II PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS Wy 
being left in its place continues its work of multiplication 
undisturbed. We have seen above that the lower knots, 
occurring at short intervals and barren of all ramification, 
are each furnished with verticillated roots and a reproductive 
bud ; indeed, the former may often be seen falling downwards 
to the earth in a little cascade all round the culm, sometimes 
burying themselves and rooting in the ground, at others 
remaining in an abortive or embryonic condition. This 
reproductive power may be turned to account by cutting the 
stem with a very sharp instrument as close to the rhizome 
as possible. The stem is then cut back and the lower 
nodes buried in a pot, allowing only the end of the last 
branchless internode to protrude. Slight warmth and 
moisture are all that is required to ensure rooting. The 
operation should be performed in the spring, and by 
the end of the year a new plant will have been ob- 
tained. 
4. PRopAGATION By Curtines or RuizomEs.—This is a 
very simple process. It takes place in the spring, and 
consists merely of lifting the rhizomes, cutting them into 
lengths of from 6 inches to 8 inches, which are planted at 
a depth of from 4 inches to 6 inches in good rich loam 
and copiously watered during the summer. Care should be 
taken to see that each length, which will have three or 
four knots, should be the growth only of the preceding year, 
containing living eyes or buds, for the older rhizomes are 
sterile, those buds which have not shot up into canes having 
withered still-born. It is therefore only the young rhizome 
which is reproductive. 
If the end to be attained be commercial the third and 
Cc 
