ENDOGENOUS SERIES. 191 



opened and flattened into rough boards, splitting everywhere 

 but holding together.* For vessels it is cut off with reference 

 to the partitions. The subject is thus summarized by Dr. 

 Martin :t "The Chinese make masts of it for their small 

 junks, and twist it into cables for their larger ones. They 

 weave it into matting for floors, and make it into rafters for 

 roofs. They sit at table on bamboo chairs, eat shoots of 

 bamboo with bamboo chop-sticks. The musician blows a 

 bamboo flute, and the watchman beats a bamboo rattle. 

 Criminals are confined in a bamboo cage and beaten with 

 bamboo rods. Paper is made of bamboo fibre, and pencils of 

 a joint of bamboo in which is inserted a tuft of goat's, hair." 



The manipulation of this valuable material is not yet 

 understood in America. Prof. Johnson notes | that the wood 

 of "bamboo is just twice as strong as the strongest wood in 

 cross-bending, weight for weight, when the wood is taken in 

 specimens, with a square and solid cross-section." ^Dr. Fernow 

 considers the bamboo worthy of extensive trial throughout the 

 Gulf region. § 



* Prof. Isaac F. Holton, " New Granada," Harper Bros., New York, 1857 (p. 

 109). 



t " Cycle of Cathay," Fleming H. Revell Co., 1899 (p. 172). 



J Materials of Construction, 1897, p. 689. 



§ Henry G. Hubbard, U. S. Forestry Bulletin No. 11, A. B. Mitford. 



"The Bamboo Garden," Macmillan, 1896. Kurz, "Bamboo and its Uses," 

 Calcutta, 1876. 



"Bamboo as substitute for Wood," Fernow, p. 203, 6th Annual Report. 



