v ETYMOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS 53 
and the sheaths, having played their part as protectors and 
being no longer wanted, drop off. At first they adhere to the 
internode so closely that you cannot tear them apart. When 
they are gone, the channelling of the stem on the side on 
which the branchlets grow is distinctly visible. Soon the 
leaves appear, and the plant is arrayed in all its beauty. As 
the wood ripens its texture becomes more compact and the 
circumference contracts. In some six weeks the culm has 
grown to its full size. Neither in height nor in bulk will 
succeeding years add aught to it; branches and foliage will 
be more dense, and the rootstock will grow until the plant 
has reached its utmost capabilities. Next year’s stems will 
be taller and stouter; their elder brother may grow no more. 
In the Arundinarias, as has been already remarked, the 
growth is different. The sheaths do not begin to loosen 
their hold in order to make way for the growth of the 
branchlets until the full height of the culm has been attained. 
The ramification is almost simultaneous throughout the 
length of the cane, though the upper branches often are 
a little ahead of the others. In fact, the development is 
downwards, rather than upwards as it is in the Phyllo- 
stachoides. The sheaths often do not drop off until the second 
year. 
One phenomenon described by Messrs. Rivicre in the 
early life of the canes is so wonderful that I cannot but note 
it. In Algiers every year at the moment when the buds are 
formed, particularly in the cases of Bambusa macroculmis, 
B. Hookeri, B. vulgaris, and Phyllostachys mitis, the soil 
is hardened by the long droughts peculiar to the climate ; 
but round the plants the earth begins to show signs of 
