GIANT GRASSES. 115 



indigenous. The flower approaches nearer to the 

 Lily type than do most grasses ; it is hexandrous, 

 like rice (Oryza), and has a whorl of three lodicules. 



It is a remarkable fact that when at last the 

 plant comes into flower, it does so at the same precise 

 moment all over Europe, Africa, and India ! In 

 1868 the flowers appeared on plants as far apart as 

 Paris and Marseilles, and the Government Gardens 

 of the Hamma in Algiers. Moreover, the Bamboo 

 dies down after flowering, and generally perishes. 

 But it is not certain that no life remains in the 

 rhizomes. Some authorities suppose that a given 

 species disappears on these occasions, and is renewed 

 by seed. M. St. Hilaire passed through a Brazilian 

 Bamboo forest in full flower. They were fifty feet 

 high. But on his return a few months later the 

 whole had vanished. 



In some Eastern countries (says Freeman Mitford 

 in the " Bamboo Garden"), the rarely recurrent 

 flowering of the Bamboos is regarded as a sure 

 presage of calamity. However this may be, it is 

 certain that in times of famine the Bamboo, if it 

 flowers, is a godsend to the natives. In Orissa, in 

 1812, the seeds, cooked and eaten like rice, gave their 

 only food to many thousands. Day and night the 

 people watched to gather the precious grain. Again, 

 in 1864, some 50,000 people visited the Soopa jungles 

 to collect the seed. 



Between the nodes of certain species is found a 

 beautifully opalescent substance called Tabashir, 

 which is regarded as an infallible nostrum for every 

 ailment. In chemical composition this is a hydrous 

 silicate. 



SA 



