IV USES—CUSTOMS—SUPERSTITIONS 33 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Eimpire, chap. xl.; Encyelo- 
pedia Britannica, Article, “ Silk”). 
There is one use which I would not recommend. One day 
in the north of China I was calling upon a French friend. I 
found him in his garden with a large gang of coolies, superin- 
tending the laying out of some new shrubberies and flower-beds. 
Knowing him to be ignorant of the language, I expressed my 
astonishment, and asked him how he managed to make them 
understand. “Ah! mon cher,” said the little man, shaking 
his cane viciously, “J’ai ici le meilleur interprete du monde 
—le Professeur Bambou.” Like some other interpreters, the 
Bamboo is apt in that capacity to lead to trouble. 
It is to be regretted that, however well we may succeed 
in the cultivation of Bamboos for pleasure and ornament, the 
plant which is so rich in economic value in its own country 
is not likely to prove useful here. I consulted a leading 
London umbrella and stick maker on the subject, and he 
told me that in his trade they were obliged even to eschew 
the canes of the South of France as insufficiently ripened, and 
consequently liable to split. It would seem, then, that we 
must be contented with the beauty of our plants and ask no 
more of them than they can give; but it is hard to think 
that out of so much wealth we cannot even achieve the 
humble triumph of an umbrella stick. 
In his Note sur la culture du Bambou et ses usages 
industries dans la région des Pyrénées et dans le sudouest 
de la France (1878) M. Calvert, sub-inspector of forests, 
gives some interesting particulars as to the success which has 
attended the venture started by M. Guillemin in 1861 at 
Gan in the Basses Pyrénées. 
D 
