VI PHYLLOSTACHYS FLEXUOSA 137 
I trust that I may be forgiven for borrowing in so 
barefaced a manner from Messrs. Riviere. It has been their 
good fortune to fall in with an unique experience, which 
their talent and knowledge have enabled them to describe 
with singularly lucid felicity ; but, unfortunately, their book 
is not available to all English lovers of Bamboos, upon whom 
I was anxious that so interesting an observation should not 
be lost. Above all, I would call special attention to the 
vitality-of the plant after flowering as evidence in favour of 
the opinion that the rhizomes are not in all cases killed by 
the process. 
For horticultural purposes PHYLLOSTACHYS FLEXUOSA 
may be described as an ornamental Bamboo of neat and 
compact habit ; not a dwarf, yet far smaller than most of its 
congeners ; presenting all the characteristics of the Phyllo- 
stachys group—a slightly zigzagged, gracefully arching stem, 
bearing at the nodes two branches, one long and one short, 
not more flexible—maugre its name—than others of the genus. 
The colour of the stem is bright green, fading as it ripens 
into a dull greenish yellow. The scale buds resemble those 
of P. auREA. The foliage is hardly to be distinguished from 
that of P. VIRIDI-GLAUCESCENS. The culm sheaths, however, 
differ materially from those of that species in lacking the 
little ear-like membranes which the latter exhibit on either 
side of the ligule flanking the limbus. The rhizome is fairly 
active, though not so rampant as in P. VIRIDI-GLAUCESCENS. 
This moderation of behaviour as regards invading the territory 
of other plants, combined with a stature which is hardly 
likely to exceed 8 feet in this country, 3 metres being its 
height in warmer climates, render P. FLEXUOSA a valuable 
