ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 351 



only umbelliferous plants growing in the low grounds within the 

 tropics, observed by us in the New Continent, were two species of 

 Hydrocotyle (H. umbellata and H. leptostachya) between Havan- 

 nah and Batabano ; therefore at the extreme limits of the torrid zone. 



(*9 p. 243." The form of Gramineae." 



The group of arborescent grasses which Kunth, in his able treatise 

 on the plants collected by Bonpland and myself, has combined under 

 the name of Bambusacese, is among the most beautiful adornments 

 of the tropical world. (Bambu, also called Mambu, is a word in 

 the Malay language, but appears according to Buschmann to be of 

 doubtful origin, as the usual Malay expression is buluh, in Java and 

 Madagascar wuluh, voulu.) The number of genera and species 

 which form this group has been extraordinarily augmented by the 

 zeal of botanists. It is now recognized that the genus Bambusa is 

 entirely wanting in the New Continent, to which on the other hand 

 Gruadua, from 50 to 60 French or about 53 to 64 English feet high, 

 discovered by us, and Chusquea, exclusively belong; that Arundin- 

 aria (Rich) is common to both continents, although the species are 

 different; that Bambusa and Beesha (Rheed.) are found in India 

 and the Indian Archipelago, and Nastus in the Island of Bourbon, 

 and in Madagascar. With the exception of the tall-climbing Chus- 

 quea, the forms which have been named may be said to replace each 

 other morphologically, in the different parts of the world. In the 

 Northern Hemisphere, inthe valley of the Mississippi, the traveller is 

 gratified, long before reaching the tropics, with the sight of a form 

 of bamboo, the Arundinaria macrosperma, formerly called also 

 Miegia, and Ludolfia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Gray has dis- 

 covered a Bambusacea (a still undescribect species of Chusquea, 21 

 English feet high, which does not climb, but is arborescent and self- 

 supporting) growing in southern Chili, between the parallels of 37 

 and 42 S. latitude; where, intermixed with Drymis chilensis, a 

 uniform forest covering of Fagus obliqua prevails. 



While in India the Bambusa flowers so abundantly that in Mysore 

 and Orissa the seeds are mixed with honey and eaten like rice (Buch- 

 anan, Journey through Mysore, vol. ii. p. 341, and Stirling in the 

 Asiat. Res. vol. xv. p. 205), in South America the Gruadua flowers so 



