278 journal of thl royal horticultural society. 



as a profit -bearing crop upon the land, seems to me in the highest 

 degree improbable ; our sun is not strong enough to ripen the 

 wood for practical purposes, and moreover we labour under one 

 notable disadvantage which must always be against our pro- 

 ducing culms of any size ; in their own home the hot season is 

 identical with the rainy season, and it is this combination of 

 heat and moisture which gives the plants their marvellous 

 development; whereas in this country such warmth as is vouch- 

 safed to us comes with the dry season. We entirely lack that 

 steamy atmosphere which is the secret of tropical vegetation. 

 If anywhere, it will be in Cornwall and in parts of Ireland, that 

 a success may be scored, but even in the most favoured localities 

 the experiment will be costly, and the result slow of attainment, 

 as I shall show you presently. Besides, even if we could reach 

 the highest conceivable success, there would not be the same 

 demand for our canes as there is in China or Japan ; we should 

 not put bamboos to a tithe of the uses which they serve in those 

 countries. Who, in this climate, would care to live in a Bamboo 

 hut? What fisherman would put to sea in a Bamboo-rigged 

 junk ? 



In some of our colonies the case is different. I spoke to you 

 just now of the Bamboos which are being grown in Ceylon. In 

 that island, where wood is much needed, so much of the primeval 

 jungle having been cleared to make way first for coffee, then for 

 cinchona, and lastly for tea, I have every faith that such valuable 

 Bamboos as Phyllostachys mitis, P. nigra, and Arundinaria 

 japonica (Metake) might be grown with great profit, displacing 

 those inferior species which are now planted. In their East 

 Indian possessions the Dutch are setting us a good example in 

 this respect. Probably their long connection with Japan has 

 made them sensible of the great economic value of the Chinese 

 and Japanese Bamboos. A member of their Legation in Japan, 

 Mr. Van de Polder, has made a digest of the native treatise on 

 these plants, which has been officially published by the colonial 

 museum at Haarlem ; and two years ago the director of that 

 museum, who evidently takes the deepest interest in the subject, 

 wrote to me for further information as to the scientific nomen- 

 clature of species of which only the Japanese names were given. 

 There must be many places in our possessions where the 



