The sum of the historical, philological, and botanical data make me think that the species existed before all cultivation, thousands of years ago in China, Japan, and in the Indian Archipelago. Its cultivation must have early spread towards the West, since we know of Sanskrit names, but it does not seem to have been known in Syria, Arabia, and Greece, and it is probably through Russia and Austria that it early arrived among the lake-dwellers of the stone age in Switzerland. +Common Sorghum+—_Holcus sorghum_, Linnæus; _Andropogon sorghum_, Brotero; _Sorghum vulgare_, Persoon. Botanists are not agreed as to the distinction of several of the species of sorghum, and even as to the genera into which this group of the Graminæ should be divided. A good monograph on the sorghums is needed, as in the case of the panicums. In the mean time I will give some information on the principal species, because of their immense importance as food for man, rearing of poultry, and as fodder for cattle. We may take as a typical species the sorghum cultivated in Europe, as it is figured by Host in his _Graminœ Austriacœ_ (iv. pi. 2). It is one of the plants most commonly cultivated by the modern Egyptians, under the name of _dourra_, and also in equatorial Africa, India, and China.[1933] It is so productive in hot countries that it is a staple food of immense populations in the old world. Linnæus and all authors, even our contemporaries, say that it is of Indian origin; but in the first edition of Roxburgh’s flora, published in 1820, this botanist, who should have been consulted, asserts that he had only seen it cultivated. He makes the same remark for the allied forms (_bicolor_, _saccharatus_, etc.), which are often regarded as mere varieties. Aitchison also had only seen the sorghum cultivated. The absence of a Sanskrit name also renders the Indian origin very doubtful. Bretschneider, on the other hand, says the sorghum is indigenous in China, although he says that ancient Chinese authors have not spoken of it. It is true that he quotes a name, common at Pekin, _kao-liang_ (tall millet), which also applies to _Holcus saccharatus_, and to which it is better suited.