ARUNDINARIA NITIDA 75 
China, into which region, as was first pointed out by Mr. 
H. I. Elwes, there is a marked extension of the Himalayan 
Flora. 
We are as yet without any knowledge of the height to 
which ARUNDINARIA NITIDA will ultimately grow. When it 
was first received at Kew it was about a foot high; in its 
second year it grew to 6 feet 6 inches; and now in its third 
year it has grown to 8 feet 6 inches. 
The culms are very slender, about a third of an inch in 
diameter, in their first year growing straight and rush-like, 
with somewhat prominent nodes about 3 inches, or rather 
more, apart. The sheaths are purple in colour, downy, with 
the ellipsoid ligule devoid of hairs; and the very narrow 
limbus or blade at the top of the sheath three-quarters of an 
inch in length, a bright green. The stem is surmounted by 
a tassel or plumelet of one, two, or three true leaves borne on 
the topmost sheaths. In the second year of the culm’s life 
the branches, generally four in number, one of them being a 
little longer than the others, break away from the axils of the 
sheaths, which then wither and fall off. Each branch, as a 
rule, bears four leaves. Up to this time the culm remains 
quite upright ; but in the third year innumerable branchlets, 
each in its turn bearing two or three leaves, are developed 
from the old branches, bearing down the stems in a perfect 
cascade of greenery all round the plant, and out of this 
fountain spring the culms of the previous year, overtopped 
again by the reedy stems of the new year, the whole forming 
a matchless picture of grace and elegance. 
The leaves are from 2 to 3 inches long by about half an 
inch wide. Nothing can exceed the brilliancy of their green, 
