552 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



from Shanghai, it is interesting to note that but one seed of all that was received, germinated. 

 The Ziilu Kaffirs cultivated the African variety, called imphee, about their huts for the 

 purpose of chewing and sucking the stalks, and Mr. Wray ' recognized i s varieties, which 

 he introduced to this country in 1857. He found this species in 185 1 and engaged in the 

 distribution of the seed in Europe and Asia before bringing it to America. There are some 

 mentions of this plant, however, far earlier. In 1786, a Signor Pietro Arduino^ is said 

 to have attempted its introduction into Italy from Kaffirland but did not succeed, and 

 Wilkinson in his Ancient Egyptians states that the plant grows about Assuan in Nubia, 

 in the oases, and is called by the Arabs dokhn. One writer attempts, indeed, to identify 

 this plant with the variety mentioned by Pliny, 5. nigrum, and described by the earlier 

 herbalists. Barth ' speaks of its being extensively grown in Africa, and Livingstone * 

 says the stalks are chewed as sugar cane and the people are fat thereon. Pallas says it is 

 cultivated by the Tartars of the Crimea. 



Sorghum is now cultivated throughout India, tropical Asia, Africa, southern Europe, 

 the West Indies and America. Next to rice, says Carey,' this may be said to be the most 

 extensively cultivated of all the culmiferous tribe and forms a very considerable part of 

 the diet of the natives of the coimtries where it is grown. There are many varieties. Pliny ' 

 speaks of the black-seeded millet brought to Italy from the East Indies, and Fuchsius, 

 1542, describes the shorgi; Tragus, 1552, gives it the name Panicum Dioscorides et Plinii; 

 Gesner, 1591, calls it sorghum; Matthiolus, 1595, milium indicum; Lobel, 1576, describes 

 this species as sorgo melica Italorum; Dodonaeus, 1583, as melica sorghum; and Lonicer, 

 1589, and Gerarde, 1597, describe several varieties. Dtura, or Guinea com, was introduced 

 into Jamaica and thence into our southern states in the last century and was reported 

 as growing in Georgia in 1838. In the West Indies, negro com is largely consumed by 

 the colored population when made into bread. In the United States, a variety is largely 

 grown for the making of brooms under the name of broom com. In western Kansas, 

 varieties are grown for the seed in regions which are too arid for the certain growing of 

 maize under the names Egyptian com, rice com, pampas rice, Tennessee rice and durra. 

 In 1805, a specimen of Egj'ptian com was exhibited to the Massachusetts Society for 

 Promoting Agriculture as grown in New Hampshire.' In Egypt, six varieties are 

 entunerated as cultivated for the seed used as food. In Algeria, two kinds are grown, 

 the red and the white seeded. The dari, from Jaffa, is considered the best in the 

 Mediterranean region and is exported. In Italy, the seeds, apparently of the black variety, 

 are used for bread. At the Madras exhibition of 1857, 56 varieties were shown, and 

 Elliott ^ says he has seen it in all parts of India, Arabia, Abyssinia, Egypt, Asia Minor, 

 Turkey and Italy. Sorghum is also found in Natal, where it is called Kaffir com. 



Stewart, F. L. Sorghum Prod. 20. 1867. 

 ' Olcott, H. S. Sorghum 23. 1857. 



U. S. Disp. 1602. 1865. 



* Waller, H. Last Journ. Livingstone 51. 1 875. (5, sauharalum) 

 ' Roxburgh, W. Hort. Beng. 7. :i8i4. 



Pliny lib. 18, c. 10. 



' Commentators to the Mass. Soc. 26. 1806. 



Elliott, W. Bot. Soc. of Edinb. 7:282. 1863. 



