16 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



Agave rigida, Miller. (A. Ixtli, Karwinsky.) 



Yucatan. The Chelem, Henequen and Sacci of the Mexicans, 

 furnishing the Sisal-hemp. Drs. Perrine, Scott and Engelmann 

 indicate several varieties of this stately plant, the fibre being there- 

 fore also variable, both in quantity and quality. The yield of fibre 

 begins in four or five years, and lasts for half a century or more, 

 the plant being prevented from flowering by cutting away its 

 flower-stalk when very young. The leaves are from 2 to 6 feet 

 long and 2 to 6 inches wide; the flower-stem attains a height of 25 

 feet, the panicle of flowers about 8 feet long, bearing in abundance 

 bulb-like buds. Other large species of Agave, all fibre-yielding, 

 are A. antillarum (Descourtil) from Hayti ; A. Parryi (Engel- 

 mann) from New Mexico ; A. Palmeri (Engelmann) from South 

 Arizona, up to an elevation of 6,000 feet. 



Agriophyllum gobicum. 



Eastern Asia. The " Soulkir " of the Mongols. Przevalsky says 

 that this plant affords a great part of the vegetable food of the Ala- 

 Shan nomads. Several other annual salsolaceous herbs belong to 

 the genus Agriophyllum. 



Agrostis alba, Linne. 



The Fiorin or White Bent-Grass. Europe, North and Middle Asia, 

 North Africa, North America. Perennial, showing a predilection 

 for moisture ; can be grown on peat soil. It is the Herd-Grass of 

 the United States. It is valuable as an admixture to many other 

 grasses, as it becomes available at the season, when some of them 

 fail. Sinclair regards it as a pasture-grass inferior to Festuca 

 pratensis and Dactylis glomerata, but superior to Alopecurus pra- 

 tensis. The variety with long suckers (A. stolonifera) is best 

 adapted for sandy pastures, and helps to bind shifting sand on the 

 sea-coast, or broken soil on river-banks. It luxuriates even on 

 saline wet soil or periodically inundated places, as well observed by 

 Langethal. It is more a grass for cattle-country than for sheep 

 pasture, but wherever it is to grow the soil must be penetrable. Its 

 turf on coast-meadows is particularly dense and of remarkable 

 fineness. For sowing only one-sixth of the weight of the seeds, as 

 compared with those of the Rye-Grass, is needed. 



Agrostis rubra, Linne. (A. borealis, Hartmann.) 



Northern Europe, Asia and America. A perennial grass called 

 Red-top, and also Herd-Grass in the United States of North 

 America. Professor Meehan places it for its value as pasture 

 among grasses cultivated there next after Phleum pratense and Poa 

 pratensis (the latter there called Blue Grass), and before Dactylis 

 glomerata (the Orchard-Grass of the United States). 



