412 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



Root perennial. Culm 3-5 feet high, simple, terete, glahrous ; Tiodes bearded with 

 white appressed hairs. Leaves 6-18 inches long, lance-linear, rough, serrulate on the 

 margin ; sheaths nerved, smooth ; ligule elongated, truncate, bordered by a lanceolate 

 extension of the margins of the sheath. Panicle 6-9 inches in length,— the ultimate 

 branches or pedicels of the upper spikelets, plumosely hairy. Abortive spikelet pedicellate, 

 often a mere awn-like plumose rudiment. Glumes of the perfect spikelet lanceolate, indu- 

 rated, of a light russet-brown color, — the lower or outer one hairy, embracing the upper 

 one, which is smooth and rather longer. Palece thin and membranaceous, — the lower ? 

 one bifid, awned below the division ; awn contorted, bent obliquely. 



Sterile old fields : throughout the United States. Fl. August. Fr. September. 



2. S. sacchaka'tum, Pers. Leaves linear-lanceolate ; ligule short, ciliate ; 

 panicle with long verticillate branches, loosely expanding. 



Sugar sorghum. Broom Corn, 



Root annual. Culm 6-8 or 9 feet high, and half an inch to an inch in diameter , smooth ; 

 nodes tumid, with a ring of short appressed hairs at the base of the sheaths. Leaves 

 about two feet long, and 2-3 inches wide, hnear-lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, smooth, 

 densely pubescent at base adjoining the ligule ; sheaths smooth, ligule short, ciliate. Pani- 

 cle 1-2 feet long, — the branches nearly simple, long, flexuose, scabrous with short hairs. 

 Sinkelets mostly in pairs, one of which is abortive (the terminal ones in threes, two being 

 abortive), and these pairs in racemose clusters of threes or fours, near the extremities of 

 the branches. Upper '? or inner paJea of the fertile spikelets with a purplish flexuose awn, 

 about twice as long as the spikelet. 



Gardens and fields : cultivated. Native of India and Arabia. Fl. August. F\ Oct. 



Obs. This species is cultivated for the panicles, of which brooms and 

 brushes are made. It is said that Dr. Franklin first introduced Broom 

 Corn into our country ; he chanced to see a Corn Whisk in the possession 

 of a lady, and while examining it, as a novelty, he spied a grain of it still 

 attached to the stalk. This he took and planted. 



3. S. vulga're, Pers. Panicle erect or somewhat contracted ; glumes 

 of the fertile panicle pubescent. 



Common Sorghum. Indian Millet. Durra. 



Annual. Culm 5-9 feet high ; nodes pubescent. Leaves 6-9 inches long. Panicle 6 - 

 12 inches in length. 



Cultivated. Native of India. Fl. August. Fr. October. 



4. S. cERNu'uM, Willd. Panicle densely contracted, oval, mostly rigidly 

 recurved or nodding ; glumes villous, fringed. 



DROopiifG Sorghum. Guinea Corn. 



Annual. CaZm 6 - 8 feet high; lower nodes emitting verticillate radicles. Leaver 12- 

 18 inches long. Panicle 4-6 inches long ; florets villous, fringed, scarcely awned. * 

 Cultivated. Native of India. Fl. August. Fr. October. 



Obs. The genus Sorghum has acquired a considerable importance 

 within a few years, on account of the introduction of some species or 

 varieties as a sugar-producing plant, under the names of Chinese Sugar 

 Cane, Sorghum, Sorg-ho, Imphee, &c. The true botanical character of 

 the Sugar Plant doss not seem to be settled, — it being referred by some 

 to S. sacchavatum — by others to S. bicolor,--and by some writers it is 

 spoken of as Holcu- saccharatus. It is probably a variety of S. vulgake, 

 and was introduced into Penns3'lvania forty years ago under the namo 

 of " Chocolate Corn ;" and the seeds were roasted by the farmers' families, 



