36 



CHRYSOPOGON. 



Chrysopogon nutans (Sorghum nutans) (Wild Oats). 



The stalks are 4 to 6 feet high, smooth, hollow, straight, and having at the top a 

 narrow panicle, 6 to 12 inches long, of handsome straw-colored or brownish flowers, 

 which is gracefully drooping at the top. The spikelets are at the ends of the slender 

 branches of the loose panicle, generally of a yellowish color. At the base of each of 

 the spikelets are two (one on each side) short, feathery pedicels ; the flowers which 

 they are supposed to have been made to support have entirely disappeared. The 

 outer glumes are about three lines long, both alike, lanceolate, obtusish, coriaceous, 

 five to seven-nerved, the lower one sparsely hairy, and with hairs at the base and on 

 the stalk below. 



This is a tall, perennial grass, having a wide range over all the country 

 east of the Kocky Mountains. It grows rather sparsely and forms a 

 thin bed of grass. 



It is a nutritious grass, but should be cut early, as at full maturity 

 the stems are coarse and are rejected by cattle. (Plate 30.) 



SORGHUM. 



In this genus the spikelets are much as in Chrysopogon and Andropo- 

 gon, differing chiefly in habit and in the glumes of the fertile spikelets 

 becoming hardened after flowering. 



There are several species. 



Sorghum halepense (Johnson Grass; Mean's Grass). 



This grass is a native of Northern Africa and the country about the 

 Mediterranean Sea. 



It was introduced into cultivation in this country more than fifty 

 years ago, and has recently attracted renewed attention, especially in 

 the Southern States. The name Johnson grass, which is the one now 

 most generally adopted in this country, originated from William John- 

 son, of Alabama, who introduced the grass into that State from South 

 Carolina about the year 1840. It had previously been known as Mean's 

 grass, and that name is still occasionally used, It has also been largely 

 grown under the name of Guinea grass, but that name should be re- 

 stricted to Panicum maximum, described in another part of this bulletin. 

 It has been called Egyptian grass, Green Valley grass, Cuba grass, Al- 

 abama Guinea grass, Australian millet, and Morocco millet. In Cali- 

 fornia it is best known as evergreen millet or Arabian evergreen mil- 

 let. There seems to be good evidence that some of these names have 

 been used at times in order to sell the seed as a new kind at an un- 

 reasonably high price. Johnson grass seeds abundantly, and the seed 

 may be obtained of nearly all seedsmen under that name. 



This grass is best adapted to warm climates, and has proved most 

 valuable on warm, dry soils in the Southern States. It has been tested 

 quite generally throughout the country, and is often recommended for 

 cultivation even in the North, but there its growth is much smaller than 



