THE BAMBOO 115 



a single root, not seldom as thick as a man, and towering to a 

 height of eighty or a hundred feet. Fancy the grace of our 

 meadow grasses, united with the lordly growth of the Italian 

 poplar, and you will have a faint idea of the beauty of a clump 

 of bamboos. 



The variety of purposes to which these colossal reeds can be 

 applied almost rivals the multifarious uses of the cocoa-nut 

 palm itself. Splitting the culm in its whole length into very 

 thin pieces, the industrious Chinese then twist them together 

 into strong ropes, for tracking their vessels on their numerous 

 rivers and canals. The sails of their junks, as well as their 

 cables and rigging, are made of bamboo ; and in the southern 

 province of Sechuen, not only nearly every house is built solely 

 of this strong cane, but almost every article of furniture which 

 it contains — mats, screens, chairs, tables, bedsteads, bedding — 

 is of the same material. From the young shoots they also 

 fabricate their fine writing-paper, which is so superior to the 

 produce of our own manufactories. Although the bamboo 

 grows spontaneously and most profusely in nearly all the 

 southern portion of their vast empire, they do not entirely rely 

 on the beneficence of Nature, but cultivate it with the greatest 

 , care. They have treatises and whole volumes devoted solely to 

 ' this subject, laying down rules derived from experience, and 

 showing the proper soils, the best kinds of water, and the 

 seasons for planting and transplanting the bamboos, whose use 

 is scarce less extensive throughout the whole East Indian 

 world. In Mysore and Orizza the seeds of several species are 

 eaten with honey ; and in Sikkim the grain of the Praong, a 

 small bamboo, is boiled, or made into cakes, or into beer. In 

 Java, the prickly bamboo, whose wood is of such flinty hard- 

 ness that sparks are emitted on its being struck with an axe, 

 and whose formidable thorns project from every node, is used 

 to form impenetrable hedges. 



At one season of the year the bamboos are easily destroyed 

 by fire ; and as the great stem-joints burst from the expansion 

 of the air confined within, the report almost rivals the roar of 

 cannon. In Sikkim firing the jungle is a frequent practice, 

 and Dr. Hooker, who often witnessed the spectacle, describes the 

 : ' effect by night as exceedingly grand. " Heavy clouds canopy 

 i< the mountains above, and, stretching across the valleys, shut 



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