88 
WILLIAM SEIFRIZ 
period." The Kew plants died just as did the wild ones. It is worthy of 
special note that the Kew plants, after being transplanted to an entirely 
new and different environment, flowered simultaneously with the wild 
plants in Jamaica. 
It is, therefore, immediately apparent that Chusquea ahietifoUa had 
just ended (in 191 8) a life cycle of about thirty- three years during which 
time it had grown vegetatively only, until the last year when it flowered, 
disseminated its seeds, and died. 
There are but three other species of climbing bamboo, all belonging to 
the genus Arthrostylidium. These also, like the Jamaican Chusquea, are 
found only in the West Indies. It is very probable that at least one of these 
other species goes through a cycle similar to that of Chusquea ahietifoUa. 
Arthrostylidium sarmentosum has been collected in flower only once (6). 
Many days of tramping over the mountain trails near Cinchona revealed 
but a single green specimen of Chusquea, the only living plant among many 
hundreds of dead ones bordering the trail in the two-mile walk from Cin- 
chona to Morce's Gap. Whether the presence of this sole living mature 
plant among so many dead ones is due to certain edaphic conditions which 
have delayed flowering and thus possibly produced a plant of altered life 
cycle, is uncertain. Its possibility will be discussed in detail later. 
The ascent of Blue Mountain Peak showed a similar state of affairs to 
exist in that locality. The trail to the summit was lined with innumerable 
patches of dead bamboo. Several green plants were found but these few 
were not fresh and thriving in appearance, being apparently in a dying 
condition. 
Some days later I learned of green plants growing on an exposed, rocky 
spur. Investigation first revealed short, fresh, green tufts of Chusquea, 
which proved to be young shoots from old rootstocks. This region had 
recently been burnt over. The charred stubble was still evident. The 
presence of green Chusquea here seemed easily explainable: the parent 
plants had been burnt to the ground before their life cycle was complete, and 
the living rootstocks had sent up new shoots which were continuing the 
growth of the plants and thus carrying on the vegetative portion of the life 
cycle beyond the normal limit. Opposed to this supposition is the state- 
ment of Hackel (7) that small plants from cuttings or layers of bamboos 
blossom at the same time as do the parents from which they were taken. 
It would be very interesting to determine experimentally just how such a 
catastrophe as the destruction of that part of the plants above ground shortly 
before their time of flowering would affect the normal life history of a plant 
like Chusquea. 
Continuing along the spur above mentioned, I subsequently found a 
fair-sized area with numerous old but green and thriving plants. They 
were not in flower but were healthy, actively growing specimens, sending 
out an abundance of long, young shoots. Here was a prominent exception 
