BAMBOOS SEEN AT NIGHT. 213 



violet-blue colouring, with a metallic lustre ; the culms 

 are mostly smooth, highly polished and tapering, 

 exactly representing the general outline of so many 

 gigantic but well balanced fly rods; in fact, a well- 

 selected bamboo docs at once supply a ready-made 

 fishing rod of the finest quality. * The heads and 

 stems of all are furnished with long narrow leaves, 

 very much resembling those of the common lake reed 

 at home, though perhaps more delicate in tracery and 

 bamboos therefore, as we have said, whether in mere 

 clumps, or in forests, always form a beautiful and 

 picturesque object in the landscape. 



In the distance, by day, they often resemble some 

 graceful group of weeping willows, planted on the 

 borders of the streams and rivers; and on the sultriest 

 day the most delicious shade is to be found beneath 

 the overarching plumes of these giant arborescent 

 grasses. So thickly and closely do some kinds grow, 

 that the sun can never penetrate through their matted 

 thickets. Unfortunately a few kinds are covered with 

 the most forbidding thorns: we may mention the names 

 of the " Bambusa Spinosa " of Eastern Asia, and the 

 " Bambusa Blumeana " of Java, as good instances of 

 these latter. But to see bamboos of all kinds at their 

 best, they should be viewed either just before the 

 rising, or after the going down of the sun ; we have 

 at such times been again and again struck by their 

 wonderful and exquisite beauty ; for so soft and delicate 

 is their tracery, and so graceful their outlines, that 

 during the still majesty of the equatorial night, when 

 the sultry air is at times so perfectly calm that a 

 feather would float perpendicularly down to the ground, 



* As regards this see details given in our Section on " Fishing" 



