9 
N19 190 
1A 
LIBRARY 
NEW YORK 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN, 
PREFACE 
Tus little book has no scientific pretensions. It is simply 
an attempt to give a descriptive list, what the French call 
a catalogue raisonné, of the hardy Bamboos in cultivation in 
this country, and to focus such information in regard to them 
as could be obtained from Japanese as well as from European 
sources, and was therefore not readily available to the general 
public. Some of the matter has already appeared in a series 
of articles which I published last year in the Garden news- 
paper; but all of these have been revised and corrected, 
while the descriptions of species have been almost entirely 
rewritten. The task has not been an easy one, and would 
have been impossible but for the very kind encouragement 
and assistance which I have received from Sir Joseph Hooker 
and Mr. Thiselton Dyer, the director of Kew Gardens. I 
have also to acknowledge the help so cordially given by 
Messrs. Nicholson, Watson, and Bean of Kew Gardens. The 
latter gentleman’s articles on Hardy Bamboos which appeared 
in the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1894 contain much valuable 
information. Some of the chief growers of Bamboos in this 
country, notably Lord Annesley, Lord de Saumarez, Sir 
Edmund Loder, the Right Hon. A. Smith-Barry, M.P., and 
Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly have very kindly communicated 
