CLASS III. ORDER II.] GRASSES. 67 



hand, and as far as the eye could penetrate into the forest, immense sym- 

 metrical clusters of bamboo, varying in diameter at their base from six 

 feet to twenty or thirty, and even to twice that width, as I ascertained 

 by actual measurement. For above eight or ten feet from the ground, 

 each of these clusters or columns preserved a form nearly cylindrical, 

 after which they began gradually to swell outwards, each bamboo 

 assuming for itself a graceful curve, and rising to the height, some of 

 sixty, some of eighty, and some even of one hundred feet in the air, 

 the extreme end being at times horizontal, or even drooping gently 

 over, like the tips of the feathers in the Prince of Wales's plume. 

 These gorgeous clusters stood at the distance of from fifteen or twenty 

 yards from one another, and being totally free from the interruption 

 of brush wood, could be distinguished at a great distance — more than 

 a mile certainly, in every direction, forming under the influence of an 

 active imagination, naves and transepts, aisles and choirs, such as none 

 but a Gothic architect ever dared to conceive. Overhead the inter- 

 lacing curves of the bamboos constituted as complete a groined roof as 

 that of Winchester or Westminster, on a scale of grandeur far beyoud 

 the bold conception even of those wonderful artists who devised that 

 glorious school of architecture. 



" On counting the seperate bamboos in some of the smallest, and 

 also in some of the largest clusters, I found the numbers to vary from 

 twenty or thirty to upwards of two hundred, and the height generally 

 from sixty to a hundred feet from the grdimd, to the point of intersec- 

 tion of the curves overhead. Most of the bamboos were somewhat 

 thicker than a man's thigh at the ground, where, as I have before said, 

 they are clustered so close as to be almost in contact. They then taper 

 off very gradually to the extreme end, where the point is not thicker 

 than a quill. 



" There occurs a joint at about every foot and a half, distinguished 

 not only by a slight flat ring or fillet, but by a set of small branches, 

 eight or ten feet long, striking out at right angles to the main bamboo. 

 These minor slioots are again divided into joints, from which other 

 series of shoots, still more minute, are thrown out, and so on for many 

 successions, the last always terminating in a sharp pointed narrow 

 leaf two or three inches long, and half an inch wide in the middle not 

 unlike a large tea leaf when spread out. As each bamboo of the hun- 

 dred or more, forming the cluster, sends out shoots from every joint, 

 and as all the joints of these subordinate plants do the same, a compact 

 mass is formed by these innumerable little branches, which cross one 

 another at every possible angle. If a person were to fill a hat full of 

 pins and needles, and shake it about for some minutes, it might give 

 a notion of the inextricable confusion which is presented to the eye in 

 looking into one of these clustered columns of bamboos. It is only at 

 the top, where the bend takes places, that the foilage has full room to 

 play, or where the tapering arms of this magnificent plant form, by 

 their meetings and crossings, a complete system of pointed arches 



