230 SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



potash-plant." Langethal says: — ^'It surpasses in easy range- 

 of cultivation all other root-crops. Its culture suppresses- 

 weeds and opens up the soil, besides preparing the land for 

 cereals." Seeds of the Potato-berries should be sown in 

 adapted places by explorers of new countries. The most for- 

 midable Potato-disease of the last thirty years from the Pero- 

 nospora infestans seems to have originated from the use of 

 objectionable kinds of guano, to the introduction of which the 

 murrain was contemporaneous. 

 Solanum Uporo, Dunal. 



In many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The large red 

 spherical berries of this shrub can be used like Tomato. 



Solanum vescum, F. v. Mueller. 



The Gunyang. South-East Australia. A shrub yielding edible 

 berries, which need, however, to be fully ripe for securing ab- 

 sence of deleterious properties. 



Solanum xanthocarpum, Schrader and Wendland. 



North Africa and South Asia. A perennial herb. The berries 

 are of the size of a cherry, and either yellow or scarlet. 



Sophora Japonica, Linne.* 



A deciduous tree of China and Japan, resembling the 

 Laburnum, up to sixty feet high; wood hard and compact, 

 valued for turner's work. All parts of the plant purgative ;. 

 the flowers rich in a yellow dye, used for silk. 



Sophora tetraptera, Aiton. Far. Macnahiayia, Graham. 



The Pelu of Chili and Patagonia. A small tree with exceed- 

 ingly hard and durable wood, much used for cog-wheels and 

 similar structures. The wood differs much from that of S. 

 Toramiro of the Easter Island (Dr. Philippi). 



Spartina cynosuroides, Willdenow. 



Eastern part of North America. A perennial grass of fresh- 

 water swamps, there often-called Prairie-grass; it can be 

 utilised for fodder, and its value as paper-material seems 

 equal to that of Esparto. 



Spartina juncea, Willdenow. 



Salt marshes of North America. A grass with creeping 

 roots ; it can be utilised to bind moist sand on the coast. A 

 tough fibre can readily be obtained from the leaves. S. poly- 

 stachya (W.) is a stately gi-ass, adapted for saliae soil. 



Spartina stricta, Eoth. 



Countries at the Mediterranean Sea, extending to Britain 

 and also to North America. The twin-spiked Cord-grass. A 

 rigid perennial with creeping roots, recommended for fixing 

 and rendering solid any mud-flats on low shores and at the 

 mouth of rivers; only suitable for brackish ground. 



