72 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



firmer. To the series of large thornless bamboos belong also Bambusa 

 Tulda and Bambusa Balcooa of India, and Bambusa Thouarsii from 

 Madagascar and Bourbon. These Bamboos are much used for various 

 kinds of furniture, mats, implements, fishing-rods and other articles. 

 Besides these, Kurz enumerates as among the best Asiatic Bamboos 

 for building purposes : Gigantochloa aspera, G. maxima, G-. attar ; 

 while Teysmann notes G. apus for the same purpose. Kurz recom- 

 mends further, Bambusa arundinacea, B. Balcooa, B. Brandisii, B, 

 polymorpha, Dendrocalamus Hamilton! and Schizostachyum Blumei. 

 In the Moluccas, according to Costa, Gigantochloa maxima or an allied 

 species produces stems thick enough to serve when slit into halves 

 for canoes. Bamboos are utilised for masts and spars of small vessels. 

 Bambusa Balcooa was found by Wallich to grow 12 feet in 23 days. 

 Bambusa Tulda, according to Roxburgh, has grown at first at the rate 

 of from 20 to 70 feet in a month. Fortune noticed the growth of 

 several Chinese Bamboos to be two to two and a half feet a day. 

 There are many other kinds of Bamboo eligible among the species 

 from China, Japan, India, tropical America and perhaps tropical 

 Africa. Two occur in Arnhem's Land, and two at least in North- 

 Queensland. New Guinea is sure to furnish also additional kinds of 

 technical importance or eminent horticultural value. Indeed one 

 speciesforms abelt just below the sub-alpine zone [Sir W. MacGregor], 

 If the summit of a young Bamboo within the last sheath is slit, a 

 simply forked growth may be obtained for ornamental purposes. 



Baptisia tinctoria, R. Brown. 



The " Wild Indigo " of Canada and the Eastern United States. A 

 perennial herb. It furnishes a fair pigment, when treated like the 

 best Indigoferas ; also used as an antiseptic in medicine. 



( 



Barbarea vulgaris, R Brown. 



In the cooler regions of all parts of the globe, ascending to alpine 

 zones. Hardy to lat. 64 5' in Norway [Schuebeler]. This herb 

 furnishes a wholesome salad. As with other raw vegetables, particu- 

 larly watercress (Nasturtium aquaticum, Trag.) circumspect care is 

 necessary, to free such salads from possibly adherent Echinococcus-ova 

 or other germs of entozoa, particularly in localities where hydatids 

 prevail. But the Nasturtium- Watercress should culturally altogether 

 be avoided, as it may by quickly spreading choke irrigation-channels, 

 rivulets and low canals to such an extent as to involve large annual 

 expenditure for clearing. Barbarea is an excellent honey-plant 

 [MuenterJ, particularly for cold regions. Several allied species 

 exist. 



Barosma serratifblia, Willdenow. 



South Africa. This shrub supplies the medicinal Bucco-leaves. 

 B. crenulata, Hooker (Diosma crenulata, L.) is only a variety of 

 this species. Barosma betulina is also a Bucco-plant [Professo 



