272 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



profane. Take for instance Dendrocalamtts strictus, the famous 

 so-called male Bamboo of India. It is found, as we are told in 

 Mr. Gamble's exhaustive monograph on the " Bamboos of British 

 India," on dry hill slopes in the Siwaliks, on the rocky hills of 

 Central India and the Deccan; it is also found in Burmah, in 

 Bengal, and in moist localities in Southern India. In the 

 former case, where the soil is dry, the culms are small, very 

 hard, and solid, or nearly so ; in the latter case, where there is 

 much moisture, the culms increase in size, and are hollow. The 

 sheaths, leaves, and even the flower spikelets show corresponding 

 variations. In damp Ceylon, where the species is not indigenous, 

 but is grown in the Botanic Gardens, I was unable to find a 

 record of a single solid culm ever having been observed. But 

 even in the most favourable circumstances it is not every culm 

 in any one plant that will be sufficiently solid to furnish a spear- 

 shaft ; some will always be more hollow than others — and this 

 inconsistency vexes the souls of our military officials at the War 

 Office and in the Government of India. Spear-shafts are 

 needed : how is it that every culm will not furnish one ? 

 There must be something rotten in the state of our forestry ; 

 and so our foresters are reviled because Bamboos will follow the 

 laws of Nature rather than the commands of gentlemen in 

 cocked hats. 



But wherever they may be found, in whatever quarter of the 

 globe, in whatever conditions, in whatever variations, to man 

 the Bamboos have been an inestimable gift. The Chinaman, 

 probably, may lay claim to the credit of having turned that gift 

 to the most profitable account ; and, indeed, he is fully alive to 

 his indebtedness. Tz'u Chun, " this gentleman," is a common 

 classical name for the Bamboo ; it is taken from a verse of the 

 poet, Wang Hui Chili, who exclaims, " How can I exist for a 

 single day without this gentleman ? " Nor is this the language 

 of exaggeration. Just think what the Bamboo means to the 

 Chinaman. It carried his mother as a bride to her husband's 

 house ; it will carry himself to his grave. In the meantime it 

 will have built and furnished a house for him.* The cost of the 

 materials of the house is estimated by Dr. Wells Williams at $5. 

 It will have supplied him with several articles of food and one 

 of medicine (the famous tabashir) ; with clothing, with paper 

 * Dr. Wells Williams, Middle Kingdom, vol. i. p. 300. 



