112 



KNOWLEDGE 



[April 1, 1890. 



diverse articles as paper, pens, waterproof clothing, hats, 

 wax, pickles, bird-whistles, rafts, pillows, fermented di-ink, 

 and bridges fi'om the same versatile vegetable. lu the 

 Kew Museum, which should be visited by everyone who 

 wishes to see the varied uses to which bamboos can be 

 applied, perhaps the most curious article is a headsman's 

 kiiife lately brought by Mr, Franks from the south-eastern 

 peninsula of New Guinea. This singular implement, 

 which is shaped like a cheese-scoop and seems very iU- 

 adapted to its purpose, is marked with numerous notches, 

 each notch representing one of its victims ; and it is accom- 

 panied by an artistic apparatus, also of bamboo, intended 

 apparently to enable the executioner to carry the severed 

 head. 



The bamboo usually grows in a cluster of from ten to a 

 hundi'ed stalks, all springing fi'om the same rhizome or 

 root-stock. The rhizome is not the root but an imder- 

 ground portion of the stem. It consists of a number of 

 segments about the size and shape of a banana and 

 somewhat bloated in the middle. The banana-like seg- 

 ments are joined together irregularly by their tips, so that 

 the whole rhizome forms a strong underground trelliswork 

 admirably adapted to support the light and yet rigid stems 

 that rise up from it. From the under side of the rhizome 

 spring do\vnwards the true root-fibres, numerous as the 

 bristles of a broom. 



The stem itself, as everyone knows, is smooth, polished, 

 and cjlindrical, and is divided into air-tight compartments 

 by knots or nodes, which are the points at which the 

 fibres of the stem cross over fi'om one side to the other. 

 The lowest ten nodes or so are 

 usually bare, but from the 

 upper nodes issue branches, 

 as sho-nii in Fig. 1. These 

 are very slender as compared 

 with the main stem, and 

 carry the foUage leaves, one of 

 which is shown in Fig. 2. 

 In most species the leaves are 

 rather small, but in some 

 they are very large. The 

 species named Planotia noliilis 

 by General Munro, a native of New Granada, has the 

 largest leaves of any kind of grass ; they are often a foot 

 in diameter and fifteen feet in length. It wUl be seen 

 that the leaf given in the figiu-e {Bmiibusii i-uhidrix) is not 

 quite symmetrical in shape. It is smooth on both sides, 

 except that along the edges there is a roughness, plainly 

 perceptible to the finger, such as is often found in grass- 

 leaves. Each leaf bends gracefully downwards, and the 

 whole plant has a very light and feathery appearance as it 

 waves in the wind. Our full-page illustration is a photo- 

 graph of a cluster of Ikmlrocahtmwi GiijunUus (one of the 

 berry-bearing kinds) growing in the Botanical Gardens, 

 Ceylon. 



The most important part of the bamboo, from a botanical 

 point of view, is the flower, which roughly resembles the 

 flower of our common grasses. The flower of grass is 

 enclosed in hard scaly leaflets called glumes ; it usually 

 has three stamens and one seed-vessel. There may be 

 only one flower enclosed in the glumes (as in Foxtail 

 grass), or more (as in wheat). The flowers of the bamboos, 

 while on the whole conforming to the gi-ass type, exhibit 

 many small diti'erences in diiferent species. In some 

 kinds, as in Arthrosti/lidium loniiirloiiim, the inflorescence 

 resembles a bimch of ears of wheat ; in others, as in 

 Bainhnsa vulgaris, the flowers are packed into round 

 clusters, as shown in Fig. 3 ; in others, as in ('humjum 

 simpUci flora, they are in threes and fours, each flower 



Fig. 1. — Bbanches fkom 

 Node of Bamboo. 



hanging by a separate slender stalk. The seed generally 

 resembles oats or wheat, but in some species it takes the 

 form of a berry, not unlike the seed of our familiar pim- 

 pernels. In the species known as Milocanna the fruit is 

 exceptionally developed, often attaining the size of a 

 largish pear. Some species flower and die down annually ; 

 others flower annually, but live on ; as a rule, the bamboo 

 grows for many years without flowering, and 

 then suddenly bursts into bloom. From the 

 fact that the number of years between the 

 sowing of the seed and the flowering of the plant 

 varies, and that in some years nearly all the 

 bamboos in a given district flower simul- 

 taneously, it would seem as if the blossoming 

 does not take place at any prescribed age, but 

 may occur at any period after the plants reach 

 maturity, when a favourable season supervenes. 

 It used to be thought that after the general 

 flowering of the bamboos throughout a district 

 all the plants died, but this view proves to 

 be incorrect. The flowering shoots usually die, 

 and during the floweiing the foliage almost 

 entirely disappears, but the entire plant is not 

 necessarily killed. 



The Chinese have a proverb that the bamboo 



produces seed most abimdantly in years when 



the rice crop fails, and several curious cases of 



the truth of the saying have been recorded. 



^^^ According to General Mum-o, in 1812 the 



I universal flowering in Orissa prevented a 



famine. Hundreds of people, he says, were on 



Inf'lore- *^® watch day and night to secure the seeds 



scEscE of as they fell from the branches. Another in- 



Bambusa stance occurred in 186i. when there was a 



Vidians. general flowering of the bamboo in the Soopa 



jungles, and very large numbers of persons came from the 



neighbouring districts to collect the seeds. 



In most bamboos the stem is characterised by straight- 

 ness, smoothness, roundness, and quickness of growth, 

 no doubt because these qualities have as a rule proved 

 serviceable to the plant in the struggle for existence. 

 Light and air being necessary to the life of grass, it is 

 manifest that in the dense vegetation of the tropics a 

 plant which can push itself rapidly to a great height must 

 have an advantage ; and in order that growth may be 

 rapid and the plant spring up to a considerable height 

 without chmbing, it is essential that there should be as 

 little material as possible in the stem, and yet that it 

 should be as strong as possible. It is difficult to imagine 

 a stem in which these conditions would be better fulfilled 

 than in that of the bamboo. By reason of its hollowness 

 the amoimt of material is reduced to a minimum ; and by 

 reason of its cyUndrical shape, its nodes, and the hardness 

 of the outer rind, the strength of the structure is at 

 a maximum. The gi'owth is consequently very rapid, 

 an increase in height of 2 to 2J feet having been recorded 

 in a single day. The Bainbiixa Urnndmi often measures 

 as many as 120 feet, and is said to attain its full altitude 

 in a few months. 



But although, as a general rule, the necessities of 

 natural selection have ordained that bamboos shall be 

 l^erfectly straight and perfectly round, this archetypal form 

 or idea (to borrow a word fi'om Plato) does not always hold 

 good. One species, foimd in Asia, is said to have crooked 

 and even creeping stems. Another, found in Ecuador, is 

 described by General Munro as being distinctly a climbing 

 plant. There is a species, recently described by Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer, with a stem exactly square, and as well-defined as if 

 cut with a knife. It has only lately been found in China, 



