HARDY BAMBOOS. 
369 
the greatest advantage by the stiffer dignity and dark sheen cf 
the other. Never is this better seen than where these are com- 
bined with rocks and water. Nor is this sheltering background 
necessary for ornament alone. Wind is a deadly enemy to 
bamboos, especially in early spring, when some screen from the 
north and east is absolutely essential. Some time ago I saw a 
fine lot of Bamboos set out in a row in one of our public gardens 
with no backing but a long line of high iron railings ; nothing 
could be worse adapted for showing off the plants, which, flogging 
the air first in one direction and then in the other, were never at 
peace for a moment. The leaves and branchlets were all bruised, 
tattered, and torn, while the effect aimed at was hopelessly 
missed. Had they been massed in a suitable framing, what a 
lovely picture they would have made ! As the plants were only 
potted and plunged, not planted in the open, I hope that another 
year may see them safely anchored in some haven of rest under 
the lee of a protecting bank of friendly shrubs. Bamboo and all 
subtropical plants should, in my judgment, be paraded in 
battalions, not in rows like the thin red line of which we read in 
military histories. 
I have, up to the present, only mentioned those hardy Bamboos 
which, so far as my own experience goes, are best worthy of 
being grown, first, as adapting themselves more readily to the 
conditions under which they will have to live in the average 
English climate, and, secondly, as furnishing typical specimens 
of their race. These, however, are only a fraction of those that 
may be hopefully cultivated by those who would go further than 
they would be led by the mere love of ornament ; though many 
of those which I shall now enumerate are most beautiful and 
attractive as well as curious. 
The hardy Bamboos which have hitherto been grown in this 
country, and all of which I have myself cultivated, are as 
follows : — 
1. Arundinaria falcata. 
2. Thamnocalamus Falconeri. 
(It seems, perhaps, absurd to begin a list of hardy Bamboos 
with two species which, except in the most favoured localities, die 
down every year, but these two are so generally found in gardens 
that I could not omit them. They should not be attempted in 
the Midlands.) 
