150 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
My plants, which have had four summers’ growth, are 
8 feet high. Their elders by a few years at Shrubland 
have grown to 14 feet, with a circumference in the culms of 
13 inch. 
An 8-foot culm shows the following characteristics : 
The circumference is all but 14 inch. The internodes 
are in length from 5 or 6 inches near the base and 
middle of the stem, lessening to 4 near the top. They are 
very distinctly grooved with the double furrow left by the 
pressure of the branches. The nodes, rimmed with dark 
blue green above and with a pale white below, are well 
defined. The colour is a bright green at first, ripening in the 
second year into a yellow rather less brilliant than in some 
species. The surface of the cane is rough to the touch. The 
wood is hard and tough, the cavity being about one-eighth 
of an inch in diameter, surrounded by walls of the same 
measurement in thickness. I find little or no trace of waxy 
bloom even under the nodes, where in other species it is most 
frequently seen. The culm sheaths have irregular transverse 
veinlets ; the ligule is rather long; the limbus narrow. The 
culm sheath, bright green when it first encircles the newborn 
stem, soon withers to a dull straw colour, is pushed aside by 
the branches and, having served its purpose, disappears. As 
in P. viridi-glaucescens, there are frequently three branches 
on each node, or, at any rate, on many of the nodes. The 
longest branch measures 20 inches, the second 11, the third 
a little more than 6. The bud scales, which are the embryo 
branches and branchlets, are enamelled pale green. The 
linear-lanceolate leaves are borne in twos and threes on the 
ends of the purplish branchlets. Their colour is a brilliant 
