162 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



El re is G-uineensis, Jacquin.* 



The " Oil-palm " of Western tropical Africa. Height to 40 feet- 

 foliage superb, the leaves occasionally reaching 15 feet in length. 

 A well-developed fruit-spike may attain a weight of 40 Ibs., and 

 on it up to 800 fruits may be counted, each of the size of a 

 walnut ; the outer portion of the fruits almost of lardlike con 

 sistence ; through boiling yields the commercial oil fresh for food 

 or for soap+and candle-manufacture. This palm likes a coast-clime. 

 At Port Curtis ripens fruits [Edgar] ; how much farther outside 

 the tropics it will bear, remains here yet to be ascertained. For 

 mere scenic culture it would doubtless thus succeed in a com- 

 paratively cool clime. The import of the fat-like oil of this palm 

 into Britain during 1886 was 1,004,419 cwt., valued at 1,050,459 ; 

 during 1889 it was 1,031,440 cwt., valued at 1,091,922. The 

 present price is 20 the ton. 



Blegria nuda, Kunth. 



South-Africa. A rush, able with its long roots^to bind moving 

 sand ; it also affords good material for thatching [Dr. Pappe ] . 

 Many of the tall Restiacese of South-Africa would prove valuable 

 for scenic effect in gardens and conservatories, and among these 

 may specially be mentioned Cannamois cephalotes (Beauvois). 



Elionnrus hirsutus, Munro. 



This tall grass is illustrated by Mr. Duthie among the fodder- 

 grasses of N.W. India. It grows on poor sandy soil. The seeds 

 are used for food by the natives of Bikanir [Dr. Watt]. 



Elephanthorrhiza Burchelli, Beutham. 



South- Africa. The huge club-footed roots of this somewhat 

 shrubby plant are extraordinarily rich in tannin [Prof. McOwan]. 

 All grazing animals like the foliage much ; it starts from the roots 

 again after frost [Mrs. Barber]. An allied species is E. Burkei. 



Eleusine Coracana, Gaertner.* 



Southern Asia, east to Japan, ascending the Himalayas to 7,000 

 feet. Though annual, this grass is worthy of cultivation on 

 account of its height and nutritiveness. It is of rapid growth, and 

 the produce of foliage and seeds copious. Horses prefer the hay 

 to any other dry fodder in India, according to Dr. Forbes Watson. 

 The large grains can be used like millet. E. Indica (Gaertner) 

 only differs as a variety. It extends to tropical Australia, and is 

 recorded also from many other tropical countries, but thrives well 

 even as far as Port Phillip. 



Elcusine stricta, Roxburgh. 



India. The increase of grain of this annual grass in rich soil is 

 at times five-hundredfold. E. Tocusso (Fresenius) is a valuable 



