XAMBOO HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. ;! 



Gen. ciiak.- Cal3'x a one or many flowered glume, two valved, erect ; corolla two- 

 valved, \-nlves husk}', the length of the calyx, oblonn;-, acuminate ; the stamina 

 three, or more ; anthers forked ; the pistiiluni an oblong gernien, the styles are 

 two, rcHexe..!, the stigma simple : there is no pericarj)iinn ; the seed is single, to 

 which the corolla adheres witiiout gaping, fiirnislicd with a long down. 



BAMBOS. BAMBOO. 



Calyx many or on? flowered ; spikes in threes, or nnequal in number, sessile. 



The bamboo is a native of the East Indies, and was introduced into .Jamaica by INIr. 

 "M. Wallen, who procured it from Hispanioia; it was first planted in the ])arish of St. 

 Tiiomas ni the E.^t, and has since-been very deservedly and very generally propagated, 

 for it IS a most useuil jjltint. 



It has a woody, hoiiow, round, jointed stem, growing from forty to sixty feet high. 

 The main root is long, thick, jointed, spreading horizontalh', sending out many cvhn- 

 (hical woody fibres, of a whitish colour, many feet long. From the jonits of the main 

 root spring the stalks, and send out at their joints several stalks jonied together at their 

 base, which riui up in the same manner as those they shoot from. If any of these be 

 jvlanted, with a piece of the first stiiik adhering to them, they will perpetuate tiieir spe- 

 cies. 'I'iiey are armed at their joints with one or two sharp spines, and fui-iiished with 

 Itjng lanceolate leaves, roundish at the oase, they are rough and striated, eight or nine 

 inches long, liavmg short footstalks. The tlowers are produced in large panicles from 

 the joints of the slaiks, placed in parcels close to the receptacles, resembling those of 

 the common reed, and are succeeded by reeds of tiie same- form, surrounded with 

 iloivn. 



There is scarcely any plant that may be used for a greater variety of useful purposes 

 than the immboo :, The young shoots are covered with a dark green bark ; th.ese, when 

 very tender, are put up in vinegar, salt, garlic, and the pods of capsicum, and thus 

 afford a pickle, which is esteemeil a valuable condiment in the Indies, and is said great- 

 ly to promote the appetite, and assist digestion. Tiie stalks, in their young state, are 

 almost solid, and contain a milky juice, of a sweet nature ; and, as the stalks advance 

 in age, they becon-.e hollow, except at the joints, where they are stopped bv a \voo(iy 

 membrane, upon whicli this liquor lodges, and concretes into a substance called laoaxir, 

 or sugar of mombu, which was held in such esteem by the ancients, in some particular 

 disorders, that it was equal in value to its weight in silver. 



The nature of this substance is very different from what might have been expected 

 in the product of a vegetable. Its intlestructability by fire, its total resistance to acids ; 

 its uniting by fusion with alkalies, in certain proportions, into a white opake mass, into 

 a transparent permanent glass:; and its beiiig again separable troni these compouutls, 

 entirely unchanged by acids, ii^c. seem to afford the strongest reasons for coDsidcring it 

 as very nearly identical v/ith common siliceous earth. As t:; its medical virtues, tiiougli 

 the drug be, as befoie observed, in much esteem v.ith the orientalists, yet they are not 

 such as to cause it to have any regard paid to it in the modern practice of physic ni Eu- 

 rope. Yet the virtues of the several parts of the bamboo arc very considerable, accord- 

 ing to I.oureiro, who, in his Flora Cochinchinensis, tells us that the leaves, baik, buds, 

 ajid root, are used. Tlie leaves, he says, are cooling, emollient, and resolvent ; their 

 tlecoGtioii is good in fevers, cough, pains of the throat, &c. the thin bark is cooling 

 and agglutinant, and a gentle astringent ; it is good in feverish heyts, hLeniorrha"ias, 

 nauseas, and .vomitings : the roots uiid buds are attenuating, proniotc urine, aud puriiy 

 liLjc^..' ; Oi the 



