COLONEL MUNRO'S MONOGRAPH OF THE BAMBUSACE.E. 3 





excellent observer, states that he never more than once saw Bambus« Balcooa in flower ; 

 and I have only seen four specimens of it in the very large collections I have had access 

 to. Humboldt, referring to this subject, says, " Mons. Mutis herborized for twenty 

 years in the country where Bambttsa Gnadaa formed marshy forests, several leagues 

 broad, without being able to procure a flower ;" and the flowers of this species, I would 



observe, are still very rare. Humboldt 



interesting fact, that Bonpl.uid 



found it once in flower. I have Been a few flowering specimens, collected by Mr. Spruce 

 on the Rio Negro, near the Cassiquiare River, the very locality indicated by Humboldt. 

 This rarity of flowering specimens had often induced me to believe that the Bamboos 

 generally, with one notable exception, unlike most Grasses, were extremely limited in 

 their distribution. 



However, some of the species which flower annually, as the male Bamboo (Dendro- 

 calamtis strictus), and can thus be easily collected, are ascertained to b(3 widely distri- 

 buted : D. strictus is found over a large portion of India, North and South, East and 

 West, Burmah, Tenasserim, and Japan. 



Some of the Arun dinar ice also, which die down to the ground every year and, 

 springing up again, flower annually, are often found in Collections. Flowering speci- 

 mens of the true Bambusa artmdinacea are also common in herbariums, although the 

 plant takes a long time in coming to the flowering state. It is, however, very widely 

 spread, and always must attract attention when in flower. I may here mention that 

 Dr. Hooker is of opinion that this Bamboo does not flower at any prescribed age, as is 

 commonly supposed, but at any period when full-grown and the circumstances of the 

 season are favourable to its flowering. 



This opinion is confirmed by numerous statements from various careful observers, 

 collected together in the 13th and 14th volumes of the Journal of the Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Society of India. The late Sir W. Sleeman stated, as a fact observed by 

 himself, that in 1836 all the large Bamboos in the Deyrah-Dhoon, which had been the 

 principal feature of beauty in the valley for the last twenty -five years, ran to seed and 

 died. Those which had been transplanted during the previous season, and those trans- 

 planted twenty years previously, all died together. He also adds that it was generally 

 believed in the valley that a man who had seen two seedings of tjie Bamboo must be 

 about sixty years old. Dr. Wallich mentions that a celebrated grove of Bamboos, which 

 surrounded the city of Rampore, in Rohilcund, blossomed universally in 1824, and every 

 stem died ; and he was informed that the same event had happened forty years previously. 

 Mr. Spilsbury states that all the Bamboos between Jubbulpore and Mundlah seeded in 

 1839, and died shortly afterwards. Similar facts as to the death of whole forests of 

 Bamboos after flowering are mentioned about the Melocunna bambusoides (Bambusa 

 baccifera, Roxb.), which flowered generally in Tipperah, Rungpore, Arracan and Chitta- 

 gong, 1863-66, and died immediately afterwards, causing considerable inconvenience in 

 Tipperah in following years, in consequence of the absence of all Bamboo fitted for 

 building-purposes. In opposition to these statements, Br. Anderson, the able Superin- 

 tendant of the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta, states that in 1857 and 1858 many of the 

 Bamboos near Calcutta and on Parasnath flowered and seeded, but in no case that he 



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