8 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
bourg, even the specimens in pots, did the same. Mr. 
Osborne, gardener to Mr. Smith-Barry at Fota Island, Co. 
Cork, writes me word that his plants of Thamnocalamus 
Falconeri, then named Arundinaria falcata, flowered and 
fruited the same year. His diary for 11th August 1876 
records the gathering of Bamboo seeds. A third instance 
has been recorded in the case of Phyllostachys flexuosa. 
It was in the garden of the Hamma at Algiers that the 
flowers first made their appearance in the month of February 
1876. In the month of May following they were observed 
at Toulon in M. Turrel’s garden, and in July in Messrs. 
Thibaut and Keteleer’s nursery at Sceaux and in the Jardin 
d’Acclimatation in Paris. Allowance being made for the 
difference of climate, it is evident that these plants practically 
flowered together. In these three species it was remarked 
that immediately before flowering the leaves turned yellow, 
withered, and fell off, to be replaced by the inflorescence. 
Now comes the question whether it is to be taken as 
proven that the Bamboo after flowering and fruiting 
necessarily dies. Some eminent botanists, as we have seen, 
have described the death of whole forests of Bamboos from 
this cause; others hold a contrary opinion, notably Dr. 
Anderson, who observed the exhaustion of the plant after 
flowering, but saw the new growth spring from the roots. 
In the cases recorded above of the flowering of Arundinaria 
falcata (or Thamnocalamus Falconeri) and Arundinaria 
japonica, the canes died, but new buds came from the 
roots. In the case of Phyllostachys flexuosa, new stems 
came in the same way. It is true that the plants suffered 
greatly from exhaustion, but they did not perish. 
