SORGHUM. 495 



required to mature. In 1856, Mr. Wray exhibited sugar, 

 molasses, alcohol, plants and seeds of the imphee at the 

 Paris Exposition, and not only obtained a silver medal, 

 but a grant of twenty-five hundred acres of land in Algiers 

 was made him by the French government, that he might 

 prosecute his researches. During this same year, Orange 

 Judd, of New York, distributed 25,000 packages of seed 

 to his subscribers, speeding them throughout the country. 

 In 1857, Mr. Wray brought to the United States the seeds 

 of several varieties of Imphee. So then, when Mr. Browne 

 obtained the seeds it was really in its initial state of cultiva- 

 tion in France. It had been grown in China from time 

 immemorial. But with the exclusiveness of that people, 

 its very existence had been jealously guarded from the 

 world. 



The same, or a similar plant, had been cultivated in 

 Europe at different periods during the dark ages, but the 

 want of intercourse, and the oppressive feudal system of 

 that day had repressed any advancement in science and arts, 

 as well as in agriculture. 



The elder Pliny, in the first century, describes a plant 

 under the name of milium quod ex India in Italium inveetum 

 nigro eolore, (a millet of dark color brought from India to 

 Italy). Millium means thousands, and refers to the number 

 of seeds on a plant. Fuchius describes, in 1542, a plant 

 cultivated in Belgium, called Sorghi. In 1552, Fragus 

 says, in a work on botany, a Panicum Plinii was cultivated 

 in Germany, and accurately describes this plant. In 1591, 

 Gomer names this same" plant Sorghum. In Italy, in 1595, 

 in his commentaries on Dioscorides, Matthioli calls it, 

 Indicum Milium, or Indian millet. Gerard, an English 

 writer, in 1597, describes this and other varieties of Sor- 

 ghum, as Dhouro corn, Broom corn and Chocolate corn. 



Thus it is seen, that this plant, however new to us, was 

 cultivated in England, Belgium and Italy, in the 16th 

 century, and that it was known to Pliny in the 1st century. 



