INTRODUCTION. lil 
collection of a few leaves or by report, and these will require to be described later on 
as material for the purpose becomes available. 
The subdivision of the Bambusee into sections and genera adopted in this work 
їз that of the “Genera Plantarum" of Bentham and Hooker. Of the 22 genera 
given in that work, 14 belong to the Indo-Malayan region, the rest being chiefly 
American.* In the following pages, only one new genus has been described, 74y;- 
sostachys, so that we have 15 genera in all. In Engler and Prantl’s * Die Naturli- 
chen  pflanzenfamilien," now under publication, 23 genera are given. This is 
accounted for by the authors having placed Guadua under Bambusa, and by their 
having added two new genera founded by Franchet for West African species (A/rac- 
tocarpa and Риейа). The most recently published work on the genera is Baillon’s 
* Histoire des Plantes," Volume XII, 1894, in which 28 genera are admitted, the 
new ones being Gwaduella, Microcalamus (West Africa), Glaziophyton (South 
America), Fargesia (China), while Guadua is restored to generic rank. 
The distribution of bamboos depends upon climate. They are found more or 
less in all tropical and semi-tropical regions, but especially in Asia and in South 
America. In Europe there are none. In Asia they extend through India, Burma, 
the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago to China and Japan. In Australia there 
аге (so Baron Von Mueller, x.c.w.c., the Government Botanist in Victoria, informs 
me) four species, one only of which (Bambusa Arnhemica, F. von Muell) has yet 
been described; and there is one in New Caledonia. In Africa there are species 
of Отугепашћета in Abyssinia and East Africa, of Wastus in the Mascarene Islands, 
and of four new genera in West Africa, while South Africa has only one species. 
In America there are many species, but of genera distinct from those of Asia. 
Те descriptions given herein have been drawn up on the advice of Dr. С. King, 
as nearly as possible on a uniform system, giving, in regular order, the characteristics 
of the chief organs. And here it may be as well to give a few remarks on these 
characteristics. 
The сотмз or stems of all bamboos are more or less cylindrical, hollow in 
the interior, and separated by partitions into joints. The partitions are called 
nodes, and the portions between them are called internodes. In almost all the 
Indian bamboos, the culms are cylindrical, but in some species there is a slight 
tendency to angularity, as, for instance, in Dinochloa AMcClellandi, which has the 
joints arranged in zig-zag fashion, and the younger culms faintly quadrangular. In 
the species of Phyllostachys and in Bambusa arundinacea, the internodes are often 
grooved or flattened on one side. But in none of the Indian species is there 
anything like the marked angularity which is met with in the “square bamboo” of 
China, known at present by the name Bambusa quadrangularis, Fenzi (see article 
on “The square bamboo," by W. T. Thiselton-Dyer in “ Nature" for August 27th, 
1885, p. 391). In some Indian species the cavities of the culms are almost, if not 
quite, absent. This is especially the case with a certain number of culms in each clump 
+ ARUCNDINARIEE. Arthrostylidium, Athroostachys, Merostachys, Chusquea, and Planotia; all American, 
Вамрозеж. Naatus--Réunion ; Guadua—America ; and Greslania—New Caledonia. 
Axx. Вот. Por. Garp. Carcurra, Vor. ҮП. 
