KEY TO GENERA H 



are equipped with musical instruments constructed of bamboo. 

 These pieces are of the same general character as brass instru- 

 ments and include horns, clarinets, flageolets, saxophones, flutes, 

 piccolos, and drums. A church in Las Pinas, a few kilometers 

 from Manila, has a famous organ with bamboo pipes. 



For construction purposes bamboo should be cut a year after 

 it has reached mature size and after the rainy season; that is, 

 in most part of the Philippines, after November. If cut during 

 the rainy season the culms are full of sap, which soon attracts 

 small beetles in great numbers and these rapidly destroy the 

 bamboo. In practice, newly cut bamboo is often kept in water 

 for several weeks in order that the sap, or at least the sugar 

 and starch contents of the sap, may be eliminated. Filipino 

 bamboo carpenters say that when flies gather around the newly 

 worked bamboo, it is a sign that this bamboo is not durable. 

 The flies, of course, are attracted by the sugar in the bamboo. 



Owing to the wide distribution of bamboo and the ease with 

 which it is worked without any special implements, it offers 

 a promising field for the development of local household in- 

 dustries for the manufacture of various useful and ornamental 

 articles. If this industry were developed, no doubt considerable 

 export trade could be secured. 



Key to the genera of Philippine bamboos. 

 1. Climbing. 



2. Flowers in widely scattered, dense, globose heads; rare, known 



only from Mindoro Cephalost achy mm. 



2. Flowers not in widely scattered, dense, globose heads. 



3. Spikelets very small, ovate Dinochloa, 



3. Spikelets elongated, linear or linear-lanceolate. 



Schizostachyum. 

 1. Erect. 



2. Two and a half meters in height or less, only on high mountains, 



wild Arundinaria. 



2. Clumps one to three meters in height, leaves small and whitish, 



cultivated only Bambusa glaucescens. 



2. More than 3 meters in height. 



3. Base of clump protected with long interlaced spiny branches. 



Bambusa spinosa. 

 3. Base of clump not protected with long spiny branches. 



4. Culms thin walled; mostly small or medium sized bamboos. 

 5. Keels of palea broadly winged; rare, known only 



from Mindanao Guadua. 



5. Palea not winged Schizostachyum. 



4. Culms thick walled; mostly large bamboos. 

 5. Pericarp thin, adnate to the seed. 



6. Filaments free Bambusa. 



6. Filaments connate in a thin tube.... Gigantochloa. 



5. Pericarp fleshy or crustaceous, separable from the 



seed Dendro calamus. 



