225 



On the Bamboo and Durian of Borneo; hy A. R. Wallace, Esq., 



F.L.S. {In a Letter to Sir W. J. Hooker.) 



Two vegetable productions particularly attracted my attention in 

 Borneo, — the Bamboo, most useful of plants, and tbe Durian, king of 

 fruits. 



Ditferent species of Bamboo abound in all tropical countries, and 

 wherever they are found the natives apply them to a great variety of 

 uses. Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straightness, roundness, 

 and hoUowness, — the facility and regularity with which they can be 

 split,^ — their different sizes, the varied distance of their joints, the ease 

 with which they can be cut, and with which holes can be made in them, 



•their hardness outside, their freedom' from any taste or smell, their 

 great abundance, and the facility with which they are propagated, — all 

 make them fitted for a hundred different purposes, to serve which other 

 materials would require much labour and preparation. They are at 

 once the most wonderful and the most beautiful production of the 

 tropics, and the best gift of Nature to uncivilized man. 



I shall briefly mention the uses to which they are applied by the 

 native tribes of Borneo, which have fallen under my notice, and which 

 have struck me the more forcibly, because in the parts of South 

 America I have visited. Bamboos are comparatively scarce, and where 

 found, but little used, their place being taken, as to one class of uses, 

 by the great variety of Palms, and as to another, by Calabashes and 



Gourds. 



The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three 

 hundred feet long, and forty or fifty wide. The floor is always formed 



bamboos 



firmly 



rafters beneath. This, when well made, is a delightful floor to walk upon 

 barefooted, the rounded surfaces of the bamboo being vejy smooth and 



time affording a firm 



form 



and 



cellent bed, 



of the surface, being far superior to a more rigid or flatter floor. Here 



at once we have a use which cannot be supplied so weU by another 



all 



and 



VOL. VIII. 



2 G 



