CHAP. VI PHYLLOSTACHYS NIGRA 143 
worth of those qualities which give it a patent of nobility in 
the plant world. And if it be shown in a position where the 
black stem, contrasting so finely with the dark green and 
glaucous shimmering of the leaves, is well brought into view, 
lording it over a fairy court of Solomon’s Seal, Foxglove, tall 
Ferns, Loosestrife, and such like woodland beauties whose 
name is legion, each enhancing the other, its loveliness is 
made for memory. 
Both in the greenhouse and in the open this Bamboo has 
each year been the first with me to show signs of growth, 
and by the middle of April I have generally found piercing 
the ground many little brown cones, fringed with white hairs 
and tipped with tiny green tongues. Slowly at first, and 
gradually faster, the culm sheaths enfolding one another are 
drawn up until the full height has been reached, when the 
twin branches, rejecting their protectors, force them aside, 
and the olive green stem, darkest under the nodes, is revealed, 
slightly zigzagged, tapering to a gracefully bending point. 
The nodes are a conspicuous feature ; the upper rim is deep 
black, the lower rim edged with white. In the second year 
the colour of the culm changes to the characteristic glossy 
black from which the species takes its name. The culm 
sheaths are rather thick and dark in colour, with a few easily- 
distinguished cross veins. The upper side of the edges, 
which overlap one another for most of their length, is fringed 
with hairs-—a protection against water which is not necessary 
where the sheaths completely encircle the stem. The ligule is 
well defined, darker in colour than the rest of the sheath, and 
much fringed. The limbus, which varies in size, lengthening 
on the upper parts of the stem, is serrated, narrow, rather 
