222 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



into Great Britain in 1884, valued at 1,580,000, mostly from 

 Egypt. Sea-Island cotton was raised to great perfection in the 

 northern parts of Victoria fully twenty-five years ago from seeds 

 extensively distributed by the writer ; but the want of cheap labour 

 has hitherto militated against the extensive cultivation of this crop, 

 as well as that of tea and many other industrial plants. Cotton 

 having been reared far away from the influence of the sea-air, it 

 would be worthy of attempts, to naturalise various kinds of cotton 

 in the oases of our deserts, irrespective of regular culture. Our 

 native Gossypiums of the interior produce no fibre worth collect- 

 ing. Cotton-plants have a predilection for gently undulating or 

 sloping ground, with light soil and a moderate supply of moisture. 

 In the most favorable climes, such as that of Fiji, cotton produces 

 flowers and fruit throughout the year, but the principal ripening 

 falls in the dry season. From two hundred to three hundred plants 

 or more can be placed on an acre. As many as seven hundred bolls, 

 have been gathered from a single plant at one time, twelve to 

 twenty capsules yielding an ounce of mercantile cotton. Weeding 

 is rendered less onerous by the vigorous growth of the plants. 

 Cotton comes in well for rotation with other crops. Major Clarke 

 has ascertained, that crossing cannot be effected between the oriental 

 and occidental kinds of cotton. A high summer-temperature is 

 needed for a prolific cotton-harvest. Intense heat, under which 

 even maize will suffer, does not injuriously affect cotton, provided 

 the atmosphere is not dry in the extreme. The soil should not be 

 wet, but of a kind that naturally absorbs and retains humidity, 

 without over-saturation. In arid regions it is necessary to irrigate 

 the cotton-plant. Heavy rains at the ripening period are injurious, 

 if not destructive, to the cotton-crop. Dry years produce the best 

 returns, yet aqueous vapor in the air is necessary for the best yield. 

 In colder localities the bolls or capsules continue to ripen, after 

 night-frosts prevent the formation of new ones. Porous soils, rest- 

 ing on limestones and metamorphic rocks, are eminently adapted 

 for cotton-culture. The canebrake-soil of the North- American 

 cotton-regions absorbs ammonia to a prodigious extent. 



The Chaiiar of Argentina. Bears sweet pleasant fruits, and yields 

 a tough valuable wood [Dr.Lorentz]. 



Gracilaria lichenoides, Greville. 



South-Asia, North-Eastern Australia. The "Agar-Agar." An 

 edible seaweed, the mucilage of which has come into preferential 

 use to rear bacteria for microscopic observation. Doubtless, sea- 

 weeds could readily in portable aquaria be transferred from one 

 coast to others. The alg above mentioned can be used medicinally 

 instead of caragaheen. 



