INTRODUCTION. v 
very earliest times, and it is considered in China and elsewhere to be a valuable 
medicine. For an account of it, it will be best for those who are interested in the 
subject to refer to various works, and especially to the article ** Bamboo" in Dr. G. 
Watt's “ Dictionary of the Economic Products of India," vol. I; to the account given 
at vol. ПІ, p. 587, of the “ Pharmacographia Indica," of Messrs. Dymock, Warden 
and Hooper; and to a paper by Sir D. Brandis, in *Ind. Forester XIII, 107." 
The внтгомез of bamboos are of two kinds: (1) those with cæspitose culms, in 
which the rhizomes are short, knotty, thick, solid growths which form an entangled 
network below (or occasionally pushed up above) the surface of the soil, and from 
which, as they grow, are thrown out the buds which develop into culms; (2) those 
with distant culms, in which case the rhizome pushes its way underground and sends 
out at intervals rootlets into the soil and buds from which the culms arise singly. 
Most of the Indian bamboos belong to the first section, and of this Dendrocalamus 
strictus and Bambusa arundinacea may be taken as types. Тһе most characteristic 
bamboo of the second section is Melocanna bambusoides, whose long rhizomes have 
the power of spreading so far and so quickly that vacant spaces in the hills where 
the bamboo occurs can be covered with culms in an incredibly short space of time. 
The species of Phyllostachys seem to have all this habit of growth, and two of the 
newly-described Arundinarias, А. Jaunsarensis and А. Rolloana, as also A. racemosa, 
are particularly remarkable for their power of spreading. The length of the rhizome 
Of 4. Jaunsarensis between culms often reaches as much as 3 feet, and the rhizomes 
of this and of 4. racemosa make good flexible riding canes. Bamboos with long 
rhizomes near the surface of the soil are very easy to propagate, for at the base of 
each sucker are buds which are capable of developing. In those with cespitose culms 
the rhizomes are much shorter, and the detachment of portions fit for propagation is 
not so easy, though it is quite feasible and usually successful if a portion of rhizome 
furnished with good buds and with the roots intact is removed. The new culms 
usually develop with the beginning of the rainy season, and it is noticeable that 
whichever is the chief rainy season in any part of India, that season is the one 
for the new culms to come up. In Northern India both Bambusa arundinacea and 
Dendrocalamus strictus send up their new culms in June or July, when the 
south-west monsoon begins; but in South India, as may be excellently seen on the 
eastern slopes of the Nilgiris (е.7., in the Coonoor Valley) the new culms appear in 
September or October, probably with the first burst of the north-east monsoon rains. 
| When Ше young culm-bud first begins to develop, a conical growth is seen 
protruding from the ground, covered with imbricating sheaths, often of a bright 
colour and furnished with blades. Gradually, the cone lengthens, the sheaths separate, 
the nodes appear, and in a greater or less time, according to locality and climate, a 
full culm is produced. Then usually, one by one, the sheaths drop off, the buds at 
the nodes put out branches, and these produce their leaves. Kurz in “ Bamboo and 
its use” gives an account of observations taken in Calcutta, under the superintendence 
of Dr. Wallich, which shewed that a culm of Dendrocalamus giganteus grew 25 feet 
9 inches in 31 days, and one of Bambusa Balcooa 12 feet, l inch in 23 days ; 
