340 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



on account of its creeping roots to bind rolling coast-sands. 

 It serves also as a nourishing forage plant on sand-tracts. 



Urena lobata, Linnd. 



Intratropic girdle around the globe. This herb has recently 

 been enumerated among plants with comparatively tenacious 

 fibre. 



Urginia Scilla, Steinheil. (Scilla maritima, Linne.) 



South Europe, North Africa. The medicinal Squill. The 

 plant needs not regular cultivation, but settlers living near the 

 coast might encourage its dissemination, and thus obtain the 

 bulbs as drug from natural localities. Its peculiar bitter 

 principle is called scillitin. The bulb contains 24 per cent, 

 tannin. U. altissima (Baker) serves in South Africa as Squill. 



Uvularia sessilifolia, Linne. 



North America, in forests. This pretty herb is mentioned as 

 yielding a good substitute for asparagus. 



Vaccinium alatum, Dombey. (Thibaudia alata, Dunal.) 



Frigid regions of the Andes of Peru. A tall evergreen shrub, 

 with pink berries of the size of a cherry. This highly orna- 

 mental plant could be grown in Sub-Alpine regions. 



Vaccinium Arctostaphylos, Linne. 



On Mount Olympus. The leaves, dried and slightly heated, 

 furnish the Broussa tea, the material for a very palatable be- 

 verage (G. Maw). 



Vaccinium bicolor, F. v. Mueller. (Tkibaudia bicolor, Ruiz and 

 Pavon.) 



Cold zones of the Peruvian Andes. A 'high evergreen bush, 

 with red berries of the size of a hazel-nut. All Thibaudias 

 seem best to form a section in the genus Vaccinium, some 

 species of the latter for instance, Vaccinium Imrayi (Hook.), 

 from Dominica mediating the transit. The species of the 

 section Thibaudia are, as a rule, producing red berries of acid- 

 ulous grateful taste. Many others may therefore deserve 

 culture in forest ravines or on Alpine heights. They occur 

 from Peru to Mexico, also in West India. One species, Vac- 

 cinium melliflorum (Thibaudia melliflora, R. and P.), has its 

 flowers rich in honey-nectar. 



