246 



The Journal of Heredity 



above them are the spreading branches 

 or branch-Hke leaves. They agree in a 

 general way with one's conventional 

 idea of a tree. A bamboo grove, 

 however, is a different thing entirely. 

 It is a giant grass. Like a grass it 

 forms a perfect mat or sod of roots, 

 which completely fill the ground, and 

 like a grass this sod in the spring sends 

 up everywhere new young shoots which, 

 instead of starting out as miniature 

 forms of the trees they are to become — 

 growing slowly larger with each passing 

 year — come up full sized through the 

 ground, and they come with a rush, 

 raising the soil and cracking it as a 

 mole does. Often 4 inches in diameter, 

 these shoot skyward at the rate of a foot 

 a day, until they stand towering above 

 you 50 or 60 feet in the air. Put your 

 hand on one of these new shoots, green 

 as an asparagus shoot. If you shake 

 it, the top will snap off and fall down 

 on your head, so soft and brittle does it 

 remain until it has reached its full 

 height and spread out its delicate 

 branches of thin green leaves. 



On all sides, so close that you can 

 just walk between them, rise these 

 giant green canes, branchless for 20 or 

 30 feet. At every foot or two there 

 occurs a joint, like the joints on a tall 

 grass, and, like the grass, the lengths 

 between the joints — the intemodes — 

 are hollow. Each encloses a dead air 

 space, so completely shutting it in that, 

 if you heat the air by throwing a cane 

 into the fire, it will explode with a loud 

 report. 



The charm of a bamboo grove lies in 

 the friendly mystery of its shade, with 

 the green sunlight flickering through the 

 thin plumes of leaves on to the soft mat 

 of yellow dead leaves below. You 

 wander through such a grove, feeling 

 that you have never seen anything like 

 it before, and the quiet, fair^^-like 

 charm of it remains with you long after 

 you have gone away. 



As a landscape unit alone, therefore, 

 a grove of bamboos is worthy of the 

 widest popularity, and parks and open 

 places through the south should plant 

 them. I can imagine no more wonderful 



a place for little children to play in than 

 a bamboo grove. 



But there are other and more prac- 

 tical reasons for the widest possible 

 distribution of the bamboo throughout 

 the south. To begin with, its young 

 shoots furnish one of the most delicious 

 of early vegetables. In Japan and 

 China it plays a loading role among 

 spring vegetables, and one finds it on 

 the tables of the well-to-do Americans 

 and Europeans everywhere, as well as 

 on the Japanese menus. Properly 

 cooked, it has a freshness and flavor 

 which always reminds me remotely of 

 sweet corn, but its texture is firmer than 

 almost any other vegetable I am 

 familiar with. It comes into the market 

 in April and, being a good shipepr, it 

 should quickly win its proper place on 

 the American menu, where early vege- 

 tables are always a desideratum. In 

 Japan, the edible bamboo growers 

 make good money out of the sale of the 

 shoots — ^in fact, bamboo culture ranks 

 as one of the most profitable vegetable 

 industries of the country. I have 

 eaten American-grown bamboo shoots, 

 and those of my friends who have done 

 so have, without exception, liked them 

 extremely well. 



To speak of the timber uses of the 

 bamboo is a good deal like speaking 

 of the timber uses of tlie pine, except 

 that the qualities of the two are en- 

 tirely distinct. The peculiar proper- 

 ties of the bamboo come from the fact 

 that the trunks are composed of short, 

 hollow cylinders, making them the 

 lightest timbers for their strength of 

 any known. The fibers run from end 

 to end, making it possible to split a 

 bamboo pole into strands or strips more 

 easily than any other wood. These 

 fibers are among the strongest, most 

 elastic known, and it is the bewilder- 

 ment of Occidentals visiting Japan to 

 see how many are the uses of this 

 peculiar timber. 



For ladders, their lightness and 

 strength render the poles remarkably 

 well adapted; there are no fruit-picking 

 ladders which compare with them. 

 For fishing poles, the small canes are 



