DESCRIPTIONS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 197 



seem to have a very narrow range, and there are only 

 two genera common to both hemispheres. 



Uses. — The mere enumeration of the uses of the Bam- 

 busese would fill many pages. They are especially in- 

 dispensable to the inhabitants of India and Eastern 

 Asia. Their uses are more limited in South America. 

 In building houses the thicker trunks are used as posts 

 and beams, and the weaker ones, when split, for filling 

 up the walls and for laying the floors. [For this purpose 

 they are split longitudinally and then pressed out flat. 

 In this condition they consist of narrow united strips, 

 forming planks which may be 90 cm. broad.] The in- 

 ternodes cut in two longitudinally are used for tiles. 

 Bamboo houses are durable, graceful, and, because they 

 are airy, are especially healthful. In China all the 

 theatres are built of bamboo. Huts for temporary resi- 

 dents are very rapidly constructed from them. Both 

 hanging and floating bridges of bamboo are in common 

 use, especially in the Malayan Archipelago. Water 

 conductors are constructed either by cutting the stem 

 in halves longitudinally, or by breaking through the 

 cross-walls at the nodes. Floats made from bamboos 

 are, on account of their containing air, capable of carry- 

 ing an extraordinary load, and, for the same reason, the 

 outrigging in the boats of the Zeylanese are made of 

 bamboos. Slender culms serve for poles to support the 

 betel-nut, beans and other climbing cultivated plants 

 (they are even imported into Europe for the same pur- 

 pose), and the stronger ones for palisades. From many 

 species, especially the thorny ones, impenetrable, liv- 

 ing hedges, and even works of defence, are constructed. 

 Almost all the furniture of the Malays, Burmese, etc., 

 is made from bamboos, and even in Europe bamboo is 

 beginning to be imported for the manufacture of furni- 

 ture. A single internode of a large species, in which 

 both separating walls have been left and only one bored 

 through, serves for a water-pail in which the water re- 

 mains very pure. A dozen or more of these water- 

 buckets stand in every Malayan house. While still 

 full of sap these internodes are even used as cooking 



