(144) 



cum millium, or Indian millet. Gerard, an English writer, 

 in 1597, describes this and other varieties of sorghum as 

 dhouro corn, broom corn and chocolate corn. 



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

 culivated in England, Belgium and Italy in the sixteenth 

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

 Its usues were d^scribed as so various that it is supposed all 

 the vajieties of sorghum were confounded by these different 

 authors. It was recommended as fodder for stock, food for 

 poultry and hogs, and for a syrup; while theltalians called 

 it meliea from its resemblance to honey. It was described 

 as having seeds, various in color, from rufous to black, from 

 white to yellow and red, and they were said to make an excel- 

 lent bread. The bread had a pinkish tinge, being colored- 

 by the hu-ks, which could not be entirely separated from 

 the seed. Through the caravans of the Syrian desert, sor- 

 ghum was carried from Asia to Africa, and there, under the 

 changes of climate, soil aid moisture, new varieties origin- 

 natpd, and we have the imphee canes. 



Linnaeus calls it holcus saccharatum, and the dhouro corn 

 he calls holcus norghum. But Persoon, and others since, 

 have separated the two, and applied to the sugar cane the 

 general name sorghum, and its specific name nigrum from 

 the color of its seeds. These plants are all called sorghum 

 in the East Indies. 



VARIETIES. 



There are many varieties of cane, and while the descrip- 

 tion at the head of the article will give the generic char- 

 acters, it will not the specific differences of the various 

 kinds. But it is not necessary to give the botanic descrip- 

 tion of each variety. 



1st Race — Eusoeghum. 

 True Chinese Sugar Cane, (already described). 



