VII FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 187 
the Himalayas fitting our climate will before very long be 
available. 
The exploration of the Andes is a less hopeful matter. 
They are rich in species with tessellated leaves, growing at 
heights of from 4000 to 15,000 feet above the sea-level, and 
assuredly they should be laid under contribution. The great 
difficulty will be, that in the absence of great botanical 
establishments, such as those of India, the burthen must 
more or less fall upon private shoulders. 
Africa is, so far as we at present know, a less promising 
field for the collection of hardy Bamboos ; but it must be 
borne in mind that the chief authority to which we have to 
look is still General Munro’s monograph, which appeared in 
1866, when the Dark Continent was still a mysterious fable- 
land. It is probable that since the European powers have 
penetrated its most hidden recesses many botanical secrets, 
as rich and as hidden as the gold which has so recently been 
discovered, will be brought to lght. 
A short while ago I believed that we had already 
exhausted the resources of China and Japan. But since then 
we know that one species certainly, ARUNDINARIA NITIDA, 
and probably two others, A. ANCEPS and <A. NOBILIS, must 
be referred to that source. Both the Chinese and Japanese 
are excellent gardeners and cultivators, trained by heredity 
in the art of improving and adapting wild plants to the needs 
of their civilisation. From time immemorial they have been 
engaged in ransacking their native forests and mountains 
for the enrichment of their pleasure grounds, and it seemed 
to me most unlikely that such sharp eyes should have passed 
by any species of conspicuous merit in a genus which in 
