BAMBOO. 



(BambuscB.) 



The bamboos are giant members of a group (grasses *), the 

 other individuals of which, while widely distributed, valued, 

 and very numerous, are for the most part insignificant as to 

 bulk, height, and structural characteristics. The canes and 

 bamboos are exceptions in that they form what may well be 

 called forests, and produce woods used in construction. The 

 Bamboos {BainbuscE), including about twenty genera and two 

 hundred species,! are distributed unevenly over the tropical 

 zone. 



The bamboo plant with its numerous stalks and delicate 

 foliage resembles a plume of giant ostrich feathers. The stems 

 attain heights of seventy feet and diameters of four and six 

 inches (see Fig. 3 plate). Knots or joints are at first close 

 together, but are later one or two feet apart. Growth is sur- 

 prisingly rapid. A Philippine specimen, which when meas- 

 ured was eighteen inches high and four inches in diameter, 

 grew two feet in three days.J Florida stalks have reached 

 heights of seventy-two feet in a single season. § The plants 

 are apt to take complete possession of the ground on which 

 they grow. Those who use bamboo value it highly. It is 

 employed entire or else split into segments. Some can be 



* Grasses, "one of the largest and probably one of the most useful groups of 

 plants. ... If grass-like sedges be associated, . . . there are about 6000 species, 

 representing nearly one third of the Monocotyledons." (Coulter, " Plants," pp. 240- 

 241.) The various pasture-grasses, cereals, and sugar-canes are here included. 

 Bamboos and canes are distinct in that thev afford structural materials. 



f B. E. Fernow notes (p. 2g, Forestry Bulletin No. 11): "In addition to the genus 

 bambusa, the genera Arundinaria, Arundo, Dendrocalamus, and Guadua are the 

 most important. " All of tribe Bambusae. 



X Frederic H. Sawyer, Memb. Inst. C. E., "Inhabitants of the Philippines," 

 Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1900 fp. 5). 



§ Page 29, U. S. Forestry Bulletin No. 1 1. 



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