43 



food, and the composition of the hugked grain is given by Prof. 

 Church in his " Food Grains of India" as follows : — 



Water 



Albuminoids 



Starch 



Oil 



Fibre 



Ash 



11-0 



11-8 



73-7 



0-6 



1-7 



1-2 



100 



It is said that in 1864 the Bamboo furnished food for upwards of 

 50,000 persons in Kanara in 1864, and that in 1812 in Orissa a general 

 flouring of the Bamboo prevented a famine.* 



Our plant is now in flower (January 26th), but it remains to be 

 seen whether it will ripen its fruit in our climate. It is a general 

 'idea that the fruiting of the Bamboo is the harbinger of an extremely 

 dry season, but as the flowering is not general among the plants, 

 perhaps this will not apply. 



The plant or rather the stems die out after flowering, and the 

 clump is wholly renewed by young shoots from the base. 



The larger number of the stems of the clumps now in flower were 

 cut away in November last, to provide fencing for the Race Course, 

 and only a few mature centre stems remained, and it may be that the 

 letting in of light and air to these is the cause of present abundance 

 of flower on this particular clump. Other clumps near by, which 

 were not touched, have shewn no sign of flowering at the time of 

 writing. During twenty years continuous residence in the West 

 Indies I have only seen the Bamboo in flower on two previous occasions. 

 In Jamaica in 1885, in Trinidad in 1887, and the present instance, 1895. 



117.-OUR GARDEN SOIL. 



Mt immediate predecessor Mr. Prestoe on several occasions drew 

 attention in his Reports to the inferior character of the soil of the 

 Koyal Botanic Gardens. While the position of the Gardens is an 

 admirable one in every other respect, we are considerably hindered 

 and placed at great disadvantage in many cases in the cultivation 

 of various plants by the inferior character of the soil, and especially 

 so by the character of its subsoil. One practical lesson is however 

 apparent. It is this — that if plants thrive in our poor and barren 



* "Food Grains of India. "—Church. 



