200 



feet tall, with flower clusters six inches across, while the colors are 

 orange, or scarlet, or deep crimson. In every case the flower 

 cluster is a dense head, in which the chief color comes from the 

 conspicuous bracts, while the individual flowers are small and by 

 no means showy. The outer bracts are usually somewhat 

 larger, and spread horizontally, thus simulating the rays of a 

 composite. Within these the flat cluster of flowers blooms 

 centripetally, so that the resemblance to a composite head'^is 

 quite noticeable. After blooming the bracts wither, and the 

 heads of subspherical fruits become ovoid. Few tropical plants 

 are so conspicuous when in bloom as these gingers, with their 



Fig. 21. Old and young stems of Dendrocalamus giganteus. 



tall, gracefully curved stems and stiff erect peduncles with 

 crimson heads. 



Lastly, before leaving the garden, one reaches the collection 

 of bamboos. The largest species here is the famous Dendrocala- 

 mus giganteus, of which two clumps are planted. These are now 

 fourteen years old and about ten feet in diameter. The indivi- 

 dual stems are at least sixty and probably nearer eighty feet 

 high. The diameter of the mature stems averages six to eight 

 inches, but seems to be increasing with each successive generation, 

 for new canes now" coming up have a diameter of as much as a foot. 



