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XXXVII._ FLOWERING OF ARUNDINARIA 
FALCATA IN THE TEMPERATE HOUSE. 
J. S. GAMBLE. 
Recent visitors to the Temperate House may have noticed, 
in several places, the interesting event of the flowering of 
Arundinaria falcata, Nees, one of the small bamboos of the 
Western Himalaya. The drawings by Miss D. K. Hughes, which 
accompany this note, will give an idea of the flowers. They bring 
out the peculiar feature that the panicles from the lower nodes of 
the flowering culm are lax and much branching, while those 
from the upper nodes are of the ordinary fascicled type as is 
figured in Plate II of the ‘ Bambuseae of British India ’’ and in 
Fig. 199 of Sir Henry Collett’s “ Flora Simlensis.”” The clumps 
which have now flowered, all at the same time, are practically 
without leafy culms and will, presumably, die completely when 
the flowers are over. It is too soon to say whether or not they 
will afford ripe seed capable of giving plants to replace the old 
ones. 
The history of Arundinaria falcata and its confusion, in 
European nurseries and gardens, with another ‘species, A. Fal- 
coneri, was fully gone into in Dr. Stapf’s paper on “ Himalayan 
Bamboos”’ published in the ‘‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle’ in their 
numbers for May 14 and 21 and June 4, 1904, and need not 
again be recapitulated; but there is reason to think that, in 
spite of the question having been so fully cleared up, there are 
still to be found cases where the much more common and more 
hardy A. Falconerv is still called in error A. falcata. The present 
note and Miss Hughes’ pictures may therefore be of use. 
A. Falconert was figured in the Botanical Magazine for 1904 in 
Plate No. 7947, also in Plate 18 of the “‘ Bambuseae of British 
Tndia.”’ 
_ So far as is known at present, there are 4 species of 
Arundinaria in the North-Western Himalaya and A. falcata, 
Nees, is a comparatively low-level one found in moist valleys 
and ravines in the undergrowth chiefly of oak forests at from 
4000 to 7000 ft. elevation, rarely higher up. It has caespitose 
stems in close clumps and the culms are slender, up to 10 or 
15 ft. long and about half an inch in diameter. They are not 
much used, unless other stronger kinds are not available. They 
o not, as has sometimes been stated, die down every year, 
though, of course, in exceptionally cold winters those not fully 
protected by overhead cover may sometimes get cut back. 
This bamboo has been successfully grown at Dehra Dun, alt. 
2000 ft., also in the Nilgiri hills of South India at 6000 ft. In 
this country it can scarcely be called ‘“‘ hardy.” Lord Redesdale 
said that it would only do for the “ most favoured spots,” and 
Mr. Bean says that it is ‘“ only suitable for the mildest parts of 
