Ill 



But one of the most useful of all the genera of Oraminacem is that 

 of Bambusa, whose lofty hoUow stems, the common bamboo canes, 

 ai'e used for an infinite variety of purposes by the ingenious Chinese 

 and East Indians. The facility with which these hard wooded culms 

 split gives great scope to their useful applications, and the large size 

 of their internodes admits of many useful articles being formed from 

 them. They are used in building and furniture making, in the lightly 

 built Chinese dwellings ; they form admirable fences, and cut up for a 

 vast number of different uses. The one I exhibit is a spill-holder of 

 considerable diameter. Several smaller species form walking canes, 

 and the young shoots of all are pickled or preserved in sugar as a 

 suceade. A curious product called Tahasheer, supposed to have peculiar 

 prophylactic virtues, is secreted in the nodes ; it consists only of flint, 

 which mineral is secreted by most of the GraminacecB, and is generally 

 deposited on the stems in the form of a glossy varuish, as in the straw 

 of wheat and other cereals. 



ELEVENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 



Royal Institution, March 31st, 1856. 



WILLIAM IHNE, Esq., Ph.D., Vioe-Pbesident, in the Chau-. 



The following gentlemen were elected Ordinary Members ; — Mr. 

 John Grainger, B.A., and Mr. John Towne Danson, E.S.S. 

 The paper for the evening was 



UPON THE EXTRAORDINARY AND ABRUPT CHANGES OF 

 FORTUNE OF JASPER, EARL OF PEMBROKE, (AFTER- 

 WARDS DUKE OF BEDFORD) IN THE FIFTEENTH 



CENTURY. 



By EICHAED BROOKE, Esq., F.S.A. 



Jasper Tudob, Earl of Pembroke, often called Jasper of Hatfield, 



from the place of his birth, was a nobleman celebrated for his descent, 



and for the royal and illustrious alliances of his family. He was one 



of the noble personages who lived and distinguished himself in the 



fifteenth century, a period memorable in the history of England for 



foreign and domestic wars and civil dissentions, and for the strange 



mutations of fortune, which its princes and nobles were doomed to 



