366 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Sterculia nobilis, Smith. 



From India to China. A middle-sized spreading tree. The rather 

 large seeds can be used as chestnuts in a roasted state. 



Sterculia quadrifida, R. Brown. 



Eastern and Northern Australia. This tree might be naturalized 

 in rich and humid forest-regions within mild climes. It is the 

 " Calool " of the natives. The black seeds are of filbert- taste, like 

 those of some other Sterculice. As many as eleven of the brilliantly 

 scarlet large fruitlets may occur in a cluster, and each of them may 

 contain as many as ten or eleven seeds (Ch. Fawcett). The fruit is 

 almost alike to that of, S. nobilis in size and color. 



Sterculia urens, Roxburgh. 



India, extending to the north-western provinces, to Assam and 

 Ceylon. A tree with deciduous foliage; likes dry, rocky, hilly 

 situations. This and S. urceolata (Smith), from the Moluccas and 

 Sunda-Islands, produce edible seeds, and may prove hardy in mild 

 extra-tropical regions. The same may be said of S. foetida (Linne), 

 which extends from India to tropical Africa and North-Australia. 



Stilbocarpa polaris, Decaisne and Planchon. 



Auckland's and Campbell's Islands, also in the southern extremity 

 of New Zealand, and also in Macquarie's Island, luxuriating in a 

 frigid zone and in exposed, boisterous localities. An herbaceous 

 plant with long roots, which are saccharine, and served some wrecked 

 people for a lengthened period as sustenance. The plant is recom- 

 mended here for further attention, as it may prove through culture 

 a valuable addition to the stock of culinary vegetables of cold 

 countries. Herbage liked by some pasture-animals. 



Stipa aristiglumis, F. v. Mueller. 



South-Eastern Australia, in the dry inland -regions. Graziers con- 

 sider this perennial grass as very fattening and as yielding a large 

 quantity of feed. Its celerity of growth is such that, when it springs 

 up, it will grow at the rate of 6 inches in a fortnight. Horses, cattle 

 and sheep are extremely fond of it. It ripens seeds in little more than 

 two months, should the season be favorable. 



Stipa tenacissima, Linne*.* (Macrochloa tenacissima, Kunth.) 



The Esparto or Atocha. Spain, Portugal, Greece, North-Africa, 

 ascending the Sierra Nevada to 4,000 feet. This grass has become 

 celebrated for some years, having already afforded a vast quantity 

 of material for British paper-mills. In 1884 Great Britain imported 

 of Esparto and other vegetable fibres for paper-mills 184,000 tons, 

 representing a value of 1,128,ODO. It is tall and perennial, and 

 would prove a valuable acquisition anywhere, inasmuch as it lives on 

 any kind of poor soil, occurring naturally on sand and gravel, as well 

 as on clayey, calcareous or gypseous soil, and even on the very brink 

 of the coast. Possibly the value of some Australian grasses, allied to 



