44 THE BAMBOO GARDEN > cara: 
indeed one of these, Thamnocalamus Falconeri, can scarcely 
be called hardy, though it flourishes in Cornwall and in 
Ireland. From the United States of North America we draw 
one species, Arundinaria macrosperma. The Andes (unless, 
indeed, Bambusa disticha should prove to be identical with 
Chusquea tessellata) and Africa have hitherto given us 
nothing. I shall call attention to their possibilities later on. 
The botanical distinctions between the inflorescence of 
the two genera Thamnocalamus and Arundinaria are so 
slight, that it seems probable that the two will ultimately 
be merged in one. But between these and the Bamboos of 
the Phylostachys group the differences are great and strike 
the eye at once, and it is, therefore, important to point them 
out. Leaving to skilled botanists the task of lifting the veil 
which still enshrouds the mysteries of flower and fruit, it 
may be said roughly that the main and more easily observable 
characteristics of the two sections are as follows :— 
In Arundinaria the stems are straight and round, the 
branches are partially verticillate, that is to say, they 
seem to nearly encircle the stem, and they appear almost 
simultaneously along the whole length of the cane as soon 
as its full growth has been attained, and not before. If 
anything, the lower branches are rather behind the middle 
and upper ones. 
In Phyllostachys, on the contrary, the branches begin to 
open out at the lower end of the stem a little while before 
the full growth in height has been attained, and gradually 
develop themselves upwards. The internode or merithal on 
the side on which the branches spring is grooved or 
channelled owing to the pressure of the branches (of which 
