176 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



they are also used for cakes, and afford a substitute for coffee, 

 according to Professor Keller. The leaves serve for fodder. The 

 large flower-heads are important as yielding much honey The stalks 

 furnish a good textile fibre, and the blossoms yield a brilliant lasting 

 yellow dye. About six pounds of seed are required for an acre. The 

 plant likes calcareous soil. Important also for quickly raising vegeta- 

 tion around fever-morasses, the absorbing and exhaling power of this 

 plant being very large (Dr. v. Hamm). The Sun-Flower, according 

 to Lacoppidan, will exhale 1| Ib. of water during a hot day. Several 

 North- American species may deserve rural culture. The return from 

 a Sun-Flower field is attained within a few months. In Norway it 

 can be grown to lat. 70 4' (Schuebeler); yet it will, according to the 

 Rev. H. Kempe, also endure the excessive summer heat of Central 

 Australia better than any other cultivated herb yet tried there. 



Helianthus tuberosus, Lhm<$.* 



Brazil. Sun-Flower Artichoke, inappropriately passing under the 

 name " Jerusalem-Artichoke," instead of " Girasol- Artichoke." The 

 wild state, according to Professor Asa G-ray, seems to be the North- 

 American H. doronicoides (Lamarck). The tubers are saccharine and 

 serve culinary purposes. As a fodder they increase the milk of cows 

 to an extraordinary degree. The foliage serves well also as fodder. 

 The plant is propagated from the smallest but undivided tubers, placed 

 like potatoes, but at greater distances apart. The root is little sus- 

 ceptible to frost. The plant would be valuable for alpine regions. 

 In Norway it can be grown successfully still at lat. 68 24' (Schue- 

 beler). The yield is as large as that of potatoes, with less labor, and 

 continues from year to year in fairly treated land uninterruptedly and 

 spontaneously. The stem is rich in textile fibre. The percentage of 

 crystalline sugar is largest during the cold season, then 5-6 per 

 cent. During the summer the starch-like inulin prevails. This 

 plant can only be broughf to full perfection in a soil rich in potash. 



Helichrysura lucidum, Henckel. (H. bracteatum, Willdenow.) 



Throughout the greater part of Australia. H. lucidum can be 

 grown as a summer-plant to lat. 70 4' in Norway (Schuebeler). The 

 regular cultivation of this perennial herb would be remunerative, to 

 supply its everlasting flowers for wreaths, just as those of H. orientale 

 (Tournefort) from Candia are largely grown and sold in South- 

 Europe, to provide wreaths for graves. Furthermore, the lovely 

 Helipterum Mauglesii (F. v. M.) from West- Australia could for the 

 same purposes be reared on a large scale with several other Australian 

 everlastings. Some South-African species of Helichrysum and 

 Helipterum are also highly eligible for these purposes of decoration ; 

 as such may be mentioned Helichrysum f ulgidum (Willdenow), H. 

 sesamoides (Thunberg), H. vestitum (Leasing); Helipterum canescens, 

 H. eximium and H. speciosissimum (De Candolle). Helichrysum 

 apiculatum (De Candolle) affords herbage in the worst deserts of 

 Australia. 



