Select plants readily eligible for industrial culture or naturalisation in Victoria

Preface

In the volumes, issued by our Acclimation Society from 1871 to 1875, four contributions bave appeared, concerning such industrial plants as are available for culture in this colony. These writings were mainly offered with a view of promoting the introduction and diffusion of the very many kinds of plants, which in our geographic latitudes may be extensively reared in forests, on fields or pastures. The prints, thus originated, became however accessible merely to the members of the Society, while frequent calls arose for these or some similar data throughout our community. The whole has therefore now been reissued in a rearranged and largely supplemented form as a departmental publication with ministerial approval. As stated in the preface to the original essays, they do not claim completeness either as a specific index or as a series of notes on the respective technologic applicability of the plants enumerated. But what these writings perhaps may aspire to is the aim of bringing together closely-arrayed some condensed notes in popular language on all the principal utilitarian plants hitherto known to prosper in extra-tropic zones. Information of this kind is widely scattered through many and often voluminous works in several languages, yet such volumes treating perhaps on countries with a climatic zone far more narrow than ours. Only a share of the books, which it was desirable to consult, were at my command, hence the necessity of successive further supplements, even irrespective of iv.

PREFACE.

the needful reference to future discoveries, because in tlie progress of geographic, medical, technologic and chemical inquiries many new plants of utilitarian value are likely to be disclosed, and new uses of known plants to be elucidated. Thus, for instance, among the trees and shrubs, or herbs and grasses occurring in the middle and higher altitudinal zones of Africa, or nearer to us of New Guinea and the Sunda Islands, many specific forms may be expected to occur, which we could transfer as well to our colony as to other extra-tropic countries. Indeed, the writer would modestly hope, that his local efforts may prove to be of usefulness also to other countries outside of the tropics; and in this hope he is cheered by the generous action of an enlightened American, Mr. Ellwood Cooper, the Principal of the Santa Barbara College of California, who deemed the publications, now here reprinted for Australian use, also worthy of reissue in America. It was stated before, that the rapid progress of tillage almost throughout our colonial dominion is causing more and more a desire for general and particular indications of such plants, which a colder cKme excludes from the northern countries, where many of our colonists spent their youth ; and it must be clear to any reflecting mind, that in our latitudes as compared with the Middle European zones a vastly enlarged scope exists for cultural choice of plants. Indicative as these notes merely are, yet they may thus facilitate the selection. More extensive information can then be followed up in larger works extant elsewhere, or which Australian authorship may call forth for local requirements. The writer should even not be disinclined, under fair support and encouragement,, to issue collateral to the present volume also another, exclusively devoted to the industrial plants of the hotter zones for the promotion of tropical culture, particularly in our Australian continent. Considerable difficulty was experienced in drawing the limits of the remarks admissible into the present pages, because a certain plant may be important only under particular climatic conditions and cultural applications, or it may have been overrated in regard to the copiousness and relative value of its yield. Thus it was not always easy to sift the chaff from the grain, when

PKEFACE.

V.

these notes were gathered; they might under less rigorous restrictions indeed have been indefinitely extended; and although the author for more than twenty years has been watching for industrial tests the plants introduced by him into the Melbourne Botanic Garden, he had still to a very large extent to rely implicitly on the experience of other observers elsewhere. Here also it may at once be stated, that in all instances, when calculations of measurements and weights were quoted, such represent the maximum always, as far as hitherto on record. To draw prominent attention to the primarily important among the very many hundreds of plants, referred to in these pages, the leading species have been designated with an asterisk. It has not been easy in numerous instances, to trace the first sources of that information on utiKtarian plants, which we find recorded in the various volumes of phytologic or technologic literature; many original observations are however contained in the writings of Bernardin, Bentley, Brandis, CandoUe, Collins, Drury, Flueckiger, Asa Gray, Grisebach, Hanbury, Hooker, King, Langethal, Lawson, Lindley, Loudon, Martius, Masters, Meehan, Michaux, Nuttall, Oliver, Pereira, Philippi, Porcher, Rosenthal, Seemann, Stewart, Trimen, Wittstein and also some others, to whose names is referred cursorily in the text. The volumes of the Agricultural Department of Washington, of the Austrian Apotheker-Yerein and of several other periodicals have likewise afibrded data utilised on this occasion.

In grouping together, at the close of this volume, all the genera enumerated, according to the products which they yield, facility is afforded for tracing out any series of plants about which special economic infoimation may be sought, or which may prominently engage at any time the attention of the cultivator, the manufacturer or the artisan. Again, in placing together in index-form the respective industrial plants according to their geographic distribution, as has likewise been done in the concluding pages, it is rendered easy to order or obtain from abroad the plants of such other countries, with which any one of our colonists may be in relation through commercial, literary or other intercourse. Lists like the present may aid also in naming the plants and their products with vi.

PREFACE.

scientific correctness in establishments of economic horticulture or in technologic or other educational collections. If the line of demarcation between the plants admissible into this list and those which should have been excluded has occasionally been extended in favour of the latter, then it must be pleaded, that the final importance of any particular species for a peculiar want, locality or treatment cannot often be fully foretold. Many plants of primary importance for our rural requirements alluded to now have long since been secured by the intelligent early pioneers of our colonisation, who timely strove to emich also our cultural resoiu-ces, and in these efibrts the wiiter, so far as his public or private means did CA^er permit, has endeavoured for the past quarter of a century to take an honourable share. But although such plants are introduced, they are not in all instances as yet widely diffused, nor in all desirable localities tested. For the sake of completeness even the most ordinary cultural plants have not been passed, as the opportunity seemed an apt one, to offer a few cursory remarks on their value. The writer entertains a hope, that a copy of this plain volume will be placed in the library of each of our State-schools, to serve educational purposes also by occasional and perhaps frequent reference to these pages. The increased ease of communication, which has latterly arisen between Australia and most other parts of the globe, places us here now in a faii^ position for independent efforts, to promote introductions of new vegetable treasures from unexplored regions, or to submit neglected plants of promising value to unbiassed original tests. May it merely be instanced, that after the lapse of more than three centuries only the most scanty information is extant on the timber of Mexico, and that of several thousand tropical grasses not many dozen are tried for pastoral purposes. For inquiries of such kind every civilised State is striving to afford in well-planned, thoughtfully directed and generously supported special scientific establishments the needful aid, not merely for adding to the prosperity, comfort and enjoyment of the present generation, but also with an anticipation of earning the gratitude of posterity, and this as a rule is done with a sensitive jealousy, to maintain also thereby for scientific

PREFACE.

vii.

dignity and industrial development the fair fame of the country. Friendly consideration will recognise, that to arouse more and more such a spirit for emulation has much inspired the writer to offer these pages, he trusting that enlightened statesmanship far and wide will foster this aim.

Melbourne, December 1876.

SELECT PLANTS

READILY ELIGIBLE FOR

YICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE,

WITH INDICATIONS OF THEIR NATIVE COUNTRIES AND SOME OF THEIR USES.

AN ENUMERATION OFFERED BY

BARON FEED. VON MUELLER,

Aberia Caffra, Hooker.

The Kai- Apple of Natal and Caffraria. This tall shrub serves for hedges. The rather large fruits are edible, and can be converted into preserves. Allied South African sjDecies are A. Zeyheri and A. tristis (Sender).

Acacia acuminata, Bentham.

A kind of Myall from Western Australia, attaining a height of forty feet.

Acacia Arabica, Willdenow.

North and Central Africa, also in South- West Asia, growing in dry calcareous soil. This small tree can be utilised for thorny hedges, as also A, Seyal (Delile) and A. tortilis (Forskael). They all furnish the best Gum Arabic for medicinal and technical purposes. The Lac-insect lives also on the foliage, and thus in Sind the Lac is mainly yielded by this tree. The stem attains a circumference of ten feet. The astringent pods are valuable for tanning; the wood, known as "Sunt," is esteemed for planks of boats. A. gummifera (Willd.) and A. Ehrenbergiana (Hayne) are among the species, and yield Gum Arabic in North Africa.

Acacia Cavenia, Hooker and Arnott.

The Espino of the present inhabitants of Chili, the Cavan of the former population. A small tree with exceedingly hard wood, resisting underground moisture. The plant is well adapted for hedges. The pods, called Quirinca, serve as cattle food (Dr. Philippi).

B

Acacia concinna, CandoUe.

India. Praised by Dr. Cleghorn as a valuable hedge-shrub. The pod contains Saponin. So is likewise A. latronum. (Willd.), a hedge-bush.

Acacia decurrens, Willdenow. (A. molUssima, Willd.; A. dealhata, Link.)

The Black Wattle and Silver Wattle. From the eastern part of South Australia, through Victoria and New South Wales, to the southern part of Queensland; in open plains a small or middle-sized tree, in deep forest recesses a lofty tree of singularly rapid growth. Its wood can be used for staves and many other purposes, but a chief use would be to afford the first shelter, in treeless localities, for raising forests. Its bark, rich in tannin, and its gum, not dissimilar to Gum Arabic, render this tree also important. The English price of the bark ranges generally from ,£8 to £11. It varies, so far as experiments under my direction have shown, in its contents of tannin from 18 to 33 per cent. In the mercantile bark the percentage is somewhat less, according to the state of its dryness — it retaining about 10 per cent, moisture. Any bare barren imutilised places might here be somi most remuneratively with the seeds of this Wattle-Acacia, to secure a regular and continuous supply of the bark, which necessarily must fall off under the indiscriminate arrangements of obtaining the bark from the natural localities of growth. The return would be within very few years; IJlb. of Black Wattle bark gives lib. of leather, whereas 51bs. of English Oak bark are requisite for the same results, but the tannic principle is not absolutely identical. The bark of the variety passing usually as the Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata, Link), is generally of less value, often even fetching only half the price of that of the Black Wattle. The tannin of these Acacise yields a grey precipitate with the oxyde of salts of iron, and a violet colour with sub-oxydes; it is completely thrown down from a strong aqueous solution by means of concentrated sulphuric acid. The bark improves by age and desiccation, and yields about 40 per cent, of catechu, rather more than half of which is tannic acid. Bichromate of potash added in a minute quantity to the boiling solution of mimosa-tannin produces a ruby-red liquid, fit for dye-purposes, and this solution gives with the salts of sub-oxyde of iron black pigments, and with the salts of the full oxyde of iron red-brown dyes.

FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.

Acacia falcata, Willdenow.

East Australia. One of the best of trees for raising a woody vegetation on drift-sand, as particularly proved at the Cape of Good Hope. Other species serve the same purpose, for instance — A. pycnantha, A. saligna, A. cyanophylla, A. salicina.

Acacia Farnesiana, Willdenow.

Dioscorides' small Acacia. Indigenous to South Asia; found westward as far as Japan; a native also of the warmer parts of Australia, as far south as the Darling Kiver; found spontaneously in tropical and sub-tropical America, but apparently not in tropical Africa. Professor Fraas has recognised in this Acacia the ancient plant. The scented flowers are much sought after for perfumery. This may also be utilised as a hedge-plant, and a kind of Gum Arabic may be obtained from it.

South Queensland. Desirable for culture on account of the excellence of its easily- worked wood.

Acacia glaucescens, Willdenow.

Queensland and New South Wales. Extreme height, about sixty feet. A kind of Myall, with hard, dark, prettilygrained but less scented wood.

Southern Queensland, where this tree, according to Mi\ Thozet, furnishes a considerable share of the mercantile wattle-bark for tanning purposes. Wood, according to Mr. O'Shanesy, brown, hard, heavy and elastic, used by the natives for spears.

Acacia homalophylla, Cunningham.

The Victorian Myall, extending into the deserts of New South Wales. The dark-brown wood is much sought for turner's work on account of its solidity and fragrance ; perhaps its most extensive use is in the manufacture of tobacco-pipes. Never a tall tree.

Acacia horrida, Willdenow.

The Doornboom or Karra-Doorn of South Africa. A formidable hedge-bush, Avith thorns often three inches long, readily available for impenetrable hedge-copses. It exudes also a good kind of gum. So A. Giraffse (Burchell).

Acacia Melanoxylon, R. Brown.

The well-known Blackwood of our river-flats and moist forest-valleys, passing also under the inappropriate name of B 2

Lightwood. In irrigated valleys of deep soil the tree will attain a height of eighty feet, with a stem several feet in diameter. The wood is most valuable for furniture, railway carriages, boat-building, casks, billiard-tables, pianofortes (for sound-boards and actions), and numerous other purposes. The fine-grained wood is cut into veneers. It takes a fine polish, and is considered almost equal to Walnut. Our best wood for bending under steam. For further details refer to the volumes of the Melbourne Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867.

Acacia pendula, All. Cunningham.

New South Wales and Queensland. Generally in marshytracts of the interior. One of the Myall-trees.

Acacia pycnantha, Bentham.*

Victoria and South Australia. Though frequent in many parts of our colony, this tree, known as the Golden Wattle,, deserves even here extensive cultivation, mainly for the sake of its bark, rich in tannin. It is of rapid growth, will succeed even in sandy tracts, and yields seeds copiously, which germinate with the greatest ease. One of the most important trees for binding waste sands. It is never a large tree. By improved methods the fragrant oil of the flowers could doubtless be fixed, though its isolation might be dif&cult and unremunerative. Experiments in the writer's laboratory have shown that the perfectly dried bark contains about 25 per cent, of mimosa-tannin. The aqueous infusion of the bark can be reduced by boiling to a dry extract, which in medicinal and other respects is equal to the best Indian catechu, as derived from Acacia catechu and A. sundra. It yields approximately 30 per cent., about half of which or more is mimosa tannic acid. This catechu is also of great use for preserving against decay articles subject to exposure in water, such as ropes, nets, fishing-lines, &c. While, according to Mr. Simmons, the import of the bark of oaks and hemlock-spruce into England becomes every year less, and while the import of sumach and gambir does not increase, the annual demand has, since the last twenty years, become doubled. Probably, no other tanning plants give so quick a return in cultivation as our Acacia pycnantha, and particularly A. decurrens.

Acacia saligna, Wendland.

South- West Australia, where it is 'the principal tree chosen for tanner's bark. It is a wide-spreading small tree, fit for avenues. The bark contains nearly 30 per cent, of mimosa-tannin.

FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.

Acacia Seyal, Delile.

In the Libyan and Nubian deserts. This thorny tree exudes a good kind of Gum Arabic. It is adapted for the most arid desert country. In any oasis it forms a large and shady tree.

Acacia stenophylla, A. Cunningham.

On banks of watercourses in the interior of Australia, as far south as the Murray River. A tree with exquisite hard dark wood, serving like Myall-wood.

From Senegambia to Nubia. Affords the best white Gum Arabic of the Nile region, and a large quantity of this commercial article. A. Etbaica (Schweinf.) from the same region produces also a good mercantile gum.

Acer campestre, Linne.

The British Maple. Extends from Middle Europe to North Asia. Height forty feet, in shelter and deep soil ; the yellow and purple tints of its foliage in autumn render the tree then particularly beautiful. The wood is compact and fine-grained, and sought for choice furniture. The tree can be trimmed for hedge-growth. Comparatively quick of growth, and easily raised from seed. These remarks apply to many kinds of Maples.

Acer dasycarpum, Ehrhart.

The White Maple of North America. Likes rather a warmer climate than the other American Maples, and therefore particularly desirable for us here. Height fifty feet; wood pale and soft, stem sometimes nine feet in diameter. Much praised for street-planting; growth comparatively rapid. It produces no suckers, nor is the tree subject to disease. A most beautiful tree, with a stout stem and a magnificent crown, growing best on the banks of rivers with limpid water and a gravelly bed, but never in swampy ground, where the Red Maple takes its place. The wood is of less strength and durability than that of its congeners, but produces excellent charcoal. The tree also yields Maple-sugar, though not in such quantity as A. saccharinum.

Acer macrophyllum, Pursh.

Large Oregon-Maple. Tree up to ninety feet high, of quick growth ; stem attaining sixteen feet in circumference ; wood whitish, beautifully .veined. A beautiful shade-tree; delights on banks of streams. The inner bark can be utilised for baskets and superior mats; the wood is a substitute for hickory.

Acer Negundo, Linne.

The Box-Elder of North America. A tree, deciduous like the rest of the Maples; attains a height of about fifty feet, and is rich in saccharine sap. Proved well adapted for our country. In California it is used extensively as a shade-tree.

Acer palmatum, Thunberg.

This beautiful tree with deeply-cleft leaves is indigenous to Japan, where various varieties with red and yellow tinged leaves occur. Should it be an aim to bring together all the kinds of Maples which could be easily grown in appropriate spots of Victoria, then J apan alone would furnish twenty-fi.ve species.

Acer plantanoides, Linne.

The Norway-Maple, extending south to S^vitzerland. Up to seventy feet high. The pale wood much used by cabinet- ^ makers. Tint of the autumn-foliage golden yellow. A tree of imposing appearance, much recommended for ornamental gardening; it gives a denser shade than the other Maples.

Acer Pseudo-platanus, Linne.

The Sycamore-Maple or Spurious Plane. Attains a height of over 100 feet. The wood is compact and firm^ valuable for various implements, instruments, and cabinet-work. It furnishes like some other Maples a superior charcoal. Will admit of exposure to sea-air. The sap also saccharine.

Acer rubrum, Linne.

The Ped Maple of North America. A tree attaining eighty feet, fond of swampy places; wood close-grained. Grows well with several other Maples, even in dry open localities of this part of Austi'alia, although the foliage may somewhat suffer from our hot winds. The foliage turns red in autumn. The tree grows most luxuriantly in swampy fertile soil. The wood is of handsome appearance, used in considerable quantity for saddle-trees, yokes, chairs and other furniture. That of old trees is sometimes cross-grained, and thus furnishes a portion of the curled Maple-wood, which is very beautiful and much in request for gun-stocks and inlaying. The tree yields also Maple-sugar, but like A. dasycarpum only in about half the quantity obtainable from A. saccharinum (Porcher).

Acer saccharinum, Wangenheim.*"

The Sugary Pock, or Hard Maple; one of the largest of the Maples. In the colder latitudes of North America, eighty feet high. The wood is strong, of rosy tinge, and when wellseasoned used for axle-trees, spokes, also for chairs; when knotty or curly it furnishes the birdseye and curly maple-wood. In the depth of winter the trees, when tapped, will

FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.

yield the saccharine fluid, which is so extensively converted into Maple-sugar, each tree yielding two to four lb. a year. The trees can be tapped for very many years in succession, without injury. According to Porcher instances are on record of 33 lbs. of sugar having been obtaiaed from a single tree in one season. The Sugar-Maple is rich in potash, furnishing a large proportion of this article in the United States. The bark is an important constituent in several of the Americon dyes. The tree is particularly recommended for our alpine regions. It bears a massive head of foliage on a slender stem. The autumnal colouring is superb. In the Eastern States of Korth America the Sugar-Maple is regarded as the best tree for shade-avenues. Numerous other Maples exist, among which as the tallest may be mentioned Acer Creticum (L.) of South Europe, forty feet; A. Ijevigatum, A. sterculiaceum and A. ^dllosum (Wallich) of Nepal, fifty feet ; A. pictum (Thunb.) of Japan, thirty feet.

Achillea Millefolium, Linne.

Yarrow or Millfoil. Europe, Northern Asia and North America. A perennial medicinal herb of considerable astringency, pervaded with essential oil, containing also a bitter principle (Achillein) and a peculiar acid, which takes its name from the generic appellation of the plant.

Achillea moschata, Wulfen.

Alps of Europe. The Genipi or Iva of the alpine inhabitants. This perennial herb ought to be transferred to our snowy mountains. With the allied A. nana (L.) and A. atrata (L,), it enters as a component into the aromatic medicinal Swiss tea. Many species of this genus, including the Yarrow, are wholesome to sheep. A. fragrantissima (Reichenbach) is a shrubby species from the deserts of Egypt, valuable for its medicinal flowers.

Achras sapota, Linne.

The Sapodilla-Plum of West India and Central Continental America. It is not improbable that this fine evergreen tree would produce its delicious fruit in East Gipps Land within Victorian boundaries, as tall palms and many other plants of tropical type occur there. Moreover Achras Australis, a tree yielding also tolerable good fruit, occurs as far south as Kiama in New South Wales, where the clime is very similar to that of many forest-regions of Victoria. Other sapotaceous trees, producing table-fruit, such as the Lucuma mamosa (the Marmalade-tree), Lucuma Bonplandi, Chrysophyllum Cainito (the Star- Apple), all from West India ; and Lucuma Caimito of Peru might also be subjected to trial-culture in.

our warmest forest-valleys ; so furthermore many of the trees of this order, from which gutta-percha is obtained (species of Isonandra, Sideroxylon, Ceratophorus, Cacosmanthus, Bassia, Mimusops and Imbricaria), may prove hardy in our sheltered woodlands, as they seem to need rather an equable humid mild clime than the heat of the torrid zone.

Aconitum Napellus, Linne.

The Monk's Hood. In the colder, especially mountainous parts of Europe and Northern Asia. A powerful medicinal plant of perennial growth, but sometimes only of biennial duration, variable in its forms.* It was first introduced into Australia, together with a number of other Aconits, by the writer of this communication. All the species possess more or less modified medicinal qualities, as well in their herb as in their root ; but so dangerously powerful are they, that the plants can only be administered by the exercise of legitimate medical practice. Napellus-root, according to Dr. Wittstein, contains three alkaloids ; Aconitin, Napellin and Narcotin. The foliage contains also a highly acrid, volatile principle, perhaps chemically not unlike that of many other Hanunculacese. Aconitin, one of the most potent of any of the medicinal substances in existence, can likewise be obtained from the ISTepalese Aconitum ferox, and probably from several other species of the genus.

Acorus Calamus, Linn^.

The Sweet Flag. Europe, Middle and North Asia, North America. A perennial pond or lake plant. The somewhat aromatic root is used as a stomachic, and also in the preparation of confectionery, in the distillation of gin and liqueurs, and in the brewing of some kinds of beer. The flavour of the root depends mainly on a peculiar volatile oil.

Actaea spicata, Linne.

The Baneberry. On forest-mountains, mainly in limestone soil of Europe, North Asia and North America. A perennial medicinal herb. Its virtue depends on peculiar acrid and bitter, as well as tonic principles. In North America, this species, and likewise A. alba, are also praised as efiicacious antidotes against ophidian poisons.

Adenostemum nitidum, Persoon.

South Chili, where this stately tree passes by the appellations : Queule, Nuble and Aracua. Wood durable and beautifully veined. Fruit edible.

Adesmia balsamica, Bertero.

The Jarilla of Chili. A small shrub, remarkable for exuding a fragrant balsam of some technic value.

FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE.

^giceras majus, Gaertner.

South Asia, Polynesia, North and East Australia. This spurious Mangrove-tree extends far south in New South Wales. It may be employed for staying the off-flow of mud by the tide, and for thus consolidating shores subject to inundation by sea-floods.

^schynomene aspera, Linne.

The Solah of tropical Asia. A large perennial erect or floating swamp-plant, probably hardy in the warmer tracts of our colony. Introduced from the Botanic Gardens of Melbourne into the tropical parts of Australia. The pithhats are made from the young stems of this plant. The Solah is of less importance for cultivation than for naturalisation.

^sculus Hippocastanum, Linne.

The Horse-Chestnut tree. Indigenous to Central Asia. One of the most showy of deciduous trees, more particularly when during spring "it has reached the meridian of its glory, and stands forth in all the gorgeousness of leaves and blossoms." Height sixty feet. It will succeed in sandy soil on sheltered spots ; the wood adapted for furniture ; the seeds a food for A^arious domestic anim^alsj the bark a good tanning material. The wood remains free from insects. The tree ascends the Himalayas up to 10,000 feet. A variety occurs with thornless fruits. Three species occur in Japan, and several, but none of great height, in North America and South Asia.

Agaricus Caesareus, Schafier.

In the spruce-forests of Middle and South Europe. Trials might be made to naturalise this long-famed and highly delicious Mushroom in our forests when spruce-fir plantations are made. It attains a width of nearly one foot, and is of a magnificent orange colour. Numerous other edible Agarics could doubtless be brought into these southern colonies by the mere dissemination of the spores at apt localities. As large or otherwise specially eligible may here be mentioned A. extinctorius (L.), A. melleus (Yahl.), A. deliciosus (L.), A. giganteus (Sowerby), A. Cardarella (Ft.), A. Marzuolus (Fr.), A. eringii (Cand,), A. splendens (Pers.), A. odorus (BuUiard), A. auricula (Cand.), A. oreades (Bolt.), A. esculentus (Wulf ), A. mouceron (Tratt.), A. socialis (Cand.), all from Europe, besides numerous other highly valuable species from other parts of the globe.

Agave Americana, Linn^.

The gigantic Aloe of Central America. It comes here into flower in about ten years. The pithy stem can be utilised for some of the purposes for which cork is usually employed, for instance, to form the bottoms of insect-cases. The honeysucking birds and the bees are very fond of the flowers of this prodigious plant. The leaves of this and some other Agaves, such as A. Mexicana, furnish the strong Pita-fibre, which is adapted for ropes, and even for beautiful textile fabrics. The strength of ropes of this fibre is considerably greater than that of hemp ropes, as well in as out of water. The leaves contain Saponin. The sap can be converted into alcohol, and thus the "Pulque" beverage is prepared from the young flower-stems. "Where space and circumstancesadmit of it, impenetrable hedges may be raised in the course of some years from Agaves.

Agave rigida, Miller. (A. Ixtii, Karwinsky.)

Yucatan. The Chelem, Henequen and Sacci of the Mexicans, furnishing the Sisal-hemp. Drs. Perrine, Scott and Engelmann indicate several varieties of this stately plant, the fibre being therefore also variable both in quantity and quality. The yield of fibre begins in four or five years, and lasts for half a century or more, the plant being prevented from flowering by cutting away its flowerstalk when very young. The leaves are from two to six feet long and two to six inches wide ; the flower-stem attains a height of twenty-five feet, the panicle of flowers about eight feet long, bearing in abundance bulb-like buds. Other large species of Agave, all fibre-yielding, are A. antillarum (Descourtil), from Hayti; A. Parryi (Engelmann), from New Mexico; A. Palmeri (Engelmann), from South Aiizona, up to an elevation of 6000 feet.

Agrostis alba, Linne.

The Fiorin or White Bent-grass. Europe, North and Middle Asia, North Africa, North America. Perennial, showing a predilection for moisture; can be grown on peatsoil. It is the Herd-gi-ass of the United States. It is valuable as an admixture to many other grasses, as it becomes available at the season when some of them fail. Sinclair regards it as a pasture-grass inferior to Festuca pratensis and Dactylis glomerata, but superior to Alopecurus pratensis. The variety with long suckers (A. stolonifera) is best adapted for sandy pastures, and helps to bind shifting sand on the sea-coast, or broken soil on river-banks. It has a predilection for moisture, and luxuriates even on saline or wet soil or periodically inundated places, as well observed by Langethal. It is more a grass for cattle-country than for sheep-country, but wherever it is to grow the soil must be penetrable. Its