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 latter was received in L909 under the name "garawi," through Mr. K. Hewison, Director of Agriculture and Lands of the Sudan Government 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 information has been secured. 'The Sudan botanists were under the impression that garawi is a form of Andropogon hcilejH nsis, or Johnson 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