THE BAMBOO. 



89 



a little to the enjo^rment of life by its adaptability for 

 making musical instruments, for from the hollow inter- 

 nodes of the stem flutes, clarionets and sounding-boards 

 are made. Even strings are made of I^amboo. Indeed 

 C. Schroter tells us that the ancient Chinese constructed 

 a kind of telephone out of Bamboo b^- which the^' 

 connected their outposts. The hollows in ^-oung stems 

 generally contain clear water, with which travellers in 

 India and in the mountains of Java quench their thirst. 

 The Bamboo plant seldom flo'wers : but when this occurs 

 there is a rich harvest of grain, The seeds are eaten 

 like rice, or ^made into bread, and on more than one 

 occasion, as lor instance in 1812, a famine lias been 

 a^'erted b}- the timeh- flowering of the Bamboos. So 

 that Wallace, one of the authorities 

 best acquainted \i,-ith the tropics, might 

 justly declare that the Bamboo is an 

 invaluable product of those regions. Tlie 

 ^^ Chinese and Japanese, and the inhabitants 



\^ , of India and tlie 

 ^■^ y^ Indian Archi- 

 pelago ha^'e 

 learnt how to util- 

 ise the Bambo(5 



Cis///s )iiOfisj!c!i('}isis. 



