GIANTS. 355 



hundred to twelve hundred feet." ^ The latter length 

 is given on the authority of Rumphius, but it is very- 

 difficult to obtain authentic records of the length to 

 which they will attain. It is not uncommon for the 

 ordinary species, the common " canes " which form 

 an article of commerce, to reach lengths varying 

 from three to five hundred feet, and yet with but 

 little increase of thickness through the entire length. 

 These climbing palms contribute much to produce 

 that character of impenetrable thicket which is so 

 peculiar to tropical forests. 



What, after all, are the bamboos but gigantic grasses. 

 They belong to the same family, and possess the 

 family likeness, growing in dense tufts, or tussocks, 

 with seeds resembling those of oats. They are natives 

 of tropical countries, where their uses are manifold. 

 " The bamboo, full grown, forms usually a more or 

 less developed stock, sometimes up to three feet high, 

 formed chiefly of old trunks of the dead haulms and 

 an entanglement of roots, from which ten to fifty, 

 and even up to a hundred haulms arise of the thick- 

 ness of one's arm to that of the human thigh, often 

 attaining upwards of one hundred and twenty feet 

 in height." " 



The rapidity of the growth of bamboo shoots has 



* Crawfurd's " Dictionary of Indian Archipelago," p. 364. 



* Kurz, " The Bamboo and its Use," p. 242. 



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