JAPAN. ai5 



Arundo bambos, 54. Sp. pi. i. p. 227. Flor. Coch. 70. I am 

 obliged to my friend the reverend Mr. Dickinfon, for the follow- 

 ing curious account of the Arundo Bambos, " which" fays he, 

 " grows in the woods and mountains of Japan^ and produces 

 ** many varieties, differing much in habit, and diftinguiflied by 

 ** different names. Yet, amidft all this variety, Thunberg ob- 

 ** ferves that he never had the fatisfadion of meeting with a 

 *' fingle plant of it in the flowering flate. This is not to be 

 *< wondered at, when we are informed by Reede, Mai. v. i. p. 25. 

 " that it does not flower till it has attained the age of about 

 <* lixty years, and what is very remarkable, flieds its leaves a 

 ** month previous to the time of flowering, and immediately 

 *' after having perfected its fruit, withers and dies. 



" The fmall flender walking canes, fo much admired for 

 *' their elegant rings, are obtained from young irregular fuckers 

 *' or flioots of the bambo, which fpring from the root, after the 

 *< main flem has been repeatedly cut down. Nature has not 

 <* formed them precifely of the figure in which we receive them. 

 « They are originally crooked and pliant, and much art is ufed, 

 ** by fufpended weights attached to them, and the application 

 ** of fmoke, to render them flrait and iliff. It is farther neceifary 

 *' to retrench with a knife the fibres which adhere to the rings, 

 " and were intended by nature to propagate the plant, in the 

 ** fame manner as the 'Triticum repeiis (couch grafs) multiplies 

 <* its offsets by flioots from the joints. 



" This fpecies of walking flick is diflinguiflied from the 

 <* Rotangy or true cane, not only by its lingular protuberances, 

 " but alfo by a fmall perforation extending through the center 



Vol. III. Gg "of 



