212 BAMBOO CLUMPS. 



This magnificent bamboo Mr. Fortune considers the 

 most beautiful of all the bamboos, and says that, " it 

 grows 60 to 80 feet high, with a long clean stem," 

 and that it is considered of great value in the arts. * 



Then again we have the " Giant Bamboo " (Den- 

 dro calamus Giganteus], originally a native, we believe, 

 of Malacca which is said sometimes to attain a height 

 of over a hundred feet, and to be the largest of all 

 known bamboos ; it is distinguished from most of the 

 commoner kinds, by the beautiful deep violet-blue 

 metallic colouring of its stem. Magnificent clumps of 

 it may be seen in the Royal Botanic Gardens at 

 Peradeniya, Ceylon, where it was introduced from 

 Penang in 1856. At Peradeniya it is stated that "the 

 culms attain a length of nearly i oo feet and a diameter 

 of nine inches. They appear during the rains of June 

 and July, and grow at the rate of fully one foot in the 

 twenty-four hours, thus soon reaching their full height. " f 



A clump of these giant bamboos, in these gardens, 

 of which there are several measuring perhaps some 

 twenty yards each in diameter, is a sight to be 

 remembered; the stems (or culms) grow so closely 

 together, that a terrier dog in some places could not 

 pass between them; and when the wind blows, in 

 common with all the great bamboos, a curious crepit- 

 ating noise is heard, caused by their knocking together, 

 as these lofty poles sway to and fro in the wind. 

 Bamboo clumps all grow after much the same fashion,, 

 and resemble * each other very much in general char- 

 acter ; some have yellow, some green, and a few, dark 



* Residence among the Chinese, by Robert Fortune, 1857, p. 190. 

 f Handbook to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, by Dr. 

 Trimen : quoted in Ferguson's Ceylon Directory for 1890, p. 144. 



