HOETICULTUEAL JOURNAL. 193 
SORGHUM SACCHARATUM. 
We have received from a European correspondent, plates and a long 
description (in the Flore des Serres) of this new variety of Sorghum Sac- 
charatum, which is stated to be different from the ordinary broom-corn. 
We make a few extracts from the article. 
The sweet sorgho (Holcus saccharatus) is a new plant in our climate ; 
but the trials which have been made, seem to assure the success of its culti- 
vation on a large scale. The figures opposite represent the plant. One 
of the figures represents the height (2m. 14 — 7 feet) which t he plant attains 
in the neighborhood of Paris when in flower. The other gives the thickness 
of the cane in its natural size, and in the third the form of the spike of this, 
called the black seeded variety. 
The sorgho of which we speak, is that which made part of the collection 
which M. de Montigny, then Consul to China, sent to the minister of agri- 
culture. This plant was designated as the sugar cane of the north of 
China. Seeds were distributed to various agriculturists ; M. Vilmorin, at 
Paris, and others, made successful experiments. We have three stalks 
which M. de France sent us, and which we have submitted to analysis. 
This gentleman wrote as follows : — " It is three years since I received the 
seeds of this plant, with others, coming from the north of China, which 
were sent me by the Geographical Society, — it was called the sugar cane 
of the north of China. I gathered at first a few stalks only, and I saw 
that it was not a sugar cane, but a sorghum not differing from the ordinary 
one which we cultivate for the purpose of making brooms with the panicle, 
except in its juice, which was more sweet ; by the form of its panicle, which 
is less flexible, and by the color of its seed, which is black. 
An apothecary of Castres, to whom I gave it, discovered that the juice 
which he extracted from it, gave a syrup identical with that made by 
putting in water twelve per cent, of crystalized sugar. I had gathered a 
sufficient quantity of the seed, which I sowed the year following, but the 
season was such that my cultivation did not succeed, and the plants did not 
come to maturity ; the juice had a green taste, and was not very sweet. 
Notwithstanding this misfortune, and taking into consideration the unfavor- 
able state of the summer, I sowed it again this summer and succeeded very 
well." 
M. Vilmorin has made cider from the sorghum. In one experiment, 
made with 200 kilogrammes of stalks, the product in juice was 55 per cent. 
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