150 FOEEST CULTURE AND 



foresight, may it be utilized and rendered lucrative 

 to industry ! The Water Nuts,* naturally distributed 

 through large tracts of Europe and Asia, afford at 

 Cashmere alone, for five months in the year, a nutri- 

 tious and palatable article of food for thirty thousand 

 people. Can the Menyanthes not be made a native 

 here — one of the loveliest of water-plants, one of the 

 best of tonics ? The true Bamboo, which I first prov- 

 ed hardy here, used for no end of purposes by the 

 ingenious Chinese — can we not plant it here at each 

 dwelling, at each stream, a grateful yielder to indus- 

 trial wants, not requiring itself any care — an object 

 destined to embellish whole landscapes ? An Arun- 

 dinaria Bamboo from Nepal (A. falcata) proved very 

 tall and quite hardy, even in Britain ; and yet taller 

 is the Mississippi Arundinaria (A. macrosperma) — 

 indeed, rivaling in height the gigantic Chinese or 

 Indian Bamboo. 



Imagine how there might arise on the bold rocky 

 declivities of the Grampians the colossal columns 

 of the Cereus giganteus of the extra-tropic Colorado 

 regions — huge candelabras of vegetable structure, 

 which would pierce the roof of our museum hall if 

 planted on the floor, and would be as expansive in 

 width as the pedestal of the monument consecrated 

 to our unfortunate explorers. Picture to yourselves 

 an Echinocactus Visnago of New Mexico, lodged in 

 the wide phasm of our Pyrenees, one of. these mon- 

 sters weighing a ton, and expanding into a length of 

 nine feet, with a diameter of three feet." Think of 

 such plants mingled with the Canarian I)ragon-tree, 

 one of which is supposed to have lived from our 



* Several species of Traps. 



