258 THE RIDDLE OF THE SALMON 



inconvenience of the natives, who rely on the great canes 

 for housebuilding and many other purposes. Many kinds 

 of trees and plants flower, individually, only at long inter- 

 vals ; others, annuals and biennials, flower but once and die. 

 But the periodicity of bamboos, apparently about thirty- 

 three years, is independent of their age. Old plants and 

 young, lofty and lowly, all obey the inscrutable mandate 

 at the same moment, and, having complied therewith, 

 perish. Attempts have been made, with partial success 

 in a few cases, to save their lives by cutting down the 

 culms as soon as they showed signs of flowering. In 

 most instances the plant has resisted this, pushing up 

 new culms in haste, and putting out new flowers, thereby 

 incurring the death penalty. 



So distinct is the beauty of bamboos that one would 

 gladly enjoy it for thirty years or so, and have young 

 plants ready to take the place of the old ones when the 

 inevitable crisis arrived. Unluckily, one has no indica- 

 tion of the period to prepare for. A two-foot slip is just 

 as sure to flower at the given period as a clump twenty 

 feet high, and just as sure to perish. 



LXII 



Some good progress has been made lately in knowledge 

 The Riddle ^ ^ e ^ e "^ B tory of the salmon, a matter 

 oftue which, being naturally difficult to trace, has 



salmon k een un( j u iy obscured by the prejudice and 

 prepossession of anglers and net fishers, two classes 

 peculiarly prone to a priori argument and suspicious of 

 scientific process. The latest contributions to ascertained 

 facts were described by Mr. W. L. Calderwood before the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh on July 13. The period of 



