Tas. 7994, 
PHYLLOSTACHYS NIGRA. 
China and Japan. 
GRAMINEH. Tribe BamBusEat, 
Puytiostacuys, Sieb. & Zuce.; Munro in Trans, Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi. (1868), 
p. 35. Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 1208. 
Phyllostachys nigra, Munro, l.c. p. 38; Riviere, Les Bambous, pp. 255-261; 
Matsumura, Useful Plants of Japan (1895), p. 147, fig. 593. Mitford, 
Bamboo Gard. (1896), pp. 142-145, etc. Satow, Cultiv. of Bamb. in 
Japan (EKetr. Trans. As. Soc. Japan, vol. xxvii. 1899), pp. 52-54, 
with plate; inter species generis panicula supradecomposita ampla 
distincta, P. Fawrei, Hack., proxima, culmis haud vel minus distincte 
angulatis plerumque fistulosis vix specifice distincta; forma primo 
descripta culmis ramisque demum_ eleganter purpureo-nigrescentibus 
notabilis—Arundo Bambos, Thunb. FI. Fess (1784), p. 54 pro parte.— 
'  Bambusa nigra, Lodd. Cat. of Plants, ed. 14, 1826, p. 5. 
Phyllostachys nigra is not specifically distinct from 
P. Henonis, Mitf., P. Castillonis, Mitf., and P. boryana, 
Mitf. They are forms—mainly colour varieties—of a 
species which is very uniform in its flowers and inflo- 
rescences. In this respect it approaches so closely 
P, Faurei, Hack., a native of Japan, that the only 
tangible differences between them are in the singularly 
angular and perfectly solid stems of P. Fawrei. It has 
been remarked by Japanese botanists that most of the 
bamboos of Japan flower very rarely, and “ flowering 
periods”’ of thirty or sixty years have been ascribed to 
them. 
According to Loudon (Hort. brit. p. 124), this Bamboo 
was introduced into England by C. Loddiges in 1825.* It 
appears in Loddiges’ ‘‘ Catalogue of Plants” for 1826, 
among the stove plants as Bambusa nigra, but nothing is 
said about the origin. Lindley, in “ Penny Cyclopedia,” 
vol. ii, (1835), p. 357, gives the neighbourhood of Canton 
as its home, adding that the beautiful slender stems are 
cut for the handles of parasols, walking-sticks, &c. It is 
* Ruprecht (l.c.) quotes “Bambusa nigra, Loddig., 1823,” Munro and 
others following him. I have not seen Loddiges’ Catalogue for 1823, which 
was the thirteenth edition, but Loudon (I.c.) has distinctly 1825 as the year of 
introduction, 
January Ist, 1905, 
