AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 227 



of an old linden with a symetrically developed crown. In the 

 park at Shiba the largest Salisburia had in 1874 a circumference 

 of 6*30 meters. 



8. Koya-maki {Sciadopitys verticillatd). The largest specimen 

 which I know and which Japan can properly show, is found in a 

 temple court in Nikko. Lehmann, who reckoned the height 24 

 meters and the circumference at 4* 15 meters, was told that the tree 

 was 250 years old, an estimate that agrees very well with the age 

 of the park in which it was found. 



Further estimates also in respect to immense size will be found 

 m the following pages, in which I have tried to collect briefly in 

 systematic order the most remarkable of the useful woods of Japan. 



Fam. Gramine/E, Group Bambusace^e. 



The greater wood-forming varieties of bamboo cane, which alone 

 are to be considered here, bear the collective name Take, in com 

 binations often written "dake," for which also the Japanese-Chinese 

 form chiku ^ is much used. 



r. BainbiLsa arundinacea, L. [Aricndo Bambos, L. and Thunb.), 

 Japanese Ma-take or male bamboo. It is the most valuable and 

 the most cultivated Japanese variety, with which B. vulgaris^Msf Qndl.y 

 is often found in company."^ Its cylindrical stalks are long and 

 straight, the wood is firm, capable of resistance in the highest de- 

 gree, and well adapted to many uses. Ha-chiku seems to be a 

 sub-species. Ma-take reaches in Japan a height of from 15 to 20 

 meters and a trunk circumference of 40 to 50 cm., but only in 

 favourable soil. In less favourable conditions and higher altitudes 

 the dimensions will fall far short of the above figures. 



2. B. agrestis, Poir. {B. spinosa, Roxb.), Japanese Kan-chiku, 

 grows 6 to 8 meters high and over a thumb's thickness. It is a 

 strong, thick-walled cane, that is distinguished chiefly by its knotty 

 joints. It is found generally as a live hedge, 



3. Bainbusa } Japanese Moso-chiku and Honan-chiku. The 



latter name comes from the Chinese province of Honan where, 



1 As most of the Japanese bamboos never produce seed nor even bloom, 

 their classification and identification with Indian varieties is difficult. For this 

 reason authors of works on the Japanese Flora, like Franchet and Savatier, 

 have either omitted them, or contented themselves with simply giving the 

 Japanese names. I have endeavoured to find in the well-known Treatise of 

 Col. Munro, " A Monograph of the Bambusaceas," in the Transactions of the 

 Linn. Soc. vol, xxvi. pp. 1-159, a definite classification, but I give here the result 

 with all reserv^e, and commit it to a successor who may better discharge the 

 difficult task, and shed more light on this interesting subject. 



- Of all the bamboos of Indian origin these two are found most widely spread. 

 The former was in 1730 introduced into hot houses in England, and was till 

 181 3 the only one of its kind there. In the West Indies, on the Mascarenes 

 and elsewhere, both are now extensively cultivated. 



