CHAPTER II 
PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS 
THE following observations are taken almost entirely from 
Messrs. Riviére’s very able treatise. Personally I have had 
but a very limited experience in Bamboo propagation. Nor 
indeed, for obvious reasons, climatic and other, is it very 
likely that it will ever be a successful industry in most parts 
of this country, though if seed could be obtained it would 
not be a difficult matter. In Cornwall, however, and other 
favoured localities where the climate is not very different 
from that of Japan, and where it follows that root action 
must be far more free than it is in the Midlands, I have little 
doubt that the methods recommended by Messrs. Riviere 
might be followed with most profitable results by nursery 
gardeners. There is a large and growing demand for the 
plants; they are expensive and difficult to obtain—in many 
instances we are compelled to seek them in foreign nurseries— 
and I feel sure that any enterprising man, taking advantage 
of the rare opportunities afforded by the conditions of soil 
and climate in the far west of our island, and in parts of 
Treland, would reap a rich harvest by starting this new 
industry. To send to Japan, or even to the South of France, 
for plants is an expensive and risky process. Why should 
