vI ARUNDINARIA FALCONERI 171 
sumptuous to call in question any statement issuing from 
so high an authority, but all the evidence seems to point 
to a mistake. 
As regards the hardiness of the species, Mr. Osborne 
writes as follows: ‘‘The above-named Bamboo (THAMNOCALA- 
MUS FALCONER!) throws up numerous canes here from 20 feet 
to 25 feet. I have often wondered at the reports in gardening 
papers in England of its sending up canes from 6 feet to 
8 feet high, but, unfortunately, I have learned the reason 
this season. We had an unprecedented sharp frost in 
January last (1894) which killed the tops of all the THAMNO- 
CALAMUS, with the result that instead of throwing up a few 
monster canes to the height mentioned, they have thrown up 
numerous small canes about 6 feet or 8 feet high around the 
old stools. It must take several years of very mild winters 
before they reach their usual strength. Many other Bamboos 
were not the least injured, as far as I could judge.’ The 
frost registered at Fota was 26° Fahrenheit below freezing 
point. From this it is evident that the species is not 
thoroughly to be depended upon even in the usually warm 
climate of the west of Ireland. How it fared in Devonshire 
and Cornwall, where there are, or were, many fine specimens, 
I have not heard. Messrs. Watson and Bean consider the 
BAMBUSA GRACILIS of the French cultivators to be identical 
with THAMNOCALAMUS FaLconeRI. I can detect no difference 
between the two. 
Mr. Bean did not find any plants of ARUNDINARIA FALCATA 
in any of the gardens which he visited in south Cornwall in 
1893. Of THAMNOcALAMUS FALCONERI he found magnificent 
specimens. 
