28 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
providential benefit during the prevalent scarcity.” Mr. 
Gray, writing from ‘“Malda in 1866, says, “In the south 
district, throughout the whole tract of country, the Bamboo 
has flowered, and the seed has been sold in the bazaar at 
thirteen seers (26 lbs.) for three rupees, rice being ten seers, 
the ryots having stored enough for their own wants in 
addition. Hundreds of maunds (the maund being 100 Ibs.) 
have been sold in the English bazaar at Malda, and large 
quantities have been sent to Sultangunge and other places 
25 to 30 miles distant, showing how enormous the supply 
must have been.” Mr. Gray adds, “The Bamboo harvest 
has been quite providential, as.the ryots were on the 
: Ds Des 
point of starving. 
Sir Joseph Hooker in his Himalayan 
Journals, p. 107 (ed. 1891) says: “The young shoots of 
several (Bamboos) are eaten, and the seeds of one are made 
into a fermented drink, and into bread in times of scarcity ; 
but it would take many pages to describe the numerous 
purposes to which the various species are put.” His account 
of the ingenious way in which his Lepcha servants used to 
improvise huts and furniture on his travels in little more 
than an hour, with no handier tool than a long knife, is most 
curious and interesting. Near the top of a pass from the 
Teesta to the great Rungeet he found “a plant of Praong (a 
small Bamboo) in full seed; this sends up many flowering 
branches from the root and but few leaf-bearing ones, and 
after maturing its seed and giving off suckers from the root, 
the parent plant dies. The fruit is a dark, long grain, like 
Rice ; it is boiled and made into cakes, or into beer like 
Murwa” (Jd. p. 220). 
1 Munro, p. 4. 
