II I'. I 
SUDAN GRASS, A NEW DROUGHT-RESISTAN' 
II. W PLANT. 
INTRODUCTION. 
For several years past, beginning with L906, the writer and his 
assistants made ;i careful study of Johnson grass with the view of 
finding n strain lacking the underground rootstocks which make 
.lohii-nn grass so objectionable. While variations in this character 
were found, no single plant was detected which had the rootstocks 
wholly absent. Coincident with these studies packages <>!' Johnson 
grass seed were obtained from various foreign sources, in pari with 
the assistance of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant [ntroduction. 
Among those received are two other varieties bearing rootstocks like 
Johnson grass but differing in other characters, and tw<> very distinct 
varieties thai have the rootstocks wholly absent. The first of the lat- 
ter was received in L909 under the name "garawi," through Mr. K. 
Hewison, Director of Agriculture and Lands of the Sudan Govern- 
ment at Khartum. After growing this Tor one season at Chillicothe. 
Tex., it was inventoried as Seed and Plant [ntroduction No. 25017. 
In further correspondence with Mr. Hewison some additional in- 
formation has been secured. 'The Sudan botanists were under the 
impression that garawi is a form of Andropogon hcilejH nsis, or John- 
son grass. According to Mr. Hewison, the following note appears 
in Broun's Catalogue of Sudan Flowering Plant-: 
Andropogon halepenrta Brot. Adder or Adra (wild variety) and Garawi 
(cultivated), Arab. Tali grass cultivated for fodder. The seeds are eaten In 
times of scarcity. When wild it grows i" a height of 12 feel and is found In 
damp localities along the river banks or edges of pools, Pound in Sennar, 
White Nile, mid Kordofan. 
Whether the wild plant is the same as the cultivated Mr. Hewison 
i- not sure, and promised specimens have not yet been received. In 
Sudan, garawi i- cultivated only to a limited extent, mainly at the 
experiment station and at military hay farms, two cuttings of hay 
being secured there each season under irrigation. The seed was 
brought to Sudan from Egypt, where it i- also cultivated to some 
extent under the same name. It i- probable that it i- the grass that 
all writer- on Egyptian botany have called AndTOpogofi 'i'il' /» ' 
[Or. 11'.-. 1 
