14 BULLETIN 1329^ U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTTJRE 
soft, especially when young; nodes not prominent, narrow, grayish at first, 
becoming greenish as the culm grows yellow with age ; internodes 8 to 18 inches 
in length, shorter below ; branches slender, wiry, emerging in alternate tufts 
from the nodes and clotliing the culm for most of its length with foliage, one 
or more branches of the tuft stronger and longer than the others ; leaves 
linear-lanceolate, bright green above and below, 6 to 8 inches long, three-fourths 
to 4 inches wide ; culm sheath 6 to 12 inches long and sometimes 8 to 10 inches 
wide, clothed on the upper surface with thicli brown hairs ; rhizomes short, 
thick, and gnarled, not running. The internodes in Plate XIII show the 
characteristic habit of this plant ; also the culm sheaths, naked culms, etc. 
(PL VIIL) 
AVAILABLE AND PROSPECTIVE TYPES 
The foregoing constitute the important bamboos suitable for com- 
mercial and domestic use in this country. The list is not a long one, 
but it gives range enough to meet our immediate needs. Further 
introductions will necessarily be slow except where it is possible to 
obtain seeds, so .that for some time to come we must be content with 
bringing into wider use the forms which are already available and 
waiting to be properly exploited. 
Further data on potential and prospective useful types will be 
found in connection with the discussion and descriptions of orna- 
mental bamboos. 
USES OF BAMBOO 
The uses of the bamboo in the parts of the world where it flourishes 
are so numerous that to catalogue them w^ould make a volume. It 
has been well said that there is not in the entire vegetable king- 
dom another plant which is so intimately bound up with the life 
of man. This applies especially to the thickly populated parts of 
China, Japan, India, Ceylon, and Java. In the last-named countr}', 
only a little larger than Cuba and with a population of nearly 30,000.- 
000, the bamboo is so woven in with the life of the natives that it is 
doubtful whether they could long exist without it. On that wonder- 
ful island, where everything grows so luxurianth^, the bamboo lends 
an indescribable charm to the landscape. In the cool of the even- 
ing, after the usual daily tropical rain, one may stand on an eminence 
overlooking lovely valleys, and the landscape for miles will be seen 
dotted with clumps of most wonderful bamboos. From beneath all 
these clumps the natives begin to emerge, and soon the banks of the 
stream are alive with bathers dressed in their gay-colored sarongs. 
Nearly every bamboo clump shelters a little native thatched hut 
or two. These picturesque homes blend so Avonderfully into the 
bamboo frondage that it is difficult to see them at all from above. 
Freeman-Mitford, in his fascinating book {10)^ speaking of the 
uses of the bamboo in China and Japan, says : 
To the Chinaman, as to the Japanese, the bamboo is of supreme value : 
indeed, it may be said that there is not a necessity, a luxury, or a pleasure of 
his daily life to which it does not minister. It furnishes the framework of his 
house and thatches the roof over his head, while it supplies pai)er for his 
windows, awnings for his sheds, and blinds for his veranda. His beds, his 
tables, his chairs, his cupboards, his thousand and one small articles of furni- 
ture are made of it. Shavings and shreds of bamboos are used to stuff his 
pillows and mattresses. The retail dealer's measures, the carpenters rule, the 
farmer's water-wheel and irrigating pipes, cages for birds, crickets, and other 
pets, vessels of all kinds, from the richly lacquered flower stands of the well- 
to-do gentleman down to the humblest utensils, the wretchedest duds of the 
very poor, all come from the same source. 
