48 T 
Culms simple terete ; leaves linear-lanceolate, glaucus; sheaths smooth; 
panicle narrowly oblong; the perfect spikelets at length drooping, clothed 
with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the twisted awn : the 
sterile spikelet a mere hairy pedicel. Perennial; flowers in August- 
Culm 3 to 5 feet high. Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and 
Minnesota. 
149. Sorghum Saccharatum. Persoon. 
Broom-corn. 
Leaves linear-lanceolate ; ligules short, ciliate; panicle with long ver- 
ticilate branches, loosely expanding. Annual; flowers in August. Culms 
6 to 9 feet high. A native of India. Extensively cultivated. Wiscon¬ 
sin, &c. 
The panicles are used for brooms and the seed fed to poultry; the 
whole plant is highly saccharine, and attempts have been made to extract 
sugar from it, but without much success. 
Broom-corn is cultivated most extensively in Walworth County, where 
large numbers of brooms are annually made to supply the demand at 
home ; and the surplus is exported by way of the cities of Milwaukee, 
Racine and Kenosha, on Lake Michigan. 
The following table of the analysis of the ash of the several parts of 
broom-corn, is by Dr. J. H. Salisbury, of Albany, N. Y.:* 
Stalks. 
Sheaths. 
Ripe broom 
corn brush 
with seeds. 
Seed. 
Silica__ 
6.24 
40.20 
32.50 
Silicic acid .. .. 
41.975 
Earthy phosphates. . 
16.66 
15.00 
36.15 
J r . , ---• ---------- 
Phosphonc acid. 
23.760 
Phosphate of peroxide of iron. 
Lime. 
0.525 
6.25 
3.00 
0.40 
0.845 
Magnesia.. 
3.74 
3.24 
0.10 
3.010 
Potash. ... 1 .. .. 
30 40 
26.56 
27.32 
3.920 
Soda. 
15.16 
7.33 
2.37 
7 247 
Sulphuric acid. 
9.07 
3.57 
not det’d. 
not det’d. 
Chlorine. 
2.14 
1.72 
2 50 
0.245 
Peroxide of iron.. 
261 
1 
. 
Oromnie mat.t.er and rnnoripsia 
6.24 
Organic, acids. . 
4.200 
TiDRS _ 
1.19 
9.273 
100.00 
100.62 
101.14 
100.000 
* See Emmons’ Ag. of N. Y., vol. ii, p. 272 ; also Patent Office "Report, 1849-50, p. 473. 
