SORGHUMS 265 



6. Panicle oval or obovate, the branches spread- 

 ing; glumes at maturity appressed, not invo- 

 lute ; grains white, brown or reddish. 



VI Kowliang. 



B. Panicle compact, 1-2.5 dm. long; peduncles erect or 

 recurved ; rhachis more than two-thirds as long as the 

 panicle. 



1. Spikelets elliptic-oval or obovate, 2.5-3.5 mm. 



wide ; lemmas awned. VI Kowliang. 



2. Spikelets broadly obovate, 4.5-6 mm. wide. 



a. Glumes gray or greenish, not wrinkled ; densely 



pubescent ; lemmas awned or awnless ; grains 

 strongly flattened. VII Durra. 



b. Glumes deep brown or black, transversely 



wrinkled ; thinly pubescent ; lemmas awned ; 

 grains slightly flattened. VIII Milo. 



Of the above eight groups, Durra, Milo, Shallu, Kowli- 

 ang and Kafir were primarily developed as grain crops, 

 though the last also contains sugar ; Sorgo was developed 

 for its sugar ; Broom-corn for its stiff fascicled straws ; 

 and the grass sorghums are useful primarily for fodder. 

 The waste herbage of each group is, however, used as fodder 

 wherever cultivated. In America probably three-fourths 

 of the total herbage produced by all the sorghums is con- 

 sumed as coarse forage. Indeed, the only portions not 

 thus harvested are the brooms of broom-corn ; the stalks 

 from which sirup is extracted ; and the increasing propor- 

 tion of milo, kafir and durra which is headed for grain, at 

 the present time not over one-half the acreage. 



Sorghums are sometimes classified into saccharine and 

 non-saccharine, depending on whether they contain sugar 

 in the stalks. The discussion of forage sorghums is here 

 limited to the varieties and methods used where the whole 

 plant is usually harvested and thus utilized. 



