274 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



arrows with such deadly aim that they can even kill tigers with 

 them, are a good example of such weapons. So are the assegais 

 of the Basutos, the shafts of which are made from culms of 

 Arundinaria tessellaia. It is said that some Malayan tribes use 

 the bristles which are found on the sheaths of certain species as 

 a means of poisoning their enemies. The bristles are mixed 

 with curry, and escape observation ; they stick in the victim's 

 throat, violent irritation and inflammation are set up, and, 

 finally, death ensues. This, however, hardly comes under the 

 category of the economic uses of Bamboos. The great debt 

 which European commerce owes to the Bamboo must never be 

 forgotten ; it was in canes of Bamboo that two Persian monks 

 smuggled the first Chinese silkworms' eggs to Constantinople for 

 the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. 



I would willingly have dwelt longer upon this branch of the 

 question, but I have already had my say upon it elsewhere,* and 

 you have a wholesome rule that the papers which you honour 

 by accepting shall break new ground. I propose therefore to 

 give you some account of the uses to which those Bamboos 

 which have been exhibited here to-day are put in their own 

 country. 



I will begin with the five Indian species : — 



Arundinaria racemosa furnishes food for cattle and horses ; 

 it is used for making mats, for roofing native houses, for fences, 

 and other purposes. 



Arundinaria falcata makes Hookah tubes, fishing-rods, and 

 basket-work. 



Arundinaria spathiflora and Arundinaria aristata (Fig. 63) 

 are made into baskets, pipe- stems, pea-sticks, &c. 



Arundinaria Falconcri. Of the uses which this species 

 serves I find no account. They probably do not differ from 

 those of its congeners. 



We now come to the (from an economical point of view) far 

 more interesting species of China and Japan. 



The foremost of these is Phyllostachys mitis, a truly glorious 

 Bamboo, which, in its own country, grows to a height of from 

 60 to 70 feet, with a girth in proportion. In the gardens of the 

 Chateau Eleonore, at Cannes, there is a clump of which the 

 canes measure 35 feet, and are 12 inches round. The walls of 

 * See Fv.H.S. Journal, Vol. XIX. p. 359 ct seq. 



