168 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Gigantochloa Thwaitesii, Kurz. (Oxytenanthera Thwaitesii, Munro.) 



Ceylon, at cool elevations of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. This pretty 

 Bamboo reaches only 12 feet in height. 



Gigantochloa verticillata, Munro. (Bambusa vertidlfata, Blume.) 



.The Whorled Bamboo of India. It attains a height of fully 100 

 feet; in damp heat it grows at the astonishing rate of 40 feet in 

 about three months, according to Bouche. The young shoots furnish 

 an edible vegetable like G. apus and Bambusa Bitung. 



GinkgO biloba, Linn.* (Salisburia adiantifolia, Smith.) 



Ginkgo-tree. China and Japan. A deciduous fan-leaved tree, to 

 100 feet high, with a straight stem to 12 feet in diameter. The wood 

 is pale, soft, easy to work and takes a beautiful polish. The seeds 

 are edible, and when pressed yield a good oil. The fruits, sold in 

 China under the name of " Pa-Koo," are not unlike dried almonds, 

 but the kernel fuller and rounder. Ginkgo-trees are estimated to 

 attain an age of 3,000 years. Mr. Christy observes, that the foliage 

 turns chrome-yellow in autumn, and that it is the grandest and 

 most highly esteemed of all trees in Japan; it will grow in dry 

 situations. In America it is hardy as far north as Montreal, in 

 Europe to Christiania. 



Gladiolus edulis, Burchell. 



Interior of South-Africa. The bulb-like roots are edible, and 

 taste like chestnuts when roasted. 



Glaucium luteum, Scopoli. 



Western and Southern Europe, Northern Africa and Western 

 Asia. This fast-spreading biennial herb, now also naturalized on 

 some of the Australian coasts, does good service in aiding to subdue 

 drift-sand. The plant has also some medicinal value. 



Gleditschia triacanthos, Linn<$. 



The deciduous Honey-Locust tree of South-Eastern States of North- 

 America. Height reaching 80 feet, trunk to 4 feet in diameter. 

 Wood hard, coarse-grained, fissile, durable, sought principally for 

 blocks and hubs. The tree is not without importance for street- 

 planting. Rate of circumferential stem-growth in Nebraska, about 

 40 inches in 22 years at 2 feet from the ground (Furnas); growth in 

 height at Port Phillip, about 35 feet in 20 years. Sown closely, this 

 plant forms impenetrable, thorny, not readily combustible hedges. 

 An allied species, the G. Sinensis, Lamarck (G. horrida, Willd.), 

 occurs in East-Asia. The Water-Locust tree of North- America (G. 

 monosperma, Walt.) will grow to a height of 80 feet in swamps. The 

 flowers of Gleditschia exude much honey -nectar for bees. 



Glycine hispida, Bentham. (Soja hispida, Moench. ) 



An annual herb of India, China and Japan. The beans afford one 

 of the main ingredients of the condiment known as Soja; they are 

 very oily, nutritious, and of pleasant taste when boiled. The plant 



