Man and Nature 



413 



bamboo as serving such varied uses as pulp for paper, masts 

 for vessels, pipes for water and timber for buildings? Says 

 Mr. David Fairchild, in charge of the plant introduction work 

 for the Bureau of Plant Industry: "... there is no plant 

 in the world which is put to so many uses as the bamboo, and 



THE TUNG OIL TREE 



One of the many valuable plant immigrants introduced into the 

 United States by the U. S. Bureau of Plant Industry. 

 Courtesy of the Bureau. 



in the regions where it grows it is apparently the most in- 

 dispensable of all plants." Strange as it may seem, the 

 bamboo is not a tree in the ordinary sense of the word, but' 

 a grass, the rings on the stem marking the points of inser- 

 tion of the leaves. 



About twenty years ago Mr. William Tevis of San Fran- 

 cisco bought a specimen of the giant Japanese bamboo from 



