ILLUSTRATIONS (27). GRASSES. 335 



occurs in both continents, although differing specifically in 

 each; that Bambusa and Beesha (Rheed.), occur in India 

 and the Indian Archipelago ; and that Nastus grows in the 

 islands of Madagascar and Bourbon. With the exception of 

 the high-climbing Chusquea, these forms morphologically 

 replace each other in different parts of the earth. In the 

 northern hemisphere far beyond the limits of the torrid region, 

 in the valley of the Mississippi, the traveller is gladdened by 

 the sight of a species of Bamboo, the Arundinaria macrosperma, 

 formerly called also Miegia and Ludolfia. In the southern 

 hemisphere, in the south of Chili, between the parallels of 37 

 and 42, Gay found one of the Bambusacea more than 20 feet 

 high (not a climbing, but a still undescribed arborescent self- 

 supporting Chusquea), growing, mingled with Drymis Chilensis, 

 in a region clothed with an uniform forest-covering of Fagus 

 obliqua. 



Whilst in India the Bambusa flowers so frequently that in 

 Mysore and Orissa the seeds are mixed with honey, and eaten 

 like rice,* in South America the Guadua blossoms so very 

 seldom that in the course of four years we were only twice 

 able to procure the flowers ; once on the solitary banks of the 

 Cassiquiare, the arm connecting the Orinoco with the Rio 

 Negro and the Amazon, and again in the province of Popayan, 

 between Buga and Quilichao. It is a very striking fact that 

 some plants grow with the greatest vigour in certain loca- 

 lities without flowering; as is the case with the Euro- 

 pean olive-trees introduced into America centuries ago, and 

 growing between the tropics, near Quito, at elevations of 

 about 9600 feet above the level of the sea; and in like manner 

 the walnuts, hazel-nut bushes, and the fine olive-trees ( Olea 

 Europea) of the Isle of France. f 



As some of the Bambusaceae (arborescent grasses) ad- 

 vance into the temperate zone, so also they do not suffer 

 in the torrid zone from the temperate climate of mountain 

 districts. They are certainly more luxuriant as social plants 

 between the sea-shore and elevations of about 2558 feet 

 in the Province de las Esmeraldas, west of the volcano of 

 Pichincha, where Guadua angustifolia (Bambusa Guadua of oui 

 Plantes equinoxiales, t, i. tab. xx) generates in its interior 



* Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, vol. ii. p. 341 ; and Stirling, 

 in the Asiat. Res. vol. xv. p. 205. 



t See Bqjer, Hortus Mauritianus, 1837, p. 201. 



