128 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



Festuca ovina, Linne. 



Sheep Fescue. Europe, North and Middle Asia, North 

 America; found also in South America and the Alps of 

 Australia and New Zealand. This species, like F. elatior, is 

 obtainable with facility. F. duriuscula, L., and F. rubra, L., 

 are varieties. A perennial grass, thriving on widely different 

 soil, even moory and sandy ground. It yields a good produce, 

 maintains its virtue, resists drought, and is also well adapted 

 for lawns and the swards of parks. F. vaginata, Willdenow, 

 is a form particularly recommended by Wessely for sand soil. 



Festuca purpurea, F. v. Mueller. ( Uralepis purpurea, Nuttall ; 

 Tricusjns purpurea, A. Gray.) 



South-east coast of North America. A tufty sand grass, but 

 annual. 



Festuca silvatica, Villars. 



Middle and South Europe. A notable forest grass. F. 

 drymeia (Mert. and Koch), a grass with long creeping roots, 

 is closely allied. Both deserve test culture. 



Festuca spadicea, Linne. 



Alps of Europe. This grass would thrive on the heights of 

 snowy mountains. Perennial. The space does not admit of 

 entering here into further details of the respective values of 

 many species of Festuca which might advantageously be intro- 

 duced from various parts of the globe for rural purposes. 



Ficus Carica, Linne'.* 



Orient. The ordinary Fig Tree. It attains an age of several 

 hundred years. In warm temperate latitudes and climes a 

 prolific tree. The most useful and at the same time the most 

 hardy of half a thousand recorded species of Ficus. The 

 extreme facility with which it can be propagated from cuttings, 

 the resistance to heat, the comparatively early yield and easy 

 culture, recommend the Fig Tree to be chosen, where it is an 

 object to raise masses of tree vegetation in widely treeless 

 landscapes of the warmer zones. Hence the extensive planta- 

 tions of this tree, made in formerly woodless parts of Egypt ; 

 hence the likelihood of choosing the Fig as one of the trees 

 for extensive planting through favourable portions of desert 

 wastes, where, moreover, the fruit could be dried with particular 

 ease. Caprification is unnecessary, even in some instances 

 injurious and objectionable. Two main varieties may be dis- 

 tinguished : that which produces two crops a year, and that 



