24 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Agaves refer also to Dr. Fr. P. Porcher's " Southern Fields and 

 Forests," p. 596-599 (1869), and to Consul Th. J. MacLain's report 

 on the Sisal industry in the Bahamas [Dyer, "Kew Bulletin." July 



1890.] 



A grave vivipara, Linne. 



Mexico and Honduras. This species is cultivated for hedges in 

 some parts of India, especially near watercourses, and has in several 

 districts become naturalised. Flowered at Mortala, [Th. Hanbury.] 

 Latterly a fibre obtained from this plant has been sent to the Lon- 

 don market as Bombay Aloe-fibre. Samples prepared by the Death's 

 Fibre Machine Company were found to be of excellent quality, worth 

 from 25 to 30 per ton. This species is of rather slow growth. Mr. 

 J. G. Baker defines specifically 138 species. 



Ag-onis flexuosa, De Candolle. 



The Willow-Myrtle of South- Western Australia. A tree, attain- 

 ing finally a height of 60 feet, with pendent branches. One of the 

 best of evergreen trees for cemeteries in a climate free from frost. 

 The foliage is rich in antiseptic oil. 



Ag-riophyllum Crobicum, Bunge. 



Eastern Asia. The " Soulchir " of the Mongols. Przevalsky 

 says, that the seeds of this plant, wild as well as cultivated, afford 

 a great part of the vegetable food of the Ala- Shan nomads. 

 Several other annual salsolaceous herbs belong to the genus Agri- 

 ophyllum, among them A. arenarium (Bieberstein) being closely 

 cognate to A. Gobicum. 



Agrostis Bluelleri, Bentharu. 



Alps of Australia and New Zealand. Valuable there for depas- 

 turing, as well as some other grasses endemic to our alps. 



Agrostis palustris, Hudson. (A. alba, Linne.) 



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

 Asia, North-Africa, North-America. Perennial, showing 1 a predi- 

 lection for moisture ; can be grown on peat-soil. It yields a good 

 return already in the first year, but is not so well suited for mow- 

 ing as depasturing. It is the herd-grass of the United States, and 

 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 pratensis. The variety with 

 long suckers (A. stolonifera) is best adapted for sandy pastures, 

 and helps to bind shifting sand on sea-coasts, or broken soil on river- 

 banks. It luxuriates even on saline wet soil or periodically inun- 

 dated places, as well observed by Langethal. It is more a grass 

 for cattle-runs than for sheep-pastures, but wherever it is to grow, 



