452 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



herb furnishes not only a wholesome a.nd palatable food, but also 

 serves as a therapeutic remedy much like dandelion. Long boiling 

 destroys its medicinal value [B. Clark]. Kept in a cellar for a 

 while it becomes available for cutting up as admixture to salad 

 [Babo]. Some other kinds of Scorzonera may perhaps be drawn 

 into similar use, there being many Asiatic species ; they should be 

 cultivated as annuals. The leaves of some may be used as salad. 



Scorzonera tuberosa, Pallas. 



On the Volga and in Turkestan, in sandy desert-country. This 

 species also yields an edible root, and so perhaps the Chinese S. 

 albicaulis (Bunge), the Persian S. Scowitzii (Candolle), the North- 

 African S. undulata (Vahl), the Greek S. ramosa (Sibthorp), the 

 Russian S. Astrachanica, the Turkish S. semicana (Candolle), the 

 Iberian S. lanata and S. mollis (Bieberstein). At all events, care- 

 ful culture may render some of them valuable esculents. 



Scutia Indica, Brongniart. 



Southern Asia. This, on Dr. Cleghorn's recommendation, might 

 be utilized as a thorny hedge-shrub. 



Sebaea ovata, E. Brown. 



Extra- tropical Australia and New Zealand. This neat little 

 annual herb can be utilized for its bitter tonic principle (Gentian- 

 bitter). S. albidiflora (F. v. M.) is an allied species from somewhat 

 saline ground. These plants get disseminated most readily, but 

 are unacceptable to stock. S. crassulifolia (Chamisso) and Chiroiiia 

 baccif era (Linne) serve for the same therapeutic purposes in South- 

 Africa [McOwan]. 



Secale cereale, Linne.* 



The Rye. Orient, but perhaps wild only in Afghanistan, and, as 

 recently noted by Dr. A. von Regel, also in Turkestan. Mentioned 

 as one of the hardiest of all grain-plants for sub-arctic and sub- 

 alpine regions. In Norway it can be grown as far north as lat. 

 69 30' [Schuebeler]. There are annual and biennial varieties, 

 while a few allied species, hitherto not generally used for fodder or 

 cereal culture, are perennial. The rye, though not so nutritious as 

 wheat, furnishes a most wholesome well-flavored bread, which 

 keeps for many days, and is most extensively used in Middle and 

 and Northern Europe and Asia. This cereal moreover can be 

 reared in poor soil and cold climates, where wheat will no longer 

 thrive. In produce of grain, rye is not inferior to wheat in colder 

 countries, while the yield of straw is larger, and the culture less 

 exhaustive. It is not readily subject to disease, and can be grown 

 on some kinds of peaty or sandy or moory ground. The sowing 

 must not be effected at a period of much wetness. Wide saiid- 

 tracts would be uninhabitable, if it were not for the ease of pro- 



