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CHAPTER V. 



INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC GRASSES. 



The Bamboo may be called the king of grasses, yet his 

 family, unlike most descendants of royalty, are remark- 

 able for utility. The strong stems of the bamboo are 

 employed for timber and cordage, and the juice of one 

 furnishes the sweet liquor called arrack. Entire houses 

 are built of bamboo in South America, the large old 

 plants being used for the walls, the young and slender 

 ones for the thatch ; various kinds of furniture are made 

 from bamboo, as well as carriages, pipes, arrows, vases, 

 and instruments. The Chinese make their jalousies of 

 bamboo, and they form a very simple pouch for powder 

 and shot of a cane with a knot in the middle and a plug 

 at each end. The negroes make boxes, baskets, nets, 

 and bags of bamboo. It will scarcely be considered as 

 an additional recommendation to the bamboo that the 

 bastinado is administered with it. 



A near ally of the bamboo, the Brazilian Reed, per- 

 forms a most useful office in the economy of nature. 

 These tall grasses imbibe so much moisture from the 

 springy earth that their hollow stems are always full of 

 liquid, and thus form living fountains thirty or forty 

 feet high, each stem measuring five or six inches in 



