390 REGENERATION BY MEANS OF CULMS, 



ARTICLE 1. 



OF GROWTH OF BAMBOOS. 



On emerging from the seed the bamboo seedling is a simple 

 plant consisting of a leafy shoot, fibrous roots and a short compara- 

 tively thick intermediate portion, from which in the following year 

 the first rhizome is developed. This rhizome at once grows up into 

 a leafy shoot, and from this time forth the plant is a compound one 

 and the formation and growth of the clump begins. In the third 

 year one or more new rhizomes are produced from the " eyes " or 

 underground buds of the original rhizome, and every successive 

 year, until the clump flowers, new rhizomes are similarly produced 

 upon those' of the previous year. As a rule, all the eyes do not 

 develop into rhizomes ; many remain dormant and some of these 

 may later on grow out under favourable conditions, as when the 

 existing number of unsprouted rhizomes is insufficient to utilise 

 the entire quantity of constructive materials available. 



According to the abundance of food present a,nd the richness of 

 the soil, one or more of the rhizomes produced upon the same 

 parent rhizome start away at once to develop into a leafy shoot or 

 culm, while the rest remain dormant and are incapable of sprouting 

 until there is spare food in the clump for them. Some of the 

 shoots, owing to insufficient nourishment or accidental destruction, 

 become aborted after they have begun to develop. Thus aborted, 

 they do not usually die, but their rhizomes, like the dormant ones, 

 may and often do give out new rhizomes if accident places them 

 under sufficiently favourable conditions. 



Each successive year the new culms formed are taller and 

 thicker than those of the preceding year and this constant increase 

 of size continues as long as the maximum dimensions attainable 

 by the species in the given soil and locality have not been reached, 

 After this, barring minor differences in different years owing to the 

 varying character of the seasons, the maximum dimensions arc 

 maintained until the clump fructifies and dies. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to add that a culm cannot grow thicker, each part of it, as 

 soon as it is fully formed, being as thick as it will ever be. 



Since the rhizome has to form completely first, the culm itself 

 does not appear above ground until some weeks of the growing 

 season are over (in the case of full-sized culms not until towards 

 the middle of the season), and it accomplishes the whole of its 

 growth in 3-5 weeks, before it has produced any leaves at all. 

 'Whence, \\c mny ask ourselves, does it obtain the large amount of 



