I THE BAMBOO GARDEN 9 
On the whole, modern opinion appears to incline to the 
belief that the older botanists and travellers came to rather 
hasty conclusions in this matter, which could only be 
determined by protracted observations on the spot. For 
instance, take St. Hilaire’s case of the vanished forest of 
Toboca. What happened in the ensuing season? Were the 
plants renewed? There is nothing to show. How are the 
forests renewed? Hardly by seed, for the seed falling on a 
soil encumbered with the remains and roots of the dead 
plants would scarcely find the nourishment essential to its 
successful germination. Moreover, experience shows that 
even in the wildest nature one kind of tree, if destroyed, 
is followed by another totally different species. Is it not 
more probable that, given the wonderful powers of vegetation 
under the conditions of tropical rain and sun, the rhizomes 
having preserved some degree of vitality should quickly 
replace the dead by living canes? Sir Joseph Hooker, in 
a passage of his Himalayan Journals quoted below in 
Chapter IV., distinctly states that the small Bamboo Praong 
sends up many flowering branches from the root, and “after 
maturing its seed and giving off suckers from the root, the 
parent plant dies.” That is the point—“afler giving off 
suckers from the root.” Surely this is strong evidence in 
favour of the theory that the Bamboos generally do not 
reproduce themselves solely by seed. If we consider what 
‘a stemless particle of Squitch root will do in our climate, it 
needs no great effort of the imagination to realise the rampant 
power of growth in the rhizomes of these monstrous Couch 
Grasses in the Tropics, or in those countries, like China and 
Japan, where the rainy season occurs during the great heats 
