ARUNDINARIA NITIDA 
By far the daintiest and most attractive of all its genus, 
ARUNDINARIA NITIDA possesses the additional advantage of 
quite exceptional hardihood. Indeed it may be said to have 
been the hero of the dire months of January and February 
1895; for in the latter half of March, when the frost at last 
yielded, while almost all the other Bamboos had their leaves 
scorched to a dirty hay colour, this brave little plant was as 
green and fresh and valiant as ever. 
The story of this lovely species is somewhat curious. 
When the Bamboo Garden was being formed at Kew, Mr. 
Bean came across it in Messrs. Veitch’s collection at Combe 
Wood, where it was then named BAMBUSA NIGRA, from which 
(a Phyllostachys), of course, it is absolutely distinct. At 
that time the only Arundinaria known to have black stems 
was the Himalayan A. KHAsIANA, and with this species, which 
had been somewhat perfunctorily described by Munro (though 
indeed, in justice, it must be said that he called attention to 
its striated venation and to its similarity to A. FALCATA), 
the plant now under notice was conjecturally identified. As 
ARUNDINARIA KHASIANA, accordingly, it was described by Mr. 
Bean in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and by myself in the 
Garden. Attention, however, was called to the subject by 
