and Properties of' Tahasheer^ ',f| 289 



and remaining there, or passing through it to the opposite side 

 of the stem. 



But, however this may be, the juices of the plant are col- 

 lected at the internode, and could not possibly penetrate into 

 the inner tube while the inner ring and membrane are sound, 

 as in the healthy plant. When this membrane, however, is 

 destroyed or rent by disease, or when the whole internode is 

 in a state of malconformation, as I have found it, the juice or 

 milk at the joints is immediately extravasated, lines the roof 

 EF, or the bottom DG of the inner tube, and forms tabasheer 

 by its subsequent induration. 



The quantity of tabasheer, therefore, does not depend on 

 the size of the reed, but upon the diseased state of its joints ; 

 and it will be seen from those upon the table, that the greatest 

 quantity is in one where the internode is completely disorga- 

 nized. Captain Playfair has mentioned four or five grains as 

 the usual quantity. In the bamboo now alluded to the quan^ 

 tity is fully twenty grains. 



By the cutting down and transporting of the bamboo, the 

 tabasheer encrusted upon the roof or bottom of the cavity is 

 detached, and is always found in separate pieces of different 

 sizes. Its existence in any individual bamboo may therefore 

 be known by the rattling noise which takes place by shaking 

 the reed. A portion of it, however, often adheres to the place 

 of its formation, and we may sometimes detect it in the pores 

 of the spongy mass from which it has exuded. The largest 

 pieces of tabasheer are generally impressed with the inner 

 membrane of the reed upon which it has been formed. 



In opening different bamboos, the included tabasheer pre- 

 g^ents various appearances. When the tube has been perforat- 

 ed with holes, it has a brown and dirty aspect, arising no doubt 

 from the admission of dust ; and the perforating insects are 

 often found among the fragments. When there are no per- 

 forations, the tabasheer is clean and pure, presenting a great 

 variety of aspects, depending no doubt on the nature of the 

 juices, on the manner in which they have been extravasated, 

 and on the time in which their induration has been effected. 

 The different varieties of tabasheer may be thus enumerated. 

 1. The finest variety, which is also the rarest, is of a deli- 

 cate azure blue colour by reflected light, and of a faint yellow- 



