SUDAN GRASS AND BELATED PLANTS. 



11 



Mr. Edouarcl Ahnne, president of the Chamber of Agriculture, 

 Tahiti, Society Islands, who presented an additional supply of toura 

 seed to the United States Department of Agriculture under S. P. I. 

 No. 42278, sends the following information about it: "This grass 

 grows in Tahiti in a wild state, all along the creeks, on the roadside, 

 and on the uncultivated lands. The horses and cattle seek for it will- 

 ingly when it is young; later, the stem becomes woody and hard." 



Tests of the different forms of Andropogon sorghum verticillifiorus 

 indicate that they are of little value in the United States. 



Fig. 7. —Two rows of toura grass (on the left) and a row of Sudan grass (on the right)Chillicothe, Tex., 



September 16, 1915. 



HEWISON GRASS. 



Seed of a wild sorghum {Andropogon sorghum hewisoni Piper) was 

 obtained as S. P. I. No. 33739 from Sennaar Province, Sudan, through 

 R. Hewison, Esq., in 1912. It has stout, rather pithy, slightly sweet 

 stems five-eighths of an inch in diameter and 8 to 10 feet high; 

 many rather broad leaves; a compact panicle, the base of which is 

 inclosed in the sheath; and spikelets which are decidedly pubescent 

 and usually reddish in color. This wild sorghum is more limited in 

 distribution than the others mentioned and is more nearly like the 

 cultivated varieties. (Fig. 8.) It is quite possible that a more 

 complete knowledge of this form will show it to be a cross between 

 some other wild sorghum and durra. 



In the United States Andropogon sorghum hewisoni is found to 

 require a very long season in which to mature and it seems to be of 

 little value, 



