CHAP THR V. 
ETYMOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS 
Ltymology 
PROBABLY the first European author in whose writings any 
allusion is to be found to the giant Grasses is Ctesias, who 
has a story of Indian canes big enough to be used as boats. 
Colonel Yule brands this as one of the writer’s “biggest 
bounces.” No doubt Ctesias did often draw a very long bow. 
But then it must be remembered that he never was in India, 
and that his book was based upon hearsay picked up at the 
Court of Persia four hundred years B.c., when he was private 
physician to King Artaxerxes Mnemon. 
Colonel Yule’s article on the word Bamboo in his Glossary 
of Anglo-Indian Words (J. Murray, 1886) is most interesting 
and curious. It would seem as if it were fated that some 
mystery should enshroud everything connected with these 
plants. Their very name is as great a puzzle to etymologists 
as their different species are a riddle to botanists. The word 
Bamboo, says Colonel Yule, 
One of the commonest in Anglo-Indian daily use, and thoroughly 
naturalised in English, is of exceedingly obscure origin. According 
to Wilson, it is Canarese Banbu. Marsden inserts it in his dictionary 
as good Malay. Crawfurd says it is certainly used on the west coast 
