ON THE ECONOMIC USES OF BAMBOOS. 



271 



Of far greater import is the connection of the Bamboo with 

 letters. The " Ch'u shu chi nien," or, Annals of the Bamboo 

 books, is an historical classic of an authenticity which has 

 never been doubted, and which was discovered more than 1,G00 

 years ago, graven in the old seal character upon bamboo tablets. 

 And in this connection it is amusing to see that only a few weeks 

 ago the Corean Government, wishing to record for all ages their 

 sense of gratitude to Mr. McLeavy Brown, the able financier 

 whose name has been recently so much before the public on 

 account of the Russian intrigue to oust him from his post, 

 enacted that his great deeds should be " written on silk and 

 graven upon Bamboo Tablets." The Cocoanut Palm can show 

 no such connection with letters and politics. If it wishes to save 

 the family honour in this respect, it must call in its cousin the 

 Talipot Palm (Corypha umbraculifera), though it would be 

 difficult to argue that the writings of the Buddhist monks, the 

 highest use to which its leaves have been applied, could compare 

 with the importance of the " Annals of the Bamboo Books." 



As regards geographical distribution it may be said briefly 

 that Europe is the only quarter of the globe in which Bamboos 

 are not found. In Asia, America, Africa, and Australasia, in 

 fact in all tropical and subtropical climates, they are indigenous. 

 Probably there are more species in Asia and in South America 

 than in any other part of the world. I say probably, because of 

 the African genera and species little information has, up to the 

 present, been available. They affect the most various situations. 

 The home of some families is among the steaming swamps of 

 Siam and the Malay Archipelago ; others thrive at high alti- 

 tudes on the snow-clad Himalayas. One species, Chusquea 

 aristata, " first makes its appearance at a height of 13,000 

 feet above sea-level on the eastern chain of the Andes in 

 irregular patches ; at 15,000 feet (the height of Mont Blanc), it 

 completely covers the whole surface, forming what the natives 

 call a carizal, impenetrable to man or beast. It continues 

 nearly to the limits of perpetual snow " [Jameson, quoted by 

 General Munro, p. 61 of his Monograph on the "Bambusea3 "]. 

 It not unfrequently happens that one and the same species is 

 found in widely differing conditions as to climate, rainfall, and 

 soil, and, not unnaturally, so changed in character and appear- 

 ance as to puzzle the very elect, and completely bewilder the 



