-variety becoming perennial, 

 and is with the Amber- variety most saccharine, while the Honduras - 

 variety gives a very heavy crop; the broomcorn-variety is poor in 

 sugar. Sorghum will thrive well in sandy loam too light for maize 

 and in a clime too dry for that corn, and can be grown closer. The 

 variety A. bicolor (Roxburgh) ripens its seeds in Lower India within 

 three or four months of the time of sowing, the produce being often 

 upwards of one-hundredfold, and the grain particularly wholesome 

 for human sustenance. Sorghum giganteum (Edgeworth) represents 

 a form of very tall growth. 



Andropogon Schcenanthus, Linn4. (A. Martini, Roxburgh.) 



Southern Asia and Tropical Australia, extending to Japan. One 

 of the " Lemon-grasses/' It will live in arid places. The medicinal 

 Siri-Oil is prepared from the root. The Australian A. bombycinus 

 (R. Brown) approaches in affinity this species. 



Andropogon scoparius, Michaux. 



North-America. Takes permanent possession of sandy or other- 

 wise poor land, and is regarded as one of the best forage-resources of 

 the prairies. 



Andropogon sericeus, R. Brown. 



Hotter regions of Australia, even in desert-tracts, also extending 

 to New Caledonia and the Philippine-Islands. A fattening perennial 

 pasture-grass, worthy of praise. 



Andropogon Sorghum, Brotero.* (Sorghum vulgare, Persoon.) 



The large " Indian millet " or " Guinea-corn " or the " Durra." 

 Warmer parts of Asia, but according to Alph. De Candolle perhaps 

 indigenous only in Tropical Africa. It matures seed even at 

 Christiania in Norway (Schuebeler). A tall annual plant. The 

 grains can be converted into bread, porridge and other preparations 

 of food. It is a very prolific corn; Sir John Hearsay counted 12,700 

 seeds on one plant; it is particularly valuable for green fodder. The 

 panicles are used for carpet-brooms, the fibrous roots for velvet- 

 brushes. The grain of this millet is in value superior to that of A. 

 saccharatus. A variety (A. caffrorum, Kuiith) yields the " Kaffir- 

 corn." The " Imphee " affords a superior white food-grain. Even A.. 



