8 COLONEL MUNRO'S MONOGRAPH OF TIIK BAMRUSACE^. 



Thomson on Sint^alolah, a mountain on the Ishimho pass, hetwoon Eastern Nojial and 

 Sikkim, at an elevation of 11,000 feet. The distribiitiou of many of these AniudhutricB 

 seems to he liinited mon* l)y elevation than liy any other cause. At the same time I 

 would observe that at least three or four species appear to be peculiar to Ceylon, one to 

 the Neilgherries, and one or two to Ilonf? Kong. Jameson mentions that Clninqiiea 

 aristata, IMunro, makes its first appearance at 13,000 feet elevation on the eastern chain of 

 the Andes, and that at 15,000 feet it completely covers the whole surface, forming what 

 the natives call a " Carizal," impenetrable to man or beast, and continuing upwards to 

 nearly the limits of perpetual snow. It is certainly very curious that a tessellated Chus- 

 qnoa should attain this great elevation on the Andes, and a tessellated Artmdinaria 

 should occur nearly as high in the Himalayas. 



The whole of the eight genera of the berry-bearing Bamboos are to be found only 

 in the East, some species of the genera Cephalostachyum, Dendroculciinus, and JPseu- 

 dostochuinn attaining considerable elevations. Of true Bamboos, Guadna (if it is a good 

 genus) is confined entirely to America, and the whole of the other species of this 

 division, with the sole exception mentioned above of Bamhma vulgaris, are confined to 

 Africa and the East. I have only seen one uncultivated Bamboo from Africa in flower ; 

 and that Avas found in Angola by Dr. Welwitsch, and is most probably the same as 

 Banihusa abijssinica of Kichard. Ruprecht certainly describes B(t)iihi(fia capoisis, and 

 Burchell's herbarium contains one good specimen in flower ; but I believe this is a 

 cultivated plant, pvol)ably introduced from India, called Bambusa vulgaris l)y Nees, and 

 idcmtical with Bambnua Balcooa of Roxburgh. I have also seen some leaves of a species 

 of Aru/ndinaria from the Cape, called by Nees Nastus tessellatus. Elacourt mentions 

 that a whole province of Madagascar is called Galembulu, from a species of Bamboo 

 called Bulu which is prevalent there ; and Ellis also, in his book on Madagascar, says 

 that four very beautiful diffei'ent kinds of Bamboo contribute much, by the extreme 

 elegance of their growth, to the beauty of the scenery in that island. 1 have, through 

 the kindness of M. Brongniart, been permitted to examine the Baml)f)os collected in 

 Madagascar, belonging to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, containing 

 flowering specimens of three species, which are, strange to say, all berry-bearing 

 Bamboos. One of them is marked " Voulou of the natives," and is probably the same 

 as the Bulu referred to by Elacourt. It is Beesha ? capitata, Munro, Nastus cajntatus of 

 Kunth. Another is a new species of Cejjhalostachgum, a genus found in the Eastern 

 Himalaya and Tenasserim. And the third is a slender one which I had pi-eviously 

 named Schizostdchijum parvifoHum, from a specimen collected by (Jerrard. It is 2irobably 

 the ])lant described by Ellis as " an elegant slender creeper, with a stem scarcely as 

 thick as a quill, growing 9 to 10 feet long, and hanging in most elegant festoons from 

 tree to tree alongside of the roads." I have seen from the Mauritius Nastus borboiiicus, 

 which Bory describes as covering a vast extent of country in the higher portions of the 

 island, also Metocanna bambusoides and Bambtisa vulgaris. Numerous species are found 

 in Ceylon and India, and the most gigantic of all in Tenasserim and the islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago. A specimen of the stem of Deinh'ocalamus gigaiifeus (Banibusa 

 gigantea, 'VVallich), in the British Museum, received from I'ulo Geum, measures 25f 



