106 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP, 
as many as seven or eight distinct branches of different 
lengths on one node, and these again are much ramified, 
the branchlets having several very short internodes. The 
branches being much longer than the internodes and very 
erect, the top of the culm appears in the distance to be 
verticillated, like some of the Arundinarias, from which, 
however, it differs in many points—notably in the grooved 
internodes, and in the deciduous character of the sheaths. 
These sheaths constitute one of the rare beauties of the 
plant. They are rather thick and felted on the outside, 
shaded with a beautiful purple colour until they are pushed 
aside by the young branches, wither, and fall off. But even 
in their death they are lovely, for the inner surface is stained 
a deep claret colour, with a glaze which would do honour to 
the finest specimens of Oriental pottery. The ligule is small 
and rather flat, fringed with delicate and very tiny silk hairs. 
The limbus is long and narrow. In a sheath before me it is 
3+ inches in length by one-eight of an inch wide. Ina green 
state both sheath and limbus are tessellated, but the cross 
veins are not to be detected after withering has taken place. 
The leaves are from 5 to 7 inches long by three-quarters of 
an inch to 1 inch in breadth, tapering to a sharp point, and 
markedly constricted at about an inch from the tongue-like 
end. The base of the leaf narrows rather gradually into a 
long and well-defined petiole. The veins are very closely 
tessellated and both edges serrated, but, as is the case with so 
many Bamboos, the teeth of the saw are far more prominent 
on one side than on the other. Both surfaces are smooth, 
though there is a microscopic felting, especially on the under 
face, which is roughly ribbed by the five or six secondary 
