334 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



parched for food. Nut-like seeds of another kind 

 are roasted. 



We must go into a tropical country, where 

 primitive people live, to see how many everyday 

 uses the bamboos can be put to. The great 

 naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, was amazed 

 at what he saw in Borneo, of the admirable 

 qualities and clever uses of the abundant reeds. 

 "Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straight- 

 ness, roundness, and hollowness, the facility and 

 regularity with which they can be split, their many 

 different sizes, the varying length of their joints, 

 the ease with which they can be cut and with 

 which holes can be made through them, their 

 hardness outside, their freedom from any pro- 

 nounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and 

 the rapidity of their growth and increase are all 

 qualities which render them useful for a hundred 

 different purposes, to serve which other materials 

 would require much more labor and preparation. 

 The bamboo is one of the most wonderful and 

 most beautiful productions of the tropics, and 

 one of Nature 's most valuable gifts to uncivilized 



man.' 



Then follows a long account of the Dyak houses, 

 built and furnished with useful articles, even to 

 cooking vessels, all of bamboo. The solid wall 



