118 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
mine are young plants. Messrs. Rivicre have made most 
interesting experiments on the growth of Bamboos, of which 
they give tables. The maximum growth of an adult plant 
of PHYLLOSTACHYS MITIS during twenty-four hours in 
Algiers was 20 inches! They note that PHYLLOSTACHYS 
MITIS makes its chief growth during the night, whereas 
the other plants of similar habit, such as P. VIRIDI-GLAU- 
CESCENS, AUREA, NIGRA, etc., grow fastest under the influence 
of sunlight and are more sluggish at night. The marvellous 
power of growth which Bamboos possess is shown by the 
fact that in Bengal BAMBuUSA TULDA has been known to grow 
as much as three centimetres (upwards of 14 inch) during an 
hour! 
PHYLLOSTACHYS MITIS shows in a marked degree all those 
features which are characteristic of the family to which it 
belongs. In a mature stem for the first few feet from the 
ground the internodes are round, for the lower nodes being 
barren of branches there is no pressure of the bud under the 
sheath to cause the groove with its two depressions which 
on the higher internodes leave the impress of two twin 
branches—the one short, the other long—their two beds in the 
groove being marked by a distinct ridge. If there be a third 
branchlet it is but an embryo, and generally disappears as 
soon as it is developed. The sheaths enwrap the culm in all 
its length until it is nearly developed, when the lower branches 
first set the example of starting out and throwing off their 
guardians. Gradually all the sheaths are forced away, and 
the stem is clothed from top to toe in its graceful frondage. 
The sheaths are tessellated, ending in a narrow fringed ligule 
with a limbus, which, varying much in size, is narrow and 
