876 



Dendrocalamus, Nees. 



Dendrocalamus strictus, Nees in Linnaea, IX (1834) p, 476. 



Culms 20-50 ft. high by 1-3 in, diam., hollow in moist 

 cKmates, solid in dry, young glaucous green, old yellowish, 

 nodes swollen, lower often rooting, internodes 12-18 in, (FL Br. 

 India, vii. p. 404) ; greyish-green, often blotched, closely packed 

 in dense clumps; internodes 10-15 in. long, 2-3 in. diam., in 

 dry districts almost solid, in a moist cHmate hollow with thick 

 walls (Brandis, Indian Trees, p. 676). 



ZZZ.—Beddome, FL Sylv. t. 325; Brandis, For. Fl. t. 70; 

 Gamble, Bambuseae of Br. India (Annals Roy. Bot. Gdn. 

 Calcutta, \di. 1896), tt. 68, 69; Camus, Bambusees, t. 35, f. C; 



t. 87, f. B. 



Solid or Male Bamboo. 



India, Burma. Cultivated in Nigeria, West Indies — Domi- 

 nica, etc. 



Grain used for food in times of famine and the young and 

 tender shoots are largely eaten as a vegetable; the leaves are 

 much sought after as food for buffaloes and horses and the 

 stems are used for various purposes — rafters battens, spear and 

 lance shafts — ^for this purpose the canes with no central cavity 

 are sought for (Gamble, Memo, to Director, Kew, Jan. 2l8t, 

 1918) — walking-sticks, whip-handles, the manufacture of mats, 

 roofing, etc. in India, where it is stated to be the most univer- 

 sally used of all the Bamboos (Watt^ Comm. Prod, India, p. 102), 

 One of the chief European uses for tliis bamboo is the manu- 

 facture of lance shafts (I.e.) and it has been suggested for use 



* in aeroplane construction. 



Half a pound of seed, purchased at the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Calcutta, was obtained for the Western Province 

 Botanic Garden Oloke-Meji in 1906 (Col. Rep- Misc. No. 51, 

 1908 (for 1906), p. 90) and in 1907 it v/as reported that plants 

 had been put out in the gardens at the Governor's Rest House, 

 Tbadan, and a plantation made (S. Nig. Govt. Gaz. Suppl. 

 30th Oct, 1907 — Report on Forests & Agric. W. Prov. for June 

 Quarter 1907 : Ibid. Suppl. 15th April 1908, for Sept. Quarter 

 1907). This bamboo is said to be suited to dry places and to 

 succeed well in the West Indies (Agric. News, Barbados, 

 March 23rd, 1907, p. 92). In the Western half of the dangs 

 of Surat it is estimated that there are 35 milUon culms of this 

 bamboo which on a five year cutting rotation — of the haK of 

 each clump would give 14,000 tons of dry material or 5600 tons 

 of pulp for paper making per anmmi (Pearson, Indian Forester, 

 xlvi. 1920, p. 603 : Bull. Imp. Inst. 1920, p- 539). There is a 

 large and growing local demand for Bamboo to be met here and 

 throughout India. 



This species is the commonest, strongest and best all round 

 of the Indian Bamboos, deciduous, found in all the dry forests 

 of Central India, the Deccan, Burma and perhaps most of all 



