THE BAMBOO, 



238 



grocers' shops: the casks are then filled up, 

 headed down, and shipped. 



With the planters in our own colonies, the 

 process of sugar-making mostly ends with the 

 draining away of the molasses in the manner 

 just mentioned ; but in the French, Spanish, and 

 Portuguese settlements, it is usual to submit this 

 raw sugar to the farther process of claying. For 

 this purpose the sugar, as soon as it is cool, is 

 placed in forms or moulds, similar to those used 

 in the sugar refineries in England, but much 

 larger ; and these being placed with their small 

 ends downwards, the top of the sugar is covered 

 with clay moistened to the consistence of thin 

 paste, the water contained in which gradually 

 soaks through the sugar, and washes out- a far- 

 ther quantity of molasses, with which it escapes 

 through a hole purposely made at the point of 

 the earthen mould. It is then called clayed- 

 sugar. The loaves, when removed from the 

 forms, are frequently divided into three portions, 

 which, being of different colours and qualities, 

 arising from the greater effect of the water in 

 cleansing the upper portion, are pulverized and 

 packed separately for exportation. 



The molasses which have drained irom the 

 sugar, together with all the scummings of the 

 coppers, are collected, imd, being first fermented, 

 are distilled for the production of rum. The 

 proportionate quantity of this spirit, as com- 

 pared with the weight of sugar produced, varies 

 considerably with the seasons and management. 

 In favourable years, when the canes are fully 

 ripened, and the quality of the sugar is good, the 

 proportion of molasses and scummings is com- 

 paratively small, and the manufacture of rum is 

 consequently lessened. The proportion usually 

 made is reckoned to be from five to six gallons 

 of proof spirit for every hundred- weight of sugar. 



The Bamboo fbamhusa arundinacea). This 

 gigantic member of the family of reeds and 

 grasses has, when growing, an appearance not 

 unlike an immense sheaf of wheat standing on 

 end (see Plate VII., fig. ] .) Some of them are 

 upwards of sixty feet in height, and the quan- 

 tities of single canes which they yield is prodi- 

 gious. The cane is porous in the centre, and 

 partly hollow. Externally the epidermis is 

 composed of a hard wood, into which silex enters 

 so largely, that it will strike fire with steel in 

 the same way as a piece of flint. This plant is 

 indigenous to China; and although it grows 

 spontaneously and most profusely in nearly all 

 the immense districts included in the southern 

 portion of that empire, yet the Chinese do not 

 entirely rely on this profusion of nature, but cul- 

 tivate the reed with much care. They have 

 treatises entirely devoted to this matter, where 

 aU the rules of experience are propounded for its 

 culture, showing the proper soils, the best kind 

 of water, and the appropriate seasons for plant- 



ing and transplanting this most useful produc- 

 tion. Among this singular people, the bamboo 

 is used for almost every article of convenience 

 or luxury. Marco Polo says, that in his time 

 they had canes thirty English feet in length, 

 which they split in their whole length into very 

 thin pieces, and then twisted them together into 

 strong ropes three hundred passi (six hundred 

 English feet) long, that were used to track their 

 vessels on their numerous rivers and canals. M. 

 DeGurgenes says, that in the course of his jour- 

 ney through part of the celestial empire, he often 

 saw the Chinese making this kind of rope. The 

 artizans were mounted on scaffolds twelve or 

 fifteen feet high, and let the cord fall to the 

 ground as it was plaited. Van Braam, ano- 

 ther modern traveller, speaks of this bamboo 

 cordage as being admii'ably light and strong. 

 The sails of the Chinese junks, as well as their 

 cables and rigging, are made of bamboo. The old 

 Venetian also describes a pavilion of the grand 

 Khan, the roof of which was made of bamboo 

 cane, richly gilt and varnished. These bamboos, 

 he says, were each three palms in circumference, 

 and ten fathoms long, and being cut at the joints, 

 were split into two equal parts, and laid concave 

 and convex to form gutters. Tiie missionaries 

 inform us, that not merely the roofs, but entire 

 dwellings, are constructed of bamboo; this is 

 particularly the case in the southern province of 

 Se-chuen, where nearly every house is built 

 solely of this strong cane. Moreover, almost 

 every article of furniture, mats, screens, chairs, 

 tables, bedsteads, bedding, are all made of the 

 same material. This curious people also convert 

 the fibres of this plant into paper. In short, as 

 Van Braam remarks, scarcely any thing is to be 

 found in China, either upon land or water, into 

 the composition of which bamboo does not enter 

 or to the utility of which it does not conduce. 

 The same extensive use of the hollow reed is 

 made in Japan ; nor is it much less employed in 

 Java, Sumatra, Siam, Pegu, the Ladrone islands, 

 and other eastern countries. Even the young 

 shoots of the bamboo afford the Chinese an ar- 

 ticle of food, and its fibres serve them for candle 

 wicks. 



The Indian Cane (calamus veriis), plate VII. 

 fig. 2, grows straight and tall, without branches, 

 and is surmounted by a tuft or crown. Its bark is 

 thickly covered with straight spines ; but this be- 

 ingremoved,the straight smooth cane is displayed. 

 Sumatra produces this plant in great abundance. 

 Formerly the Dutch monopolized the sale of 

 canes from that quarter, and we were accustomed 

 to purchase them from this people, who studi- 

 ously withheld all information concerning the 

 plant from which they were obtained, fearing 

 lest travellers should discover how easily and 

 plentifully they were procured. The secret, 

 however, could not long be thus kept. As our 



