392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1957 



mens or bizarre topiary effects. The dwarf habit is sought especially 

 in connection with the production of miniature gardens, though many 

 dwarfed specimens are cultivated individually in pots or trays 

 solely for exhibition. 



Dwarfness may be a natural state related to genie constitution, 

 or it may be the result of cultural treatments involving controlled 

 watering and restricted nutrition. Certain devices are employed for 

 simulating the dwarf habit by more direct methods to avoid spending 

 the time required for bona fide dwarfing. Sometimes a bamboo culm 

 of large dimensions is separated from its mother clump, cut down to 

 a short stump, and transferred to a suitable pot just before new 

 growth starts. The ensuing growth is greatly reduced from the 

 normal size, and the presence of the stump itself is considered, by a 

 certain school of gardeners and plant fanciers, to enhance the artistic 

 merit of the general effect. This treatment is usually practiced with 

 bamboos of the clump type of growth, where the new shoots originate 

 from the base of the mother culm. 



Another method is used with bamboos of the running type, in 

 which the new culms normally arise from lateral buds of the slender 

 horizontal underground rhizome. A young section of the rhizome 

 with dormant buds is dug up and set upright or at a slight inclination 

 from the vertical, in a suitable receptacle, with the basal 3 or 4 inches 

 covered with soil. The exposed portion soon turns green in response 

 to light. The buds that develop under the soil produce greatly re- 

 duced culms, while those that develop above the soil send out short 

 leafy branches. The net effect of the small stature of the slender 

 culmlike rhizome with its short internodes is a deceptive appearance 

 of dwarfness that is often very pleasing to the uninitiated. To the 

 expert, be he professional or amateur, this device is but an obvious 

 humbug. 



In another procedure, the culm sheaths, which normally protect the 

 tender growing part of the young culm, are removed prematurely. 

 As a result, elongation of the culm is stopped. Plants of a naturally 

 small stature, and of either type of growth, may be used for this 

 treatment. 



Where the climate is sufficiently warm, young plants started from 

 depauperate offshoots of a dwarf form of Bambusa multiplex make 

 most satisfactory subjects for tray gardens and miniature mountain 

 landscapes. Bamboos having naturally some bizarre character, such 

 as the shortening of the internodes that occurs in Phyllostachys aurea, 

 Bambusa ventricosa, and B. vulgaris, for example, or the square form 

 of internodes and prominent spiny nodes in Chimonobamhusa quad- 

 rangularis, or the green-striped golden culms characteristic of certain 

 horticultural forms of Bambusa vulgaris, B. multiplex, and Phyllo- 

 stachys bambusoides, are given special attention in gardens. 



