CHAPTER Vi 
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES 
ALLUSION has already been made to the uncertain state of 
the nomenclature of the hardy Bamboos. Nor is this con- 
fusion to be wondered at. In the absence of flowers and 
fruit science has not declared herself, and the plants are 
named and sent out by nursery gardeners according to their 
own sweet fancy, and sometimes, though this may be an 
ill-natured suspicion, according to the state of their stock. 
For instance, I have written to various nursery gardeners 
for Phyllostachys bambusoides, P. viridi-glaucescens, P. vio- 
lescens, Arundinaria Fortunei, and another variety, I forget 
now which; in each case I received Arundinaria Simoni. 
I have known Phyllostachys mitis sent out for P. Quilioi, and 
have myself when asking for P. mitis been furnished with P. 
Quilioi, aurea, and viridi-glaucescens, with a few plants of 
the true P. mitis intermixed. Even at Kew Phyllostachys 
bambusoides was for years represented by a magnificent 
plant of P. viridi-glaucescens. Indeed, Phyllostachys bam- 
busoides presented itself to me in so many shapes, that I 
began to look upon it as the Mrs. Harris of Bamboos, and 
became as sceptical as to its existence as Betsy Prig. At 
last, in 1894, the true plant was received at Kew from 
