26 
thick as a man’s wrist, always highly polished, with an extremely 
hard point; and, as no lateral shoots are put out until it has 
attained its] full height, it readily makes its way through the 
thickest ramified masses, while the subordinate branches, groufing 
in the same manner, find no difficulty in piercing this complicated 
mass of vegetable fife. 
“ I saw ”, continues this Author; “ Bamboos in every different 
stage of this process, and particularly I noticed several of the 
main stems rising to the height of seventy feet and upwards, of 
a clear yellow colour, and evidently of recent growth, but without 
a single lateral branch growing from their joints, from top to 
bottom ; and this led me to infer that their extreme height had 
not been reached, or was but just attained.” 
Bamboos are applied to many useful purposes, both in India, 
China, and Japan. The tender tops are used to form a pickle; 
an excellent paper is manufactured from the tissue of the stem, 
and the stems themselves are employed in a great variety of 
ways, sucb as the making of furniture for their houses, cups, 
tubs, and boxes; also, in the construction of dwellings, which 
are sometimes covered with the gigantic leaves of the Banana: 
in making water-pipes, and in the construction of fences. The 
substance called, in India, Tabashur, is procured from the joints; 
it was ascertained, by Dr. Turner, to consist of silica, with a 
minute proportion of lime and vegetable matter. 
EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURES AT VARIOUS TIMES 
AXD PLACES. 
(I am indebted to tbe kindness of Captain Sir Everard Home, Bart., R.N., 
for the following interesting table, made during an extended voyage in H.M.S. 
‘ North-Star ’, which may be of use to many persons wUo cultivate plants from 
any of the regions there mentioned, and for regidating the temperature of 
houses, &c.—E d.) 
tbhpbbatubs. 
PLACE. 
MONTH. 
LIMIT. 
HEAT 
COLD. 
Singapore. 
May. 
lO'MolS*'* 
00 
00 
0 
o 
o 
GO 
Malay Peninsula, 
South extremity. 
February. 
4 — 12 
89 
78 
China. 
Hong-Koiig. 
January. 
16 — 24 
66 
53 
June. 
I — 5 
84 
78 
Macao. 
January. 
24 — 26 
68 
56 
Chusan. 
October. 
21 — 31 
76 
60 
November. 
1 — 30 
75 
46 
December. 
1 — 31 
76 
43 
J* 
January. 
1— 9 
62 
44 
