60 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



the facility with which this species disseminates itself. Splendid 

 wool is produced in regions where A. vesicarium and A. halimoides 

 almost monopolize the ground for enormous stretches. With other 

 woody species easily multiplied from cuttings also ; but, as re- 

 marked by Naudin, producing thousands of fruits in less than three 

 months after sowing, and, as stated by Millardet, has become the 

 marvel of the Delta of the Rhone. 



Atropa Belladonna, Linne. 



The " Deadly Nightshade." Southern and Middle Europe and 

 Western Asia. A most important perennial medicinal herb. The 

 highly powerful atropin is derived from it, besides another alka- 

 loid, the belladonnin. The action of belladonna is mydriatic, thus 

 of great moment in opthalmic surgery. The effect in other respects 

 is very complicated and heroic. Speaking briefly, it is a narcotic of 

 first rank ; amongst its uses are those against asthma, various spasms, 

 epilepsy ; but the whole range of its efficacy cannot be discussed in 

 pages like these. It is an antidote to various vegetable poisons. 



Audibertia poly stachya, Bentham. 



California. A shrub, attaining a height of 10 feet ; keeps the 

 bees buzzing with activity about its flowers for honey during the 

 whole spring [A. J. Cook], The same can be said of A. Palmeri 

 (Gray) and some other species. 



Avena elatior, Linne.* (Arrhenatherum elatius, Beauvois.) 



The tall Meadow- Oatgrass. Europe, Middle Asia, North- Africa. 

 Indigenous in Norway to lat. 68 11 [Schuebeler]. This grass 

 should not be passed altogether on this occasion, although it 

 becomes easily irrepressible on account of its wide-creeping roots. 

 It should be chosen for dry and barren tracts of country, having 

 proved through its deeply penetrating roots to resist occasional 

 droughts better than rye-grass. Hon. J. L. Dow regards it as one 

 of the very best of grasses for sandy soil. Yields more green feed 

 in the Southern States of North- America during winter than most 

 other grasses [Loring]. The bulk yielded by it is great ; it sub- 

 mits well to depasturing, and gives two or three crops of hay 

 annually thus, a total up to 80 cwt. [Stebler]. It is, however, 

 not so much relished by animals as many other grasses, and should 

 never be sown by itself. 



A vena fatua. Linne. 



Wild Oats. Europe, Northern Africa, Northern and Middle A_sia, 

 eastward as far as Japan. The experiments of Professor Buckman 

 seem to indicate, that our ordinary cultivated Oat (Avena sativa, 

 L.) is descended from this plant. Cultivated in California for 

 fodder, but requiring early cutting, as it matures and sheds its 



