44 6 



BAMBUSA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



BAMBUSA. 



plants imported seven years ago are 

 19 ft. 5 in. high and 43- in. in circum- 

 ference. In China and Japan it grows to 

 60 ft. high. The stems, some of which 

 spring out of the ground like spears, are, 

 when fully developed, beautifully arched. 

 The young shoots, when once they 

 start, are very rapid, growing in this 

 country as much as 6 in. in the twenty-four 

 hours. 



P. sulphurea. A handsome golden - 

 stemmed Bamboo, which in appearance 

 has great affinity with P. mitis. It is per- 

 fectly hardy and well worth cultivating, 

 but difficult to obtain. At Shrubland it 

 is growing to a height of 13 ft., with a 

 circumference of 2f in. round the stem. 



P. Quilioi. A very distinct Bamboo, 

 introduced from the north of Japan. To 

 me it appears to have a character alto- 

 gether its own, and the many botanists 

 and gardeners to whom I have shown it 

 have without exception come round to my 

 opinion. Altogether a notable Bamboo, 

 growing at Shrubland to a height of 18 ft. 

 6 in., the canes having a circumference 

 of 3f in. Syn., Phyllostachys Mazeli. 



P. viridi-glaucescens. A most elegant 

 and graceful Bamboo, growing to a great 

 height nearly 18 ft. at Shrubland. The 

 root-stock is very active, the plant being 

 a great runner, while many of the culms 

 come almost horizontally out of the ground, 

 giving the plant a very wide spread. The 

 leaves are generally about 3 in. or 4 in. 

 long and about three-quarters of an inch 

 across. The stem is much zigzagged. 

 This is a perfectly hardy Bamboo, but it 

 should be established in pots before 

 planting out. 



P. violescens. This is sometimes said 

 to be a variety of P. viridi-glaucescens, 

 but quite different both in appearance and 

 behaviour. It is somewhat more tender, 

 the leaves being apt to be cut by frost, 

 which gives the plant an ugly appearance 

 in winter, but with the spring the culms 

 are clothed with new foliage, and after all 

 it is only those shoots which come into 

 existence in the late autumn which suffer. 

 The foliage is rather darker and larger 

 than in P. viridi-glaucescens and the 

 plant more straggling, the rhizomes run- 

 ning rampantly. But the most distinctive 

 feature is the deep purple colour of the 

 young stems during their first year. 

 This is lost in the two-year-old stems, 

 which change to a greenish yellow or 

 brown. The plants at Shrubland are 

 15 ft. high, and the culms 2f in. in cir- 

 cumference. 



P. Henonis. To my taste this is the 

 loveliest of all our Bamboos, and it is 



perfectly hardy, bearing up bravely against 

 our coldest weather. Of all the plants 

 that I imported not one has gone amiss, 

 though they were subjected to hardships 

 which proved fatal to a good many of their 

 travelling companions. The slender tall 

 stems are green at first, growing yellower 

 with age, slightly zigzagged. The root- 

 stock runs rather freely, but it is to its 

 habit that this Bamboo owes its surpassing 

 loveliness. The two-year-old culms, borne 

 down by the weight of their own foliage, 

 bend almost to the earth in graceful curves, 

 forming a pretty groundwork from which 

 the stems of the year spring up, arching 

 and waving their feathery fronds, the 

 delicate green leaves seeming to float in 

 the air. 



P. nigra. This is perhaps the best 

 known, and from its black stems the most 

 easily recognised of the hardy Bamboos. 

 Varieties of this said to be more free than 

 the species are P. nigro-punctata and P. 

 Boryana. With me the plant has been a 

 little capricious and difficult to establish, 

 but once it has taken hold of the ground 

 no Bamboo seems hardier. The stems 

 are of an olive-green colour during their 

 first year of growth, changing to shining 

 black the following year. They are 

 slightly zigzagged. The leaves, which 

 are from 3 in. to 4^ in. long by three- 

 quarters of an inch broad, are green on 

 the upper surface and glaucous under- 

 neath. 



P. Boryana. One of the handsomest 

 and most vigorous of the hardy Bamboos, 

 very graceful in its habit. Like P. nigra, 

 the stems are green during their first year, 

 but change colour the second year to a 

 dull brown splashed with large deep 

 purple or black blotches. 



P. Castillonis. A most lovely plant. 

 The foliage is larger than it is in most 

 of the Bamboos, some of the leaves 

 being as much as between 8 in. and 9 

 in. long by nearly 2 in. broad, When 

 they first appear they are striped with 

 bright orange-yellow, which in time 

 fades to a creamy white. As the sheaths 

 of the branchlets are of a very pretty pink, 

 the plant has a tricoloured effect, which 

 is most pleasing ; the branches come in 

 twos and threes. Twenty-four degrees of 

 frost January, 1894, did them no harm. 



P. ruscifolia. A pretty little Bamboo, 

 described by Munro as P. kuinasaca, 

 though the Japanese name is bungozasa. 

 The stems are about 18 in. high, purplish 

 green in colour, with brown sheaths, much 

 zigzagged and very slender, distinctly 

 channelled from the pressure of the 

 branches, which spring in twos and 



