300 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Prostanthera lasiantha, Labillardi&re. 



South-Eastern Australia and Tasmania. Confined to the banks of 

 forest-streams. The only one among more than 2,500 Labiatse 

 which becomes a good-sized tree, reaching a height of fully 60 feet, 

 Wood useful for many technologic purposes. The leaves of this and 

 its many congeners afford on distillation aromatic oils. 



Protea mellifera, Thunberg. 



South- Africa. This tall bush is deserving a place among the 

 plants of this work, not only in view of its gaudy ornamental aspect, 

 but also on account of the richdom of honey-nectar in its large in- 

 florescence. 



Pmnus Americana, Marshall. (P. nigra, Aiton.) 



Canada, Eastern United States of America. A thorny tree, furnish- 

 ing the Yellow and Red Plum of North- America. Hardy in Norway 

 northward to lat. 65 (Schuebeler). The fruit is roundish and 

 rather small, but of pleasant taste. All kinds of Prunus are impor- 

 tant to the apiary. 



Pmnus Amygdalus, J. Hooker.* (Amygdalus communis, Linn.) 



The Almond-tree. Countries around the Mediterranean Sea and 

 South- Western Asia ; really indigenous on the Anti-Lebanon, in 

 Kurdestan, Turkestan and perhaps on the Caucasus (Stewart). Both 

 the sweet and bitter almond are derived from this species. The cost 

 of gathering the crop in South-Europe is about 20 per cent, of its- 

 market-value. Their uses and the value of the highly palatable oil, 

 obtained by pressure from them, are well known. This oil can well 

 be chosen as a means of providing a pleasant substitute for milk 

 during sea- voyages, by mixing with it, when required, half its weight 

 of powdered gum-arabic, and adding then successively, while quickly 

 agitating iu a stone-mortar, about double the quantity of water; thus 

 a palatable and wholesome sort of cream for tea or coffee is obtained 

 at any moment. There exist hard- and soft-shelled varieties of both 

 the sweet and bitter almond. Almonds can even be grown on sea- 

 shores. The tree bears the climate of Christiania in Norway (Professor 

 Schuebeler). The crystalline amygdalin can best be prepared from 

 bitter almonds, through removing the oil by pressure, theri subjecting 

 them to distillation with alcohol, and finally precipitating with ether. 

 The volatile bitter almond-oil a very dangerous liquid is obtained 

 by aqueous distillation. Dissolved in alcohol it forms the essence of 

 almonds. This can also be prepared from peach kernels. The 

 almond-tree is one of the aptest, to be chosen as a standard of 

 comparison with other kinds of trees (as well as other plants) for 

 records of synchronous flowering time. 



Prunus Armeniaca, Linn& (Ai~meni,aca vulgaris, Lamarck.) 



The Apricot-tree. China, as already indicated by Roxburgh, not 

 indigenous in Armenia. Cultivated up to 10,000 feet in the Hima- 

 layas. Professor C. Koch points to the alliance of this tree to- 



