DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 231 



Lygodium scandens. 



Filices. A climbing fern. 

 The species of this genus are widely distributed over the warmer parts of the 

 world, extending to New Holland, Japan, and North America. Most commonly met 

 with in our greenhouses. The Kew collection contains a broom made in Ceylon 

 from the stipes of the species named, while the stipes of another species, found on 

 the Island of Luzon, supply material for hats. 



Lyme grass. Elymus arenarius. 

 Lyonsia reticulata. 



A specimen of so-called fiber from the seed vessels of this plant was received from 

 the Queensland collection (Phil. Int. Exh., 1876). It is worthless as a " fiber" and 

 can only be classed with " silk cotton" from the Bombax, and with " vegetable silk" 

 from pods of Asclepias. The plant is a creeper belonging to the dogbane family, 

 having cucumber shaped pods, which are the source of the fiber. The plant is a 

 native of Australia. 



Maana (Oeyl.). Andropogon nardus of Diet. Ee. Prod., Ind. See 

 A. schcenantJius. 



Macanilla (Venez.). See Guilielma speciosa. 



Macauba and Macaw palm (Braz.). See Acrocomia sclerocarpa and 

 A. lasiospatha. 



Machinery for extracting fibers. See Appendix A. 



Macpalxochitlquahuitl (Yiic.). Cheirostemon platanoides. 



Macrochloa tenacissima (see Stipa tenacissima). 



Macrocystis pyrifera. Giant Seaweed. 



This is a remarkable genus of dark-spored Algw, belonging to the order Lami- 

 nariaceaz. " Many species have been proposed by authors, but all are reducible to 

 one, M. pyrifera, which girds the southern temperate zone and stretches up from 

 thence along the Pacific to the Arctic regions, through 120 degrees of latitude. 

 This plant, like the Sargassum, has been celebrated by all voyagers, to whom it is 

 of great service in indicating the presence of rocks, acting, as it does, like a great 

 buoy. Vast masses are thrown up on exposed coasts, where it is rolled by the waves 

 till it forms cables as thick as a man's body. Single plants have been estimated on 

 reasonable grounds as attaining a length of 700 feet. It is apparently indifferent to 

 cold, if not extreme, but inasmuch as like its near allies it is a deep-sea Alga it 

 requires a depth of at least 6 fathoms for its growth." {Rev. M. J. Berkeley.) 



Pseudo Fiber. — This is not strictly speaking a fiber plant, though it affords useful 

 material that may bo employed in the place of a fiber as a "cordage" material. No 

 references can be given, but I have been informed that the Macrocystis is exten- 

 sively employed in Alaska for the manufacture of fishing lines, which are strong and 

 durable. 



Other species of Algce are used in a similar manner. W. H. Harvey, in Nereis 

 Boreali-Americana (Sm. Inst., 1858), on the authority of Lightfoot, refers to the use 

 of the stems of Chorda filum, which often attain the length of 30 or 40 feet and which 

 are popularly known as Lucky Minny's lines. These are skinned when half dry, and 

 twisted acquire so considerable a degree of strength and toughness that the high- 

 landers sometimes use them as fishing lines. 



Dr. H. Mertens, in Hooker's Bot. Misc., refers to a similar use of a species of Fucus 

 by the Aleutians. It is said that these fishing lines from Algce, are iwt affected by 

 freezing, and therefore can be used at low temperatures without danger of breaking. 



