114 FARMER'S BO'OK OF GRASSES 



ANALYSIS OF ASH. 



Potassium, 6.30 Sulphuric acid, 3.69 



Potassium oxide, 29.06 Phosphoric acid, 2.52 



Sodium, 4.77 Silicic acid, 37.87 



Calcium oxide, 1.64 Chlorine, 13.08 



Magnesium oxide, 1.07 



100.00 

 ERIA NTHUS, Fox-tai i . 



E. ALOPECUROIDES, Woolly Beard Grass, Plume Grass. 



This grass grows from four to ten feet high, with panicle one 

 or two feet long, pyramidal, woolly; sheaths of the rough leaves 

 woolly above. The variety Contortus is smaller, smoother and 

 has twisted awns. The variety brevibarbis is also smooth, 

 smaller, has short hairs, and hence called short haired woolly 

 grass. K. strictus, nearly smooth throughout and four to eight 

 feet high, is found, like the others, on dry or wet lands and riv- 

 er banks. They are not valuable for forage, but the first is 

 quite ornamental with its graceful, large, plumose panicle. 



SORGHUM. 



On another page, (103) under the general head of The Millets, 

 this grass is partly considered, forming there the second divis- 

 ion of millets, that of the- dictionaries: SORGHUM YULGARE, 

 Indian millet, great millet; Fr. Sorgho, gros millet; Ger. fcorgsa- 

 mur; It. Sagina; Sp. Molce, Akandia. This is the Durra or 

 Doura of Arabia, Persia, etc.; Jovaree of India; Xagara of 

 North China. It was brought from India to England in 1^96, 

 and to Cuba in 1824, and thence to Florida, etc. 



In our southern States, we have three native species of sor- 

 ghum, viz: 1. S. avenaeewn, oat like sorghum; 2. 8. nutans, In- 

 dian grass, wood grass, nodding sorghum ; 3. S. secundum. 

 These are of little value as found in sterile woodlands ; and I am 

 not aware that they have ever been cultivated. 



There has been much diversity of opinion among botanists 

 about the foreign species ; some contending for one species and 

 many varieties; others for several species, each presenting va- 

 rieties. The varieties are almost numberless. In a collection 

 of plants sent to the Museum of Natural .History, at Paris, in 

 1840, by M. d'Abadie, there were thirty kinds of sorghum; and 

 in 1857 Mr. Wray arrived in the United States, bringing with 

 him the seeds of fifteen varieties of South African sorghum, or 

 imphee. Other varieties have since been introduced. But we 

 cannot recount the history or even the. names of these varieties; 

 to do so would require a large book. The most noted species 

 or varieties besides the S. YULGARE are : 1. S. CERNUUM, Gum- 



