SORGHUM  , a genus of

grasses belonging to the t jbe Andropogoneae, and including one of the most important tropical grains, Sorghum vulgare, great millet, Indian millet or Guinea corn . In India it is known as jawari (Hindustani), jowari (Bengali), cholum (Tamil), and jonna (Telugu), and in the West Indies as Negro or Guinea Corn . It is a strong grass, growing to a height of from 4 to 8 or even 16 ft.; the leaves are sheathing, solitary, and about 2 in. broad and 2z ft. in length; the panicles are contracted and dense, and the grains, which are enclosed in husks and protected by awns, are round, hard, smooth, shining, brownish-red, and some-what larger than mustard seeds . The plant is cultivated in various parts of India and other countries of Asia, in the United States, and in the south of Europe . Its culms and leaves afford excellent fodder for cattle; and the grain, of which the yield in favourable situations is up-wards of a hundredfold, is used for the same purposes as maize, rice, corn and other cereals . Speaking of its cultivation, Eduard Hackel (in his article on " Grasses " in Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien) says the culture of Sorghum probably had its origin in Africa, where a variety . Sorghum vulgare . known as durra is now cultivated over the entire continent, and has become the most important cereal; the natives also chew the stem, which contains sugar . In Europe it is raised less for bread than for mechanical purposes; the panicles are made into the so-called rice-brooms and into brushes . In Germany it is occasionally raised for green fodder . From the fruit the Kaffirs make an alcoholic drink, Tialva, and the negroes one known as Merisa . Allied species are S. bicolor, much valued in India as a forage-plant, and S. saccharatum, commonly called sorghum or Chinese sugar-cane, which is extensively cultivated in China, North India and Africa .

The latter species is grown in

America chiefly for the manufacture of molasses from its juice, and in France as a source of alcohol . A full account of the cultivation and use of the species in India will be found in Sir G . Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1893) .