328 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Bobinia Pseudacacia, Linne. 



The North-American Locust- Acacia, ranging from Alleghany to 

 Arkansas. Height reaching 90 feet. Hardy to lat. 63 26' in 

 Norway. The hard and durable wood is in use for a variety of pur- 

 poses, and particularly eligible for treenails, axletrees and turnery; 

 strength greater than that of the British oak, weight lighter (D. J. 

 Browne). The natives used the wood for their bows. The tree is of 

 rapid growth, and attains an age of several hundred years. A tree, 

 raised in 1635, in the Paris Jardin des Plantes, is still alive. It may 

 be planted closely for timber-belts and hedge-shelter on farm-lands. 

 It is one of the best trees for renovating exhausted land and for 

 improving poor soil. Also a bee-plant. Recommended as one of the 

 easiest grown of all trees on bare sand, though standing in need of 

 twice as much mineral aliment as Pinus silvestris and nearly as much 

 as poplars. It pushes through shifting sand its spreading roots, 

 which may attain a length of seventy feet. It will maintain its hold 

 in hollows of drifts, where even poplars fail (Wessely). The roots 

 are poisonous. The allied R. viscosa (Ventenat) attains a height of 

 40 feet. 



Roccella tinctoria, De Candolle. 



Canary-Islands, Azores, also in Western and Southern Europe and 

 North-Africa. This lichen furnishes the litmus, orseille or orchil 

 for dyes and chemical tests. It is a question of interest, whether it 

 could be translocated and naturalized on the cliffs of our shores also. 

 Other dye-lichens might perhaps still more easily be naturalized; for 

 instance, Lecanora tartarea, L. parella, Pertusaria communis, Parmelia 

 sordida, Isidium corallinum and some others, which furnish the Cud- 

 bear or Persio. 



Rosa canina, 



Europe, "Northern and Middle Asia, North-Africa. This species 

 attains a very great age; the famed and sacred rose at the cathedral 

 of Hildesheim existed before that edifice was built, therefore before 

 the ninth century (Langethal). In some of the German monasteries 

 real roses of tree-size occur, which have also lived through several 

 centuries and are regarded with veneration. 



Rosa centifolia, Linn. 



The Cabbage-Rose, Moss-Rose, Provence-Rose. Indigenous on 

 the Caucasus and seemingly also in other parts of the Orient. It will 

 endure the frosts of Norway as far north as lat. 70 (Schuebeler). 

 Much grown in South -Europe and Southern Asia for the distillation 

 of rose-water and oil or attar of roses. No pruning is resorted to, 

 only the dead branches are removed; the harvest of flowers is from 

 the middle of May till nearly the middle of June; the gathering 

 takes place before sunrise (Simmonds).' From 12,000 to 16,000 roses, 

 or from 250 Ibs. to 300 Ibs. of rose-petals, are required according to 

 some calculations for producing a single ounce of attar through ordi- 

 nary distillation. The flowers require to be cut just before expansion; 



