98 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



preferable to those of stone, which the frequently re- 

 curring earthquakes bring down upon the heads of the 

 lodgers. 



An illustration of bamboos as they appear in the 

 tropics, heads the present chapter. 



Leaving the immense size of these plants out of 

 consideration, we would at the first glance relegate 

 them either to the class of grasses or of reeds their 

 appearance seeming to indicate that they belong to 

 former class, while the structure of the long hollow 

 stem, with its joints and sharp-pointed leaves, presents 

 all the characteristics of the latter. Botanists, how- 

 ever, have at last decided that bamboos are a tribe of 

 grasses. 



But the name cannot alter the thing itself, and it 

 is not our purpose here to discuss the somewhat arbi- 

 trary classification of botanists. We prefer to con- 

 sider these plants simply as we find them, and to note 

 their distinctive characteristics without troubling our- 

 selves about the Greek or Latin names which they 

 are made to bear. 



These plants are found only in the Torrid Zone 

 for the reason either that the heat of the tropics is 

 necessary to their development or that their cultiva- 

 tion has never yet been attempted in temperate cli- 

 mates under favorable circumstances. Of the 170 

 species discovered by modern travellers, five or six are 

 specially prominent. 



The loftiest of the bamboos is the Sammot. In 

 the tracts where it grows in the greatest perfection it 

 sometimes rises to the height of 100 feet, with a stern 



