308 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



resting on very many years' close study of the richest collections, a 

 few prefatory remarks are likewise offered, to vindicate the wish 

 of the writer of seeing these noble and graceful forms of vegetation 

 largely transferred to every part of Australia, where they would 

 impress a grand tropical feature on the landscapes. Even in the 

 far southern latitudes of Victoria, Tasmania, and JSTew Zealand, 

 Bamboos from the inland lowlands have proved to resist our occa- 

 sional night frosts of the low country. But in colder places the 

 many Sub- Alpine species could be reared. Be it remembered that 

 Chusquea aristata advances to an elevation of 15,000 feet on the 

 Andes of Quito, indeed to near the zone of perpetual ice. Arundi- 

 naria falcata, A. racemosa, and A spathiflora live on the Indian 

 highlands, at a zone between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, where they 

 are annually beaten down by snow. Forms of Bambusaceae still 

 occur, according to Grisebach, in the Kurilian archipelagus up to 

 46 N., and in Japan even to 51. We may further recognise the 

 great importance of these plants, when we reflect on their manifest 

 industrial uses, or when we consider their grandeur for picturesque 

 scenery, or when we observe their resistance to storms or heat, or 

 when we watch the marvellous rapidity with which many develop 

 themselves. Their seeds, though generally produced only in long 

 intervals, are valued in many instances higher than rice. The 

 ordinary great Bamboo of India is known to grow 40 feet in forty 

 days, when bathed in the moist heat of the jungles. Delchevalerie 

 witnessed the growth of some Indian Bamboos at Cairo to have 

 been 10 inches in one night. Their power of growth is such as to 

 upset stone-walls or demolish substantial buildings. As shelter- 

 plants for grazing-animals these tree-reeds are most eligible. The 

 Bourbon Bamboo forms an impenetrable Sub- Alpine belt of extra- 

 ordinary magnificence in yonder island. One of the Tenasserim 

 Bambusas rises to 150 feet, with a diameter of the mast-like cane 

 sometimes measuring fully 1 foot. The great West Indian 

 Arthrostylidium is sometimes nearly as high and quite as columnar 

 in its form, while the Dendrocalamus at Pulo Geum is equally 

 colossal. The Platonia Bamboo of the highest wooded mountains 

 of Panama sends forth leaves 15 feet in length and 1 foot in 

 width. Arundinaria macrosperma, as far north as Philadelphia, 

 rises still in favourable spots to a height of nearly 40 feet, and one 

 of the Japan Bamboos, according to Mr. Christy, gains even in 

 those extra-tropical latitudes the height of 60 feet. Through per- 

 forating with artistic care the huge canes of various Bamboos, 

 musical sounds can be melodiously produced when the air wafts 

 through the groves, and this singular fact may possibly be turned 

 to practice for checking the devastations from birds on many a 

 cultured spot. Altogether twenty genera, with one hundred and 

 seventy well-marked species, are circumscribed by General Munro's 

 consumate care ; but how may these treasures yet be enriched, 



