EUCALYPTUS TREES. A401 
advances to an elevation of 15,000 feet on the Andes 
of Quito, indeed, to near the zone of perpetual ice, 
Arundinaria falcata, A. racemosa, and A. spathiflora, 
live on the Indian Highlands, at a zone between 10,- 
000 feet and 11,000 feet, where they are annually 
beaten down by snow. Wemay further recognize the 
great importance of these plants when we reflect on — 
their manifest industrial uses, or when we consider 
their grandeur for picturesque scenery, or when we 
observe their resistance to storms or heat, or when we 
watch the marvellous rapidity with which many devel- 
- op themselves. Their seeds, though generally only in 
long intervals produced, are valued in many instances 
higher than rice. The ordinary great Bamboo of In- 
dia is known to grow 40 feet in 40 days, when bathed 
in the moist heat of the jungles. The Bourbon Bam- 
boo forms an impenetrable sub-alpine belt, of extra- 
ordinary magnificence in yonder island. One of the 
Tesserim Bambusas rises to 150 feet, with a diameter 
of the mast-like cane sometimes measuring fully one 
-foot. * The great West Indian Arthrostylidium is 
sometimes nearly as high, and quite as columnar in 
its form, while the Dendrocalamus at Pulo Geum is 
equally colossal. The Platonia Bamboo, of the high-~ 
est wooded mountains of Parana, sends forth leaves 
15 feet in length, and 1 foot in width, Arundinaria 
macrosperma, as far north as Philadelphia, rises still 
in favorable spots to a height of nearly forty feet. 
Through perforating, with artistic care, the huge canes, 
of various bamboos, musical sounds can be melodious- 
ly produced, when the air wafts through the groves, 
and this singular fact may possibly be turned to prac- . 
tice for checking the deyastations from birds on many 
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