42 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



Bambusa vulgaris, Wendland.* 



The large unarmed Bamboo of Bengal. It attains a height 

 of 70 feet, and stems may attain even a length of 40 feet in one 

 season, though the growth is slower in cooler climes. It has 

 proved to be capable of resisting the occasional night-frost of 

 the lowlands of Victoria. It is the best for building bamboo 

 houses. Immersion in water for some time renders the cane 

 still firmer. To the series of large thornless bamboos belong 

 also Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Balcooa of India, and Bam- 

 busa Thouarsii from Madagascar and Bourbon. These Bam- 

 boos are much used for various kinds of furniture, mats, 

 implements, and other articles. Besides this, Mr. Kurz enu- 

 merates as among the best Asiatic bamboos for building 

 purposes : Gigantochloa aspera, G. maxima, G. atter ; while 

 Mr. Teysmann for the same purpose notes G. apus. Kurz 

 recommends further Bambusa arundinacea, B. Balcooa, B. 

 Brandisii, B. polymorpha, Dendrocalamus Hamiltoni, Schizo- 

 stachyum Blumei. In the Moluccas, according to Costa, 

 Gigantochloa maxima, or an allied species, produces stems 

 thick enough to serve, when slit into halves, for canoes. 

 Bamboos serve for masts and spars of small vessels. Bambusa 

 Balcooa was found by Wallich to grow 12 feet in 23 days. 

 Bambusa Tulda, according to Koxburgh, has grown at first 

 at the rate of from 20 to 70 feet in a month. Fortune 

 noticed the growth of several Chinese bamboos to be two to 

 two and a half feet a day. There are many other kinds of 

 bamboo eligible among the species from China, Japan, India, 

 tropical America, and perhaps tropical Africa. One occurs in 

 Arnhem's Land, and one at least in North Queensland. 



Baptisia tinctoria, R. Brown. 



The wild Indigo of Canada and the United States. A peren- 

 nial herb. It furnishes a fair pigment in the manner of treat- 

 ing the best Indigoferas. 



Barbaraea vulgaris, R. Brown. 



In the cooler regions of all parts of the globe, ascending to 

 Alpine zones. This herb furnishes a wholesome salad. As 

 with other raw vegetables, particularly watercress (Nastur- 

 tium aquaticum, Trag.), circumspect care is necessary to free 

 such salads from possibly adherent Echinococcus-ova or other 

 germs of entozoa, particularly in localities where hydatids 

 prevail. 



Barosma serratifolia, Willdenow. 



South Africa. This shrub supplies the medicinal Bucco leaves. 



