BAMBUSA DISTICHA 
THis charming little Bamboo has hitherto been sent out 
by nurserymen under the name of BAMBUSA NANA, a title 
which belongs to a totally different and tender species 
described by Roxburgh. It has great beauty and most 
distinct characteristics, being quite unlike any other member 
of the family, and this alone would give it a claim to have 
a name all to itself without usurping one to which it has no 
right. I have therefore called it BAMBUSA DISTICHA, on 
account of the peculiar arrangement of the leaves, which are 
carried alternately in two vertical ranks all along the stem 
and branches. 
The culm, which is about 2 feet high, is green, rarely 
clouded with purple, round, fistulous, and zigzagged; it is 
very slender. The internodes are markedly variable in 
length, indeed, capriciously so, for I have seen before me a 
stem, in which an internode all but 3 inches in length is 
followed by one three-quarters of an inch long, while that 
again is followed by one which measures over 2 inches, whereas 
in most Bamboos the internodes, short at the base, lengthen 
towards the centre of the culm in regular progression, 
and grow shorter again as gradually: the nodes, without being 
very prominent, are well defined. The sheaths are downy at 
