JBdible Products. 



10 



[Feb. 1907. 



We find the chief stages of the evolutionary process represented in the great 

 variety of cultivated forms. There are forms with a light feathery inflorescence 

 very like the wild baru (Andropogon Halepensis) except that the grain is larger and 

 the flower stalk does not break at maturity, and from these forms we get a progres- 

 sive series in which the grain grows longer until it overtops the chaff, and the flower 

 stalk grows shorter until the flowers are aggregated— it is claimed for the more 

 primitive forms of juar that birds canuot perch on the heads and peck off the grains ; 

 and therefore the people who cultivate little patches in the forest find them more 

 profitable, "t 



This was not the experience of a cangany cf mine who had a small patch of 

 arisi cholam in is garden, the birds and rats got all the grain although he had strings 

 a id rags put up to scare them away. 



When it is considered that in the Bombay Presidency alone over 250 races 

 of the plant are recongnisedf, (in the Bengal Presidency it does not seem to be 

 cultivated to any extent) and that 03 named varieties are given for Madras*, the 

 difficulty of classifying the varieties of Sorghum will be admitted. 



In 1902 Mr. I. H. Burkill made a tentative classfication and arranged the 

 Sorghums in 8 groups and 22 varieties with sub-varisties, this classification is from a 

 botanical point of view. 



Taking Mr. Burkill's classification as a basis but not closely adhering to it, 



M. R. fly. O.K. Subra Rao, Rao Bahadur, Sub-Assistant Director of Agriculture, 



Madras, has furnished a tenative classification of the Madras varieties which he 

 considers better adapted for agriculturists. 



The varieties are differentiated, by 



(1) Colour of the glumes, of the seed coat, or of the hilum of the grain. 



(2) The season at which the variety is sown. 



(3) Duration of the growth, though this is not a fixed character, for the 

 result of sowing certain varieties considerably later than usual is to shorten the 

 period of growth. 



(i) The character of the inflorescence ; that is, whether it be open close, or 

 bent over, the arrangement of the seed thereon ; and whether the grain (glume IV) 

 is awned or not. 



(5) The number of nodes or leaves, 



(6) The flavour of the straw or grain. 



Andropogon Sorghum Brot. described from a specimen of Kaka Cholam 

 grown in Craig Garden (5,200 feet) gathered 9th September 1906, the seed having 

 been sown on 11th April 1906, Perennial, stem 7 feet or more, (Sir George Watt 

 says of the species generally, in India a height of even 12 to 15 feet would be nothing 

 extraordinary) Stout, from the underground portion many suckers are sent up, 

 nodes glabrous ; leaf 19-27 inches X H-2 inches, tapering to an acute tip and down- 

 wards to a narrowed round base, flat, glabrous, margins minutely serrulate, midrib 

 broad, white above ; sheath, mouth auricled, smooth, almost as long as, or much 

 shorter than the internodes ; ligule short, membranous, ciliate. As regards vege- 

 tative character this description generally holds good for the varieties cultivated 

 in Ceylon. The panicles and glumes vary. 



Kaka Cholam, panicle erect, pyramidal, rhachia stout, 4 sided, grooved, 

 smooth, branches slender, whorled and alternate, angled, scaberulous, branchlesta 

 filiform, scaberulous ; spikes up to 1 inch, decompound, of 4 or more pairs of 

 tt pikelets, sessile gpikelet glumes 1 II subequal, oval, with membranous acuminate 

 tips, yellow, turning red and finally black, glume IV with short awn or ia 

 its ainuiis 



