Apbil 1, 1890.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



111 



That the Flying Dragons were capable of sustained 

 flight, like birds and bats, seems to be beyond reasonable 

 doubt. It is further quite evident that the toothed forms 

 were of carnivorous habits, and it was suggested years ago, 

 by the late Dean P.uckland, that while the smaller species 

 may have subsisted on the dragon-flies and other insects 

 that are known to have lived at the period when the Litho- 

 graphic limestone was laid down, the larger ones may 

 have preyed on fishes, and perhaps also on the small con- 

 temporaneous mannnals. It is diflicult to suggest what 

 kinds of animals formed the food of the large toothed 

 forms from the English chalk ; but in the case of the 

 toothless American monsters it may be pretty safely said 

 that, if they preyed on fish, they must have had a capacious 

 mouth and gullet, and swallowed their prey whole, after 

 the fashion of pelicans and other fish-eating birds. 



THE BAMBOO AND ITS KINDRED. 



r>y K. Camper Day, ll.A.Oxon. 



IF the many families of flowering plants were arranged 

 either in the order of their utility to man or in the 

 order of their abundance, the first place in the list 

 would unquestionably be assigned to the great family 

 of the Grasses. Of their omnipresence and abund- 

 ance some idea may be obtained from the fact that at least 

 four thousand different kinds have been described, and a 

 German naturalist has estimated that they constitute a 

 twentj -second part of all known plants. Their utility as 

 food-producers becomes obvious as soon as we recall the 

 names of Eice, Wheat, Barley, Oats, Eye, and Indian 

 Corn, and remember how large a proportion of our food is 

 made from their seeds. Most of these civilised and some- 

 what unnatural grasses have been so long under cidtiva- 

 tion, and so much altered by man's selection, that they are 

 totally unfitted to shift for themselves, and would soon 

 become extinct if brought into competition with wild 

 plants. The fact that the wild forms from which they are 

 descended cannot now be identified with certainty shows 

 that their cultivation must date from the very earliest 

 ages. Eice alone is said to furnish more sustenance to the 

 human race than any other single species ; the common 

 meadow-grasses, such as the purple-tipped Antlto.rantlniiii, 

 which fills the fields with its penetrating fragrance when 

 the hay is newly mown, are almost the only food of sheep 

 and cattle ; and those tall and sturdy canes whose juice 

 we squeeze out between rollers, and clarify and crystallise 

 into sugar, are only modified stems of grass. 



The largest of the family, and perhaps the most beau- 

 tiful, is the tropical arborescent grass which bears tlie 

 name of Bamboo. Although it is not cultivated for the 

 sake of its seed, it has mairy admirable qualities, and 

 wherever it grows in abundance it is applied to a variety 

 of uses. " The strength, lightness, smoothness, straight- 

 ness, roimdness, and hollowness of the bamboos," says 

 Mr. A. B. Wallace in his Malni/ An/iijirla;i<i, " the facility 

 and regularity with which they can be split, their many 

 different sizes, the varying length of their joints, the ease 

 with which they can be cut and with which holes can be 

 made through them, their hardness outside, their freedom 

 from any proiiomiced taste or smell, their great abundance, 

 and the rapi<lity of tlieir growth and increase, are all 

 qualities which render them useful for a hundred ditterent 

 purposes, to serve which other materials would require 

 much more labour and preparation. The bamboo is one 

 of the most wonderful and beautiful productions of the 

 tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts to un- 

 civilised man." 



In order that the accuracy of this eulogy may be appre- 

 ciated, let us imagine the case of a shipwrecked man 

 landing without any tools, except an axe and a knife, upon 

 an island in which we will suppose that bamboos are the 

 only vegetation, and let us see how far he could supply his 

 needs with their assistance. One of his first requirements 

 would be a house, and this could be provided with very 

 little labour. The stems of one of the larger species, such 

 as litiiiilmsii Briindini, driven into the ground, would form 

 excellent uprights for the framework, which could be com- 

 pleted with lighter cross-pieces nailed to the uprights with 

 pegs of the same material. A good roof could be made by 

 taking broad strips split from large bamboos, and fastening 

 them side by side with their concave surfaces uppermost, 

 the interstices between them being covered with other 

 pieces having their convex .sides uppermost. Similar but 

 flatter pieces laid upon the joists, and tied down firmly with 

 strips shredded from the outer rind, would form a smooth 

 and elastic floor such as could not be made out of other 

 materials without a great expenditure of labour. Thin 

 strips plaited together, or broad strips pegged side by side, 

 might be used for the walls. 



The furnishing of the house would be an easy matter, 

 for bedsteads, chairs, brooms, baskets, cords, fans, bottles, 

 mats, and hoes can be made of bamboo with the 

 greatest facility. The water-tight jomts of the stems form 

 admirable water-vessels, and it would be easy to bring 

 the water to the very door by a gently-sloping aqueduct of 

 pieces of bamboo split down the middle and supported at 

 intervals on cross-pieces arranged like the letter X. The 

 jars made from the joints could be utilized not only for 

 holding water, but even for boilmg it. Mr. Wallace tells 

 us that rice, fish, and vegetables can be boiled in them to 

 perfection. The yoimg shoots of the bamboo as they first 

 spring from the ground are said to be a delicious vegetable, 

 " quite equal to artichokes.' That fish may be readilv 

 caught by the agency of the bamboo is shown by the many 

 specimens of ingenious fish-traps exhibited in the museum 

 at Kew. If we suppose our adventurer to take a thin stem 

 of bamboo, and cut oft" the end obliquely just above a joint 

 so as to leave a sharp edge, he would be pro\'ided with a 

 hard-pomted and very etticient spear. Li the same way 

 he could supply himself with daggers and arrows ; while from 

 the more elastic species he could make himself a liow, 

 using a thin strip of the outer rind for the bow-string. The 

 lowest mternode of ArthrosijUdiuiii ScluDnhur'ikii, which 

 sometimes attains the extraordinary length of sixteen 

 feet, far surpassing the length of the joints in all other 

 bamboos (says General Muuro), furnishes the " sarbican " 

 or blow-pipe through which poisoned arrows are blown by 

 the natives of Guiana. In the island of Celebes the only 

 article of dress worn by the natives is a liody-cloth called 

 Kian Pakkian, made of bamboo slit into fine shreds, which 

 are passed between the teeth and bitten until they are soft, 

 when they are woven. 



If after providing himself with these and similar 

 necessaries our shipwrecked man found leisure to amuse 

 himself, lu:- might make .Eolian flutes, such as Sir Emerson 

 Tennant saw in Malacca, by boring holes in the stems of 

 living bamboos, or he might construct a harp like that in 

 the Kew Museum which was brought from Timor by Mr. 

 Wallace. This luu'ii is made from a cylinder of bamboo 

 having a node at each end. Under a strip of the outer 

 rind a (juarter of an inch wide, a sharp knife is passed so 

 that the strip is detached from the cylinder except at its 

 two ends. The strip forms one of the harp strings. Two 

 small wedges are pushed under it, and the portion between 

 the wedges can then bo sounded like the string of a guitar. 

 It is also possible, and not very ditlicult, to make such 



