BAMBUSA TESSELLATA or RAGAMOWSKI 
TuIs striking Bamboo belongs to the same type, as regards 
form, as BAMBUSA PALMATA and BAMBUSA VEITCHIL It is a 
very beautiful species, noteworthy as having the largest leaves 
of any of our hardy Bamboos. 
Munro described and named it, giving the genus as 
doubtful. Indeed his opportunities were limited, for as he 
himself says, “I have only seen the dried leaves of this 
species when sewn together and in the state so largely used 
by the Chinese in packing their tea.” 
The stem is about 24 feet high, round, and a little over 
half an inch in girth; the pipe exceedingly small, sometimes 
quite minute, hardly more than would admit a horse’s hair. 
At the top the stem is flattened. The nodes are so little 
prominent as to be hardly palpable to the touch ; indeed so 
remarkable is this, that at first sight one might be tempted 
to think that the long sheaths, which closely and persistently 
enwrap the stem, all spring from one node. If these are taken 
off with a penknife, the nodes appear at short distances of from 
1 to 2 inches, each bearing a long sheath encircling not only the 
stem but the lower parts of two or three sheaths immediately 
above it, so that the culm has the appearance of being thicker 
at the top than at the bottom, whereas the reverse is the case. 
