GRAMINEAE 17> 



Arundinaria macrosperma, Mx. {A. gigaiifca, Cha])m.) 



(Large) Cane 



(Figs. 18, 19) 



The stem of the cane, Hke its tropical relatives the bamboos, 

 combines lightness with strength to a remarkable degree, and for 

 that reason it is used very largely for fishing poles. Being hol- 

 low, single joints are also used by small boys for popguns and 

 similar toys. The leaves are evergreen or nearly so in our climate, 

 and the plant is offered for sale for ornamental purposes by some 

 nurserymen. 



There are traditions of remarkably luxuriant growths of cane 

 in Alabama and other southern states a century and more ago, 

 which would be hard to believe if they did not come from so many 

 independent and apparently reliable sources. According to Maj. 

 Harry Hammond, it is said to have once covered almost the whole 

 face of the earth in ui)])er South Carolina.* Early settlers in the 

 black belt of Alabama found it (or possibly the other species) so 

 abundant there that they called that the cane-brake region ; a name 

 still in occasional use. Down in the western division of the red 

 hills, or adjacent line hills, the trail from Claiborne to Suggsville 

 early in the last century is said to have traversed a dense thicket 

 of it, where the canes on both sides were worn by the saddle bags 

 of travelers, and grew as high as a man on horse-back could reach 

 with an umbrella. f Bartram in the 18th century claimed to have 

 seen specimens of it in the Mobile delta which were three or four 

 inches in diameter and thirty or forty feet tall.J But I have 

 never seen one much over an inch in diameter and twenty feet tall. 

 Just what happened to these vast thickets of tall cane is somewhat 

 of a mystery. No doubt grazing and fire have had much to do 

 with their disappearance, but one would hardly suppose that they 

 could have been completely wiped out in that way from such large 

 areas, and then superseded by other native plants which seem per- 

 fectly at home and look as 'hey might have been there for cen- 

 turies. 



The large cane blooms in April, but apparently only in the 

 last year of its life, when it may be as much as fifty years old; 



*South Carolina (handbook), p. 146. 1883. 



tT. H. Ball. (History of) Clarke County, p. 174. 1882. 



iBartram, Travels, (ed 1), p. 410. 1791. 



