PART II. 

 STRANGE PLANTS AND THEIR WAYS. 



THE BUILDER'S TREE OF CHINA. 



1. A teee of great importance in the uses of daily life 

 to those who dwell in the localities of its growth is the bam- 

 boo. It is found in Asia and the West Indies, but it is in 

 the eastern portion of the former continent that it enters 

 most largely into the needs of the people. It has a hard 

 texture, with hollow, jointed stems, and grows to a height 

 of about fifty feet. Strictly speaking, the bamboo is a gi- 

 gantic grass, but, as great numbers grow together to a lofty 

 height, it has the aspect of a noble tree. It rarely attains 

 to a thickness of more than ten inches, or a distance be- 

 tween the joints of more than five feet. 



2. The Chinese have developed the art of bamboo cul- 

 ture, for with them it is the national plant to such a de- 

 gree that they produce black as well as yellow bamboo, 

 and the Emperor has an officer whose special duty it is to 

 look after his bamboo gardens. It is said that a famine 

 was prevented in India in 1812 by the sudden flowering 

 of the bamboo-trees, and fifty thousand people were in the 

 jungles gathering the seed for food. To reach the blos- 

 soming time takes thirty years, when the plant produces 

 seed profusely and then dies. 



3. The young and tender shoots of the bamboo are 



