10 



SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



for some of the purposes for which cork is usually employed, 

 for instance, to form the bottoms of insect-cases. The honey- 

 sucking birds and the bees are very fond of the flowers of 

 this prodigious plant. The leaves of this and some other 

 Agaves, such as A. Mexicana, furnish the strong Pita-fibre, 

 which is adapted for ropes, and even for beautiful textile 

 fabrics. The strength of ropes of this fibre is considerably 

 greater than that of hemp ropes, as well in as out of water. 

 The leaves contain Saponin. The sap can be converted into 

 alcohol, and thus the "Pulque" beverage is prepared from 

 the young flower-stems. "Where space and circumstances- 

 admit of it, impenetrable hedges may be raised in the course 

 of some years from Agaves. 



Agave rigida, Miller. (A. Ixtii, Karwinsky.) 



Yucatan. The Chelem, Henequen and Sacci of the Mexi- 

 cans, furnishing the Sisal-hemp. Drs. Perrine, Scott and 

 Engelmann indicate several varieties of this stately plant, the 

 fibre being therefore also variable both in quantity and 

 quality. The yield of fibre begins in four or five years, and 

 lasts for half a century or more, the plant being prevented 

 from flowering by cutting away its flowerstalk when very 

 young. The leaves are from two to six feet long and two to 

 six inches wide ; the flower-stem attains a height of twenty- 

 five feet, the panicle of flowers about eight feet long, bearing 

 in abundance bulb-like buds. Other large species of Agave, 

 all fibre-yielding, are A. antillarum (Descourtil), from Hayti; 

 A. Parryi (Engelmann), from New Mexico; A. Palmeri 

 (Engelmann), from South Aiizona, up to an elevation of 6000 

 feet. 



Agrostis alba, Linne. 



The Fiorin or White Bent-grass. Europe, North and 

 Middle Asia, North Africa, North America. Perennial, 

 showing a predilection for moisture; can be grown on peat- 

 soil. It is the Herd-gi-ass of the United States. It is 

 valuable as an admixture to many other grasses, as it be- 

 comes available at the season when some of them fail. Sinclair 

 regards it as a pasture-grass inferior to Festuca pratensis and 

 Dactylis glomerata, but superior to Alopecurus pratensis. 

 The variety with long suckers (A. stolonifera) is best adapted 

 for sandy pastures, and helps to bind shifting sand on the sea- 

 coast, or broken soil on river-banks. It has a predilection 

 for moisture, and luxuriates even on saline or wet soil or 

 periodically inundated places, as well observed by Langethal. 

 It is more a grass for cattle-country than for sheep-country, 

 but wherever it is to grow the soil must be penetrable. Its 



