v ETYMOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS 55 
All those Bamboos, without a single exception, which have 
been proved to be thoroughly hardy in this climate have 
the veins of their leaves tessellated, that is to say, in chequers, 
crossing one another like the threads of a spider’s web or the 
meshes of a net. All those which have been relegated to 
the temperate house as tender or only half-hardy have the 
veins of their leaves striated, that. is to say, running in 
parallel lines from the base to the point. This characteristic 
may be seen with the naked eye by holding the leaf up to 
the light, but with a lens it is very distinct. Let me give 
instances. Of the Himalayan species up to the present in 
cultivation, Thamnocalamus Falconeri and Arundinaria falcata 
die down in winter, the latter, indeed, does so in its own 
country ; their leaf veins are striated. Arundinaria race- 
mosa, A. aristata, and Thamnocalamus spathiflorus are quite 
hardy ; their leaf veins are tessellated. Out of some forty 
Japanese species which I have tried, two only, namely, 
Suo-chiku (Bambusa Alphonse Karri of the French) and 
Taiho-chiku (B. vittata argentea), are very tender and not to 
be trusted; their leaf veins are striated. 
It would be, of course, idle to assert that every Bamboo 
which has tessellated leaf veins is hardy; indeed we know 
that there are many Bamboos with tessellated venation which, 
from their habitat, cannot be grown in this country. Only 
one thing is certain, viz. that no Bamboo introduced up to 
the present has proved hardy that has not such tessellation. 
It is a strange coincidence that Chamerops excelsa, the 
one Palm which is hardy in this country, has tessellated 
leaf veins. Latania borbonica, which is hardy in the South 
of France, has the leaf veins very slightly tessellated. I 
