318 SELECT PLANTS POK INDUSTKIAL CULTURE 



Sterclia qnadrifida, R. Brown. 



Eastern and Northern Australia. This tree might be tried in 

 rich and humid forest regions. It is the " Calool " of the 

 natives. The black seeds are of a filbert taste, like those of 

 some other Sterculia. As many as eleven of the brilliant 

 scarlet fixdts may be in a cluster, and each of them may 

 contain up to ten or eleven seeds. 



Sterculia urce'olata, Smith. 



Moluccas. Possibly hardy. Seeds edible. 



Sterculia urens, Roxburgh, 

 Coromandel. Seeds edible. 



Stilbocarpa polaris, Decaisne and Planchon. 



Auckland's and Campbell's Islands, and seemingly also in 

 the southern extremity of New Zealand. A herbaceous plant 

 with long roots, which are saccharine and served some wrecked 

 people for a lengthened period as sustenance. The plant is 

 recommended here for further attention, as it may prove 

 through culture a valuable addition to the stock of culinary 

 vegetables of cold countries. 



Stipa aristiglumis, F. v. MueUer. 



South-East Australia. Graziers consider this perennial grass 

 as very fattening and yielding a large quantity of feed. Its 

 celerity of growth is such that when it springs up it will 

 grow at the rate of 6 inches in a fortnight. Horses, cattle, 

 and sheep are extremely fond of it. It ripens seeds in little 

 more than two months in favourable seasons. 



Stipa tenacissima, Linne.* (Macrochloa ienadssima, Kunth.) 



The Esparto or Atocha. Spain, Portugal, Greece, North 

 Africa, ascending the Sierra Nevada to 4,000 feet. This 

 grass has become celebrated since some years, having 

 afforded already a vast quantity of material for British 

 paper-mills. It is tall and perennial, and may prove a 

 valuable acquisition, inasmuch as ^t lives on any kind of poor 

 soil, occurring naturally on sand and gravel as well as on 

 clayey or calcareous or gypseous soil, and even on the very 

 brink of the coast. Possibly the value of some Austrahan 

 grasses allied to the Atocha may in a Hke manner become 

 commercially established, and mainly with this view paper 

 samples of several grass kinds were prepared by the writer 

 {vide "Report, Industrial Exhibition, Melbourne, 1867"). 



