September i, 1904] 



NA TURE 



423 



life must be very uncomfortable to their subjects, and a 

 doubtful kindness. If they are to become common, 

 mediocrity will find a new consolation. 



It is impossible, however, not to admire and, know- 

 ing Ostwald, not to share the warmth of feeling which 

 has prompted the publication of this book. It is 

 written on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary 

 of Ostwald's graduation, and in the 120 pages Prof. 

 W'alden gives a very readable account of his subject 

 from the age when the hero was " unser Wilhelm " 

 up to the present time. From it we learn that the 

 life of Ostwald has been free from any very dramatic 

 incidents, and that, like so many eminent men, he 

 was an ordinary boy and a not strikingly exceptional 

 student. When once inspired by the teaching of 

 Lemberg, he really breasted the sea of science and 

 struck out on the course which he has followed with 

 such success. His earlv career as a teacher was 

 fraught with scanty means and imperfect appliances, 

 but resolution, single-minded devotion and splendid 

 ability overcame all obstacles, and have been rewarded, 

 as we know, with every kind of success to which a true 

 man of science may properly aspire. The book will 

 bo read with interest not only by Ostwald's friends and 

 pupils, but by all who are interested in the foundation 

 of the modern school of physical chemists. A. S. 



Ihe Lepidoptera of the British Islands. A Descriptive 

 Account of the Families, Genera, and Species Indi- 

 genous to Great Britain and Ireland, their Pre- 

 paratory States, Habits, and Localities. By Charles 

 E. Barrett, F.E.S. Vol. ix., Heterocera, Geome- 

 trina — Pyralidina. Pp. 454. (London : Lovell 

 Reeve and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 12s. net. 

 The ninth volume of Mr. Barrett's great work 

 marks substantial progress, and practically completes 

 the Macrolepidoptera. About 180 species are described. 

 The Geometrina include the families Larentida (the 

 conclusion here given chiefly consisting of the great 

 genus Eupithecia, of which forty-eight British species 

 are admitted, one doubtful, but also including 

 Eubolia and its allies, formerly placed in a distinct 

 family), and Qinochromida, with only two British 

 genera, Tanagra and Aplasta. The Pyralidina include 

 the families Pyraustidae, Pyralidee, Hydrocampidae, 

 Endotrichidee, Scopariidse, Pterophoridee, Orneodidae, 

 and Phycitidae. The last family is not quite com- 

 pleted in vol. ix., so there now remain but the Gal- 

 ieriidae, Crambidae, Tortricina, and Tineina to be dealt 

 with. As it is possible that these may not require to 

 be treated in such great detail as the Macrolepidoptera, 

 perhaps four or five more volumes may be sufficient to 

 complete the book, which will remain as a permanent 

 record of the work accomplished by British lepidop- 

 terists during the latter half of the last century and 

 the opening years of the present. Among the more 

 interesting features of vol. ix. may be noted the care- 

 fully-drawn-up table of the large and difficult genus 

 Eupithecia, which ought much to facilitate the deter- 

 mination of species; and the exact records of the 

 occurrence of the rarer species of Pyralidae, many of 

 which are met with, at least in Britain, only singly 

 and sporadically at long intervals and in widely 

 separated localities. Many interesting species, some 

 of wide distribution abroad, have thus been added to 

 our British lists of late years. 



It will be seen that to a considerable extent Mr. 

 Barrett still follows an arrangement similar to that 

 of Stainton's "Manual"; it is, however, a great 

 improvement to associate the Pterophoridae with the 

 PyralidjE, as is now generally done. The Orneodidae 

 arc a more aberrant family, and we are not sure 

 that their real affinities have yet been finallv deter- 

 mined. 



NO. 18 18, \OL. yo] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Flowering of the Bamboo. 



I HAVE read Mr. Tingle's letter in Nature for August 11, 

 as well as Prof. Farmer's comments on it, and hope you 

 will permit me to add my remarks to the discussion of the 

 subject. 



Mr. Tingle ought to have specified which of the Chinese 

 bamboos it is that has now flowered. According to the 

 list given by Dr. Rendle in the recently published part of 

 the Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xxxvi., there are 

 about forty-two species of bamboo, large and small, in 

 China, and it would be interesting to know which of them 

 it is. Let us hope that Mr. Tingle is sending good speci- 

 mens to the Kew and British Museum herbaria. Until the 

 species referred to has been ascertained, discussion is rather 

 difficult, except from a general point of view. 



My own experience of bamboos is confined to India, where 

 there are more than 120 species, large and small, but I 

 have never heard that their flowering, even when it takes 

 place gregariously, has caused alarm among the natives. 

 The gregarious flowering of the common species such as 

 Dendrocalamus strictus or Bambiisa arundinacea often 

 takes place in an exceptionally dry season, when there may 

 also be partial failure of the crops, and on such occasions 

 advantage is sometimes taken of the general seeding to 

 collect and use the seeds for food. Signs of approaching 

 flowering may, perhaps, occasionally be received with mis- 

 giving as foreshadowing a dry season and bad crops, but 

 I have never heard of their being regarded with anything 

 approaching to superstitious terror. 



So far as we know at present, some of the Indian-Burmese 

 species only flower gregariously at long intervals, but even 

 then there is some doubt whether the flowering is local 

 only or widespread. The well known Kyathaungwa 

 {Bambusa polymorpha), a large species with culms up to 

 So feet in height and 6 inches in diameter, and notable as 

 a common associate of the teak tree, was collected in flower 

 by Dr. M'Clelland in Pegu in 1854, by Sir D. Brandis in 

 the Salween in 1862, and by Mr. S. Kurz in the Sittang 

 Valley in 1871, and flowers have once been reported since 

 from Bassein ; but in more recent years it has not flowered, 

 though its gregarious flowering is being anxiously awaited 

 by forest officers, who hope to use the opportunity for the 

 extension of teak reproduction. There are some species of 

 bamboo which flower regularly every year and do not die 

 off: among them are the little Arundinaria n'ightiana, so 

 common in the forests around Ootacamund in the Nilgiri 

 Hills; Bambusa lineata, a small reedy species of the coast 

 forests of the Malay Archipelago, e.xtending westwards only 

 to Rutland Island in the Andamans, though strangely 

 enough it has not, so far as I am aware, been known to 

 produce seed ; and Ochlandra stridula, a shrubby species of 

 the low country of Ceylon. The great majority of species, 

 however, have their chief flowerings gregarious, at more 

 or less regular intervals, while every now and again a few 

 clumps may be found in flower sporadically in almost any 

 year. This is especially the case with Dendrocalamus 

 strictus, the " male bamboo " so widespread in the 

 deciduous more or less dry forests of India and Burma ; 

 with the thorny Bambusa arundinacea of the Western 

 Peninsula; with Dendrocalamus Hamiltonii, the most 

 common species of northern Bengal and Assam ; and with 

 Bambusa Tulda in Bengal, the east coast hills, and Burma. 

 Gregarious flowerings may really be often quite local, 

 though widespread enough within their locality. 



When, in India, bamboos flower gregariously, they usually 

 produce quantities of good seed, and the old clumps then 

 die off ; but in sporadic flowerings my experience is that 

 seed is very little produced, or if produced infertile, while 

 the clumps occasionally may recover, though rarely. 

 Damage to a clump may often produce a partial or 

 sporadic flowering. Information on the subject is being 

 gradually collected in India ; the dates of flowering of the 

 different species are, when observed by forest oflRcers, 



