AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 105 



Herodotus (Clio, cxciii,) speaking of "the Babylonian district/ 7 

 400 years B. C., says : "The immense height to which millet and 

 sesamum will grow, although I have witnessed it myself, I 

 know not how to mention. I am well aware that they who 

 have not visited this country will deem whatever I may say on 

 the subject a violation of probability/' 



This also may refer to the "common millet" of Europe, though 

 Herodotus may mean the holcus or sorghum of the dictionaries 

 we have quoted. For I think it very probable that a species of 

 the latter took its name from the locality mentioned by Herod- 

 otus, since Daniel when a prisoner at Babylon (B. C. 580) 

 speaks of the golden image erected on the plain oi Dura, (Dan. 



in, i.) 



Forskal applies the name dukhun to a corn grass much lar- 

 ger than the common millet, which he first found at Rosetta; 

 and subsequently he found it commonly cultivated in Arabia, 

 where it attained a height of five cubits, with seeds the size of 

 rice. He calls it holcus dochna, which, probably, is also the 

 sorghum of the dictionaries, or dura, durra, or doura corn, and 

 being more than twice the height of the common millet, agrees 

 with the height of Herodotus's millet. 



This view is confirmed further by Watson, who says : "It has 

 been supposed that the dochan means what is now called in the 

 East durra, which according to Neighbor, is a sort of millet, and 

 when made into bad bread with camel's milk, oil, butter 

 or grease, is almost the only food which is eaten by the common 



people of Arabia Felix It is also used in Palestine and Syria, 



and it is generally agreed that it yields much more than any 

 other kind of grain." 



Many more authorities might be cited, but not wishing un- 

 necessary accumulations, we think that we have now clearly 

 shown two genera of millets, viz: 1. Common millet, (panicum 

 miliaceum,) and 2. Indian millet, (sorghum vulgare.) Each of 

 these appears in many varieties, and will receive further at- 

 tention in their appropriate places in this book. None of these 

 however, seem to be known to our southern people as millet. A 

 third genus, 



SETARIA. . 



The old Panicum Germanicum and P. Italicum, now classed 

 by botanists as 



1. S. ITALICA or GERMANICA ; for they seem to be only va- 

 rieties of a single species. They are called Bengal grass, Ital- 

 ian millet, German millet, golden millet, Hungarian millet, etc. 

 The German millet was brought from Southern Europe to En- 

 gland in 1548, and the Italian from India in 1816, where it is 

 called Congue. This German millet or Hungarian grass was 



