186 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
further triumphs. For as yet we have only touched the 
fringe of what we may hope to achieve in the decoration of 
our wilderness gardens with the grace of these Royal 
Grasses. 
When we consider that in Asia and in South America 
alike there are Bamboos, known hitherto only from the 
dried specimens in herbaria, growing at incredible altitudes 
—that among the Andes, for instance, there is one species, 
CHUSQUEA ARISTATA, which has been found at an elevation 
equal to the height of Mont Blanc,—we must believe, nay, 
we know that there is many a Sleeping Beauty only waiting 
till some lover shall carry her off from her mountain 
fastness, to awake under the faint but kindly rays of an 
English sun. 
It must, however, be remembered that altitudes in tropical 
climates by no means represent the same temperatures that 
they do in Europe. JI am assured that in Madras and 
Ceylon snow does not fall below a height of 9000 feet above 
sea-level ; that in Khasia it does not fall below 7000 feet, 
in Sikkim below 6000 feet, and that at a height of 5000 
feet the vegetation of Tenasserim is subtropical. But when 
these facts are discounted, it is still certain that the Hima- 
layas are full of treasures which we do not yet possess. In 
India, however, there are a Forestry department and Botanical 
Gardens, under the direction of men of science, and all the 
machinery for learned exploration, and shortly, it may be 
hoped, will appear Mr. Gamble’s great monograph on Indian 
Bamboos, published under the auspices of the Government, 
which will throw a totally new light upon the subject. It 
is safe to prophesy, therefore, that all that is to be found in 
