DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES 259 
The clumps are usually from 1 to 3 meters in height, the culms 
up to 2 centimeters in diameter. The culms may be 5 meters in 
length but when long are usually much bent. The leaves are 
from 3 to 10 centimeters long and whitish in appearance. This 
species is planted for ornamental purposes and in some parts 
of Manila is used as a hedge plant. The stems are used for 
fishing rods. 
BAMBUSA MERRILLI! Gamble. 
This species is known only from collections from the Caraballo 
Sur mountain ranges in Nueva Vizcaya, where it grows in 
forests at an altitude of about 600 meters. 
It is an erect straggling species about 18 meters in height. 
See Plate IV. 
BAMBUSA SPINOSA Roxb. (B. blumeana Schultes f.). SPINY BAMBOO. 
Local names: Dugian, kabugdwan, marurigi, rugian (Bikol); ka- 
wayan, kawdyan totdo (i. e. true bamboo), kawdyan tinik (Tagalog) ; 
aon-o, batdkan, paua, kawdyan-gid (Bisaya); kawdyan si-itan (Iloko) ; 
bayog (Zambales); lam-nuan (Isinai); baugin (Pampanga); pasingan 
(Cagayan); cana espina (Spanish). 
This bamboo is the one to which the name kawayan is most 
frequently applied. It is found throughout the settled areas of 
the Philippines at low and medium altitudes, and is apparently 
always planted, there being no valid reason for considering it 
a native of the Archipelago. This bamboo was apparently pur- 
posely introduced at an early date. Spiny bamboo, as well as 
the other large, probably introduced species, has been cultivated 
quite extensively in clearings which have since been abandoned, 
so that considerable areas are now covered by virtual forests 
of this species. Spiny bamboo offers considerable possibilities 
as a valuable reforestation crop. 
Spiny bamboo reaches a height of about 25 meters and a 
culm diameter of 20 centimeters. The internodes are usually 
hollow, and from 40 to 60 centimeters in length. The culms 
have thick walls, becoming progressively thicker toward the 
lower part of the culm. It occasionally happens that the lower 
internodes are so thick walled that they become almost or quite 
solid. The stem contains a large amount of silica and sometimes 
an internode is completely filled with a hard, white, siliceous 
mass, which damages any instrument used in cutting it. This 
bamboo is rarely found in flower and the interval between 
flowering periods is not known. It is by far the most commonly 
used bamboo in the Philippines, being prized above all others by 
the Filipinos for building purposes on account of its great 
strength and durability. It is distinguished from all other spe- 
