IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 325 



Stipa aristiglumis, R v. Mueller. 



South-east Australia. Graziers consider this perennial grass as 

 very fattening and 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 in 

 favourable seasons. 



Stipa tenacissima, Liniie.* (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 since some years, having afforded already a vast 

 quantity of material for British paper-mills. It is tall and 

 perennial, and may prove a valuable acquisition, inasmuch as it 

 lives on any kind of poor soil, occurring naturally on sand and 

 gravel as well as on clayey or calcareous or gypseous soil, and 

 even on the very brink of the coast. Possibly the value of some 

 Australian grasses allied to the Atocha may in a like manner 

 become commercially established, and mainly with this view 

 paper samples of several grass kinds were prepared by the 

 writer. (Vide "Report, Industrial Exhibition, Melbourne, 1867".) 

 Even in the scorching heat and the arid sands of the Sahara the 

 Atocha maintains itself, and it may thus yet be destined to play an 

 important part in the introduced vegetation of any arid places of 

 desert tracts, particularly where lime and gypsum exist. The very 

 tenacious fibre resists decay, and is much employed for the manu- 

 facture of ropes, also for baskets, mats, hats, and other articles. 

 During 1870 the import of Esparto ropes into England was 

 18,500 tons, while the raw material to the extent of about 130,000 

 tons was imported. Extensive culture of this grass has com- 

 menced in the south of France. It is pulled once a year, in the 

 earlier part of the summer. The propagation can be effected from 

 seeds, but is done usually by division of the root. 10 tons of dry 

 Esparto, worth from 4 to <5 each, can under favourable circum- 

 stances be obtained from an acre. The supply has fallen short of 

 the demand. Good writing-paper is made from Esparto without 

 admixture ; the process is similar to that for rags, but cleaner. The 

 price of Esparto paper ranges from 40 to 50 for the ton. Stipa 

 arenaria (Brot.) is a closely allied and still taller species, confined 

 to Spain and Portugal. Consul W. P. Mark deserves great praise 

 for having brought the Atocha into commercial and manufactural 

 recognition. Stipa pennata, S. capillata, and S. elegantissima will 

 grow in pure sand. 



Streblus asper, Loureiro. 



South Asia. This bears a good recommendation for live fences, in 

 being a shrub of remarkable closeness of branches. 



