p.1

601. [1357]

smooth, shining denticulate and pubescent at the apex; seeds blackish. Annual; flowering in September, grows six to eight feet high. A native of China, where it is called "sugar cane of the north". It was introduced a few years since into France, and thence into this country, as a substitute for the sugar cane. It is now attracting considerable attention, and its value will soon be tested.

126. Sorghum Cernuum, Willdenow.

Syn.-Holcus cernuus, Willd. Andropogon cernuus, Roxb. Guinea Corn.

Culms erect, the lower nodes emitting venticillate rootlets; panicle densely contracted, oval, rigidly recurved or nodding, the branches compound; glumes villose, fringed; paleae three, fringed, the lower one awned. Annual biennial, and perennial; growing from five to eight feet high, and flowering in August. A native of the East Indies. Cultivated as food for poultry.

127. Sorghum Bicolor, Willdenow.

Syn.-Holcus bicolor, Linn. Andropogon bicolor, Roxb. Chocolate Corn.

Culms erect, panicle diffuse, spreading, open, decompound, or super-decompound, the branches rigid, flexuous, angular, rough on the edges; glumes of the fertile flowers at last black, ovate acutish, smooth on the back, fringed on the margin, paleae, three, awened; glumes of neutral flower hairy, paleae, two. Annual, biennial and perennial. A native of the East Indies, Persia, &c. Cultivated. The grain has been used as a (very poor) substitute for chocolate or coffee.

***It is possible that the five preceding species should be reduced to varieties of one or two species.

128. Sorghum Nutans, Gray.

Syn.-Andropogon nutans, Linn. A. avenacens, Michx. Indian grass. Wood grass.

Culms simple terete; leaves linear-lanceolate, glaucous; 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 three to five feet high. (Plate IV, figure 7).

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