301 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
Udanti, not a dozen miles from its source. This spring was in the centre of 
alarge thicket of Katang bamboo, said to have all grown from the seed of an 
isolated clump. I can only give a guess at the age of the young trees. My 
own reconsidered impression is that the parent clump must have seeded after 
1870, but before 1882. Ihope the friend who put an end to the bull's career 
will be able to give a better estimate of the age of the young thicket. 
In 1878 I saw the beautiful bamboos of the Indore Residency, I know 
nothing of their history or pedigree, but imagine them to be of the same age 
as the young clumps I saw at Nagpur in 1865. 
In 1886 I saw a number of mature clumps at Gorukpur. These must now 
be very near the end of their life-period. 
In the Spring of the current year, 1893, we had bamboo clumps flowering 
in the gardens of Queen’s College at Benares and in the Civil Lines at 
Cawnpore. It is said (this is being verified) that the fine clumps at Dhariwal 
in the valley of the Ravee near Gurdaspur in the Punjab seeded last year. 
The building of Queen's College, Benares, dates from 1841—1843. It does 
not follow that the gardens were laid out atthe same time. Indeed it is 
believed that this was done by Mr. Griffiths, The present Principal, 
Mr. Wright, believes, on parole evidence or tradition, that the bamboos now 
seeding have been in the garden for forty-five years. But granting this, 
it does not follow that they are only forty-five years old. They may be older. 
They may have been transplanted forty-five years ago from a nursery, or they 
may have been then raised from roots partitioned off from a clump of some 
years’ growth. 
Pass on to our native beliefs. First of all, to the Bambusa arundinacea 
is attributed a life period of fifty to fifty-five years, Next, natives tell one that 
its seeding is not gregarious ; on the contrary, that, however widely distri- 
buted may be the progeny or the off-sets deriving from any one general 
seeding, all the progeny and all the off-sets must flower, seed, and die simul- 
taneously. Thirdly, they profess to believe that a general seeding coincides 
with drought or with scarcity after drought. 
It has been asserted that coincident with such scarcity will be found an 
unusual abundance of the edible seeds of forest trees, such as of the Sal tree 
(Shorea robusta), of the Nimar Anjan (Hardwickia binata), or the common 
Shisham (Dalbergia latifolia), and the like, a provision of nature for such 
a time of want. To this it has been objected that whereas coincidence attracts 
attention, the opposite condition passes unnoticed. This is a theoretical objec- 
tion of no great weight. 
Beyond question the flowering of the common male bamboo is rightly 
described as gregarious. Its life-period seems to be about fourteen years. On 
the same hills I have seen large patches seeding in different years—in 1870 and 
again in 1879, 
