306 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Psidium rufum, Martins. 



Brazil, in the province of Minas Geraes, on sub-alpine heights. 

 This guava-bush gains finally a height of 10 feet, and is probably 

 the hardiest of all the species producing palatable fruit. 



Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, Be Candolle. 



Tropical Africa, perhaps to Madagascar. A climber with annual 

 stem; pods to one foot long, used as peas. P. palustris (Desvaux) is 

 closely allied, and has shorter pods. Likely to ripen fruits also out- 

 side the tropics. 



Psoralea esculenta, Pursh. 



North- America. This herb is mentioned here, as its tuberous 

 roots, known as the Prairie-Turnip, may be capable of great improve- 

 ment by cultivation, and of thus becoming a valuable esculent. 



Psychotria Bckloniana, F. v. Mueller. (Orumilia cymosa, E. Meyer.) 



South- Africa. Dr. Pappe describes the wood of this tree as of a 

 beautiful citron-yellow. 



Pterocarpus Indicus, Roxburgh. 



The Lingo of China and India. A tree of considerable dimensions, 

 famed for its flame-red wood. It furnishes also a kind of dragon- 

 blood resin. 



Pterocarpus marsupium, Roxburgh. 



India, ascending in Ceylon and the Circars to fully 3,000 feet alti- 

 tude; hence this tree would doubtless grow without protection in 

 those tracts of the temperate zone, which are free from frost. The 

 tree is large when in its final development; its foliage is deciduous. 

 It exudes the best medicinal kino, which contains about 75 per cent, 

 of tannic acid. P. santalinus (Linne fil.) which provides the Saunders 

 ' or Red Sandal- Wood, is also indigenous to the mountains of India and 

 important for dye-purposes. 



Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Kunth. 



From Central Asiatic Russia to Persia. A kind of Walnut-tree, 

 which, with P. stenoptera (Cas. de Candolle) on Dr. Hance's recom- 

 mendation, should be adopted as trees for both ornament and timber, 

 and so perhaps also the Japanese species, P. rhoifolia (Siebold and 

 Zuccarini). 



iPtychosperma Alexandras, F. v. Mueller. 



The Alexandra-Palm. Queensland, as well in tropical as extra- 

 tropical latitudes. The tallest of Australian palms, and one of the 

 noblest forms in the whole empire of vegetation. Aged it exceeds 

 100 feet in height, and is likely destined to grace many shady moist 

 groves yet outside the tropics, so long as they are free from frost, as 

 this palm seems less tender than most others. The demand for seeds 

 has already been enormous; for long voyages they are best packed 

 into the sawdust of resinous kinds of wood. 



