102 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PIWDUCTIOXS. 



spot, was a verituble wall of fire, blocking all progress. The appearance a few days 

 after of the ground was curious in the extreme. The entire face of the hills had 

 been, clean swejjt, and save an occasional smouldering stump, the ground where 

 a dense forest had pre\'iously stood, was as bare as a fallow fielil in winter, the white 

 ashes simulating with most weird effect a thick full of snow. The next rainy season 

 would see the ground covered with a dense growth of young Bamboos, and then for 

 30 years or so (if the natives may be credited) no such scene will be re-enacted, till 

 the next dying-off of the Bamboo forest. Such a spectacle is of course only presented 

 where the whole forest consists of Bamboos, as was the case in this particular area. 



M. KiJEEri, Munr. (p. 134). Andamans. 



This species is not recognized by Kurz, and may be therefore synonymous with 

 some other. 



Caryopsis ratlur small, dry attd coriaceous. 



DixocHioA, Base. 



Inner 2>aha concave, short. Caryopsis terete, ovate, acuminate. 



Climhing Bamloos. 

 J). AxDAMiNicA, Kz. (p. 153). Tree forests of South Andaman. 

 B. Tjanghorreh, Buss, apud Munro. 



Spikelets in a cb-ied state straw-coloured, hardly a lino long. Shoot-sheaths 

 fugaceously white-setidose, not auricled, and narrowed towards the mouth. 



Kurz remarks : " D. Tjunykorreh affinis, sed spiculis multo minoribus pallidis, 

 (nee brunnuis), filiis multo majoribus et ligula vaginarum dilfert. Specimina ex 

 insulis Philippinis valvula interiore ciliata gaudentia, et a el Munro cum B. 

 T/a>iykorreh conjuncta, mihi est species nova, et etsi earn nou vidi B. ciliafum 

 uomiuo.''— Kurz, J.A.S.B. II. 1873, p. 2.53. 



D. (Bambusa) MacClellaxdii, iluuro (p. 114). Chittagong and Eastern slopes 



of the Pegu Range, and Martaban. 



Shoot-slieaths fugaceously silvery, not narrowed upwards, at the mouth 

 thickened and polished green. 



In Burma, as in most tropical countries, the bamboo is in great demand, and to 

 the mass of the people is invaluable. Of bamboo alone a complete and comfortable 

 house, absolutely proof against the tropical downpour of rain, can be erected, in 

 a space of time that is incredibly short to those who have not witnessed the facility 

 with which a Burman or Karen handles his ' dab,' or heavy knife, when working on 

 such congenial material as bamboo. A roof made of large bamboos split in half and 

 laid over and under, like tiles, is absolutely watei-proof, should the days of Deucalion 

 (as a Burmese monsoon sometimes seems to threaten) return. The drawback, how- 

 ever, of bamboo as a house material is, that it lasts but a few years, and is of course 

 simply swept away by fire ; but to a native of a country abounding in bamboos, from 

 which in three days he can reconstruct his dwelling, this is a trifle. In cities, 

 however, the use of bamboo in building is properly discouraged. Other eveiy-day 

 uses are scaffolding, bridging, fencing, and decoration, carts, boats, fittings, matting, 

 and domestic utensils, and a variety of industrial and economic purposes too numerous 

 to detail. A fine mat of split bamboo forms the basis of the exquisite Burma boxes, 

 the one industrial speciality of Upper Burma. The young shoots of bamboo are 

 edible and pickled by the Chinese, whilst the softer wooded species yield a highly 

 promising material for the manufacture of paper. Silica is contained in large 

 quantity in both the leaves and stem of bamboos, and is held in solution in the 

 fluid contained in the growing stems of many species. This fluid is often limpid, 

 and a grateful drink when no other water is procurable in the forest, but as it djies 

 up it becomes milky, and finally deposits a cake of gelatinous opaline silica, at the 

 bottom of the joint, known as ' tabasheer,' possessing curious optical properties. 

 These little disks of ' tabasheer ' may often be picked up in a bamboo forest, after 



