I THE BAMBOO GARDEN 7 
the Bamboos in their own country, Messrs. Rivitre proceed to 
examine the phenomenon as it has been observed in Europe. 
It appears that in 1867 or 1868 flowers began to appear on two 
fine clumps of Arundinaria japonica (Bambusa Métaké) in the 
Bois de Boulogne ; at the same moment they were noticed on 
the same species in the nursery gardens of Messrs. Thibaut 
and Keteleer at Sceaux, at Marseilles, in the pleasure grounds 
of M. Paulin Talabot, and in other European collections. 
What is more strange is that the infection crossed the 
Mediterranean, for the plants of Arundinaria japonica in 
the Government gardens of the Hamma at Algiers flowered 
in concert with their European brethren; and not only did 
the whole of the canes, old as well as young, bear flowers 
together, but the very shoots as they showed above the soil 
were transformed into flowering stems. Yet were the plants 
not altogether killed, though weakened and exhausted by 
this exaggerated inflorescence. The new shoots were but 
from 3 to 4 inches high, and even these were covered with 
flowers. For a long time the plants remained paralysed. 
Still, careful nursing and coddling saved the few rhizomes 
which had resisted the epidemic ; the species was preserved, 
and in 1878 the canes had reached a height of from 10 to 
12 feet. In 1875 M. Carriére noted in the Revue Horticole 
the appearance in the autumn of that year of flowers on 
Arundinaria faleata’ in Brittany and Normandy. The plants 
at Angers, at Nantes, and in Algiers followed suit. In 
March and April 1876, those in the garden of the Luxem- 
! Under the description of THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI will be found 
my reasons for supposing that these plants which fiowered over France and 
in Algiers were THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI, and not ARUNDINARIA 
FALCATA. 
