ARUNDINARIA 211 



as possible The Bamboo Garden, an admirable monograph by Mr A. B. 

 Freeman-Mitford (now Lord Redesdale), published in 1896. 



The bamboos are really woody grasses, mostly characteristic of moist, 

 tropical regions. The species we cultivate in the open air, except one 

 from N. America, are northern outliers of the great bamboo regions of 

 Asia, and although they are mere pigmies compared with the giants of 

 equatorial regions, they have a special value in our gardens in introducing 

 to them a form of vegetation not only of surpassing grace and beauty, 

 but one of an absolutely distinct type. 



Naturally they are evergreen, but in cold winters and in cold districts 

 some of them lose much of, or all, their foliage. They have hollow 

 stems divided into sections by a transverse woody layer at each node 

 (or "joint"), and the branches (from one to many) are produced at 

 these joints. In a young state the stems are more or less encased in 

 membranous sheaths, which in some species fall away, in others persist ; 

 at the end of each sheath there is a small leaf-like expansion which is 

 known as the "limb," and differs from the true leaves in having no 

 midrib. The joints are farthest apart about the middle of the stem. 



The leaves of bamboos have a midrib supported on either side by 

 from two to nearly twenty more or less prominent veins, between which 

 again are thin, delicate veins of a third dimension, easily visible by holding 

 the leaf between the eye and the light. In all but two of the species 

 mentioned in these notes the thin veins are united by tiny cross-veins 

 easily seen with a lens by holding the leaf up to the light which 

 divide the space between each longitudinal vein into rectangular spaces of 

 irregular size. Lord Redesdale made the interesting discovery that this 

 tessellation of the veins is invariably characteristic of a really hardy 

 bamboo ; those that do not possess it are as invariably tender. This, how- 

 ever, does not mean that every bamboo with a tessellated venation is 

 hardy. The leaves are attached to the branchlet by a clasping sheath, 

 which is easily detached by pulling at the blade. 



In habit, bamboos are either tufted i.e., they keep their stems in a close 

 cluster and extend but slowly or they spread by means of underground 

 runners, which in some species push through the ground several feet 

 away from the previously made stem. 



The flowering of bamboos is a phenomenon of peculiar interest, but 

 as the flowers have little bearing on the identification of those we 

 cultivate, it is not necessary to enter into a definition of them here. 

 On many of the sorts we grow they have never been seen in this country, 

 nor, indeed, ever examined by botanists. There is no doubt that the 

 flowering of many bamboos is shortly and inevitably followed by their 

 death : Arundinaria Falconeri is an example. Others flower and, although 

 seriously crippled, in time recover : some of the Phyllostachys behave in 

 this way. In a third group a small proportion of the stems flower, and 

 although those particular stems die, the plant as a whole is unaffected ; 

 Arundinaria auricoma is an example; plants at Kew have flowered 

 partially for the last twenty years. It is not certain, however, that those 

 of the last group will not eventually flower all over simultaneously and 

 then die, as did A. Simoni, after blossoming partially for at least twelve 



