January, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 25 
Bamboo in the Occident 
By Ida D. Bennett 
HE bamboo signifies happiness. Per se it 
Meyed <t/ also signifies utility. It would tax one’s in- 
“) genuity to find a substitute for this versatile 
plant that would adequately fill its place in 
the domestic economy of the dweller in the 
Orient. It may be said to “greet the com- 
ing and to speed the parting guest,” as it 
furnishes the first cradle or mat that receives him on his 
advent into the 
world, and is the 
familiar lair of his 
daily pilgrimage 
until in time he is 
laid away to rest in 
a cofin fashioned 
from its flexible 
canes. 
So to the dweller 
in the Orient it ap- 
peals for its useful- 
ness. But it has an 
artistic claim on 
both the denizen of 
the Orient and the 
Occident. Graceful 
in growth, feathery 
in foliage and beau- 
tiful in color, the 
various varieties of 
the bamboo are emi- 
nently adapted to 
the adornment of 
the suburban home 
or any large grounds. 
Most especially are 
they desirable for 
planting on the margins of artificial waterways, around arti- 
ficial pools, in low swampy corners and wherever they can 
be abundantly supplied with water and sunshine. 
For dwellers in the tropics and the Orient they are 
strangely hardy, many of them standing our hard northern 
winters admirably. For some years I have had large clumps 
of them in the open ground, and while they lose more or 
less of their tops if left unprotected, the roots seem ironclad 
and have lived through the roughest weather, and I have no 
doubt that if properly protected the tops would prove quite 
hardy too. 
Fi 
A noble clump of Bambusa argentea 
Even when the tops winter-kill, they will make consider- 
able new growth if given an abundance of water and a warm 
sunny place during the summer months. Some of the varie- 
ties—especially Bambusa metake—make excellent pot plants 
for drawing-room, corridor or veranda. This variety has 
the largest leaves of any of the bamboos and is quite as 
handsome as a palm. It has also the merit of growing and 
thriving where a palm would be utterly discouraged and lie 
down and die. It has 
also the advantage 
of making a more 
moderate growth 
than most other 
varieties of bam- 
boos, rarely attain- 
ing a height of over 
eight feet and mak- 
ing an average 
growth, when pot or 
tub grown, of five 
or six. For grow- 
ing in the open 
ground it has 
proven very hardy 
with me. Arundi- 
naria is another va- 
riety well adapted to 
houseculture. As 
B. metake is not- 
able for the size of 
its leaves, so Arun- 
dinaria_ falcata is 
distinguished by the 
delicacy of its stems 
and tiny leaves. It 
makes a thick, 
graceful, fan-shaped clump and is as hardy as the more 
vigorous B. metake. 
Among the taller growing species are B. verticillata, a 
handsome species, standing much cold, with handsome fol- 
iage and yellow stems; B. violescens and B. aurea, these 
do not stand the winters as well as the two first, but where 
they can be taken up and stored during winter and planted 
out in the spring they are very fine. Probably the most vig- 
orous of all bamboos that are brought to this country is 
B. vulgaris. This variety, under favorable conditions, is said 
to attain a height of seventy feet in six or seven years. There 
