114 CHAPTER XV. 



service of feeding fowls or sweeping floors : it has 

 decked the helmet of the Plantagenets, and sailed the 

 seas at the mast-head of Van Tromp and De Ruyter. 



Durra is classed near to Andropogon, a south 

 European and subtropical genus, of which half-a-dozen 

 species are figured by Moggridge in his " Flora of 

 Mentone." In the valley of the Zambesi the Xegro 

 Corn rises to a height of fifteen feet. 



The Bamboo (Bambusa), even in this climate, 

 grows much thicker and stronger than the Arundo ; 

 but we can form no idea on the Riviera of the size 

 and beauty of this arborescent grass. On the Malabar 

 coast it is said to reach a height of one hundred feet, 

 with a circumference of twenty-nine inches. The 

 botanical name of this giant species is Dendrocalamus. 

 Those who have visited the tropics know to how 

 many uses the wood is put. 



When well watered the stems run up very 

 rapidly. A newspaper correspondent writes thus 

 jocularly from Japan : "One morning we discern a 

 tiny pointed green shoot in the grass : by evening it 

 is well above the ground : in twenty-four hours it 

 would make a respectable walking stick ; and if you 

 should be so ill advised as to hang your hat on it at 

 night, you could not reach it in the morning." That 

 beats Jonah's Gourd ! 



The Bamboo hardly ever flowers on the Riviera.* 

 It flowers rarely even in the countries where it is 



* The Bamboo flowers occasionally at Mortola : the flowering causes 

 it to die. At Kewa special part of the gardens has latterly been devoted 

 to Bamboos and Arundos. It is astonishing to see at least fifty species 

 growing in the open air. In China, Ceylon, and Java the young shoots of 

 the Bamboos are commonly eaten. T. H. 



