564 USES OP BAMBOOS. 



of the butter and cheese, annually made in Britain, is not less 

 than 5,000,000. These and many other animal products are 

 almost entirely obtained from the plants of this order ; which, 

 however insignificant in appearance, have been obviously 

 adapted, in a peculiar manner, by an All-bountiful Creator to 

 the varied wants of his human offspring. 



740. In speaking of the uses of the Grasses to Man, that of 

 the Bamboos should not be forgotten. To the Indian Savage 

 they afford almost all that he wants, except the food which he 

 derives from his rice or his maize. " With their lightest shoots 

 he makes his arrows, the fibres of the wood form bow-strings, and 

 from the larger stems he fabricates a bow ; a long and slender 

 shoot affords him a lance-shaft, and he finds its hardened point 

 a natural head for the weapon. With the hardened stems he 

 builds the walls and roof of his house ; its leaves afford him an 

 impenetrable thatch ; split into narrow strips it gives him the 

 material for weaving his floor-mats, and other articles of domestic 

 convenience ; its fibre furnishes him with twine, and its leaves 

 provide him with paper, when he becomes sensible of the utility 

 of such a material. Would he commit himself to the waves, 

 the stems form the hull of his boat, which by a few skins 

 stretched over it is rendered water-tight ; they also give him 

 masts, and then slips of wood become cordage, or are woven into 

 sails." Even in more civilised countries, such as China, India, 

 and Japan, they are applied to a great number of useful pur- 

 poses. Water-pipes are often made of them ; and they are 

 used in the construction of fences, in building houses and boats, 

 and in the manufacture of various articles of furniture. Short 

 sections of the stems, cut so as to include the nodal partition, 

 are employed for a great variety of useful purposes ; the small 

 ones serve as cups ; and the large ones (which are sometimes 

 more than a foot in diameter) for tubs and boxes. 



741. The table on the opposite page exhibits, in a simple 

 form, the characters by which the foregoing orders may be dis- 

 tinguished from each other, and from other tribes of Endogens 

 which have not been here noticed. 



