14G 
THE BAMBOO CANE. 
[Nature and Art, October 1, I860. 
matted foliage of the lowland shrivel up, and then 
toss its tendrils, each for a moment in what looked 
like agony. At last it reached the shore, and, with 
a plunge and roaring hiss, met the dashing waves 
of the sea ! 
When I returned to consciousness, and opened 
my eyes, the stream of golden sunlight made me 
close them at once. 1 tried to move, but I skeined 
to be bound hand and foot, and to feel a weary sort 
of lassitude. Attempting to open my eyes, a hand 
was laid upon them, and a voice which I knew to 
be that of black “ Sal,” said in a whisper, “ You 
keepee your eyes shut, massa. You all right now, 
’board ship. Sal bring um back from de mouth ob 
de bad place.” 
THE BAMBOO CANE. 
(Bambiisa arundinacea.) 
By W. B. Lord, Royal Artillery. 
I T would be difficult amongst all the treasures 
placed at man’s disposal by an all-wise Provi- 
dence, to find one possessing so wide a field of use- 
fulness as that now under consideration. As there 
are sermons in stones, so are there discourses most 
eloquent inscribed on the ridged and furrowed bark, 
the spotted leaf, and amongst the waving grasses 
and trees of the forest, the ebbing and flowing tide, 
the drifting “ gulf-weed,” and the branching coral ; 
each tells its tale of wise provision to those who 
roam amongst the works of Nature, and faithfully 
study at her shrine. From the frost-bound North, 
where the pigmy Esquimaux launches his skin 
canoe amongst the floes of floating ice, and 
captures the oil-bearing seal and fish — destined to 
furnish light, heat, and food through the long- 
twilight of an Arctic winter — to the prairies of the 
far West, where the mounted Indian hunter dashes 
in pursuit of the countless throngs of bison dotting 
the plains, Nature provides for man, as well as in 
other lands, Avliere, under an ardent sun, lie requires 
more varied material with which to supply his daily 
wanfs and necessities. Our present object is to show 
how amply many of the most important require- 
ments of those resident within, and on the borders of, 
the Torrid Zone, are supplied by the gigantic grass, 
so wisely and profusely placed ready to their 
hands. Nothing can exceed in beauty the graceful 
bamboo, as its feathery foliage waves and flutters 
in the breeze. The colour of its long, narrow, 
pointed leaves is charmingly refreshing, and the 
shade afforded by the natural canopies often formed 
by it is most enjoyable. It will be observed, on 
examination, that the bamboos brought to this 
country for fishing-rods, walking-sticks, <fcc., are 
hollow, and that the hollows are divided at certain 
intervals by knots, or “ internodes,” as they are 
called. These are produced by bundles of sap- 
bearing fibres, which are thrown across each other. 
They, like the rest of the interior, are lined with a 
soft white coating. From the outside borders of 
these knots are produced alternate lateral buds ; 
and from these grow the alternate branchlets, which 
form of arrangement gives such elegance to the 
full-grown cane. No plant with which we are ac- 
quainted has anything like the rapidity of growth 
of the bamboo ; it sometimes grows as much as four 
inches in one day. In favourable situations it has 
been known to shoot up twenty feet in height, and 
attain a circumference of from nine to ten inches in 
six weeks. Many natives, experienced in matters 
relating to cane, assert that every bamboo reaches 
its full altitude in one year from the time of its 
springing from the ground, and that the only 
change it afterwards undergoes is in the deposit of 
woody matter in its substance. It is very doubtful, 
however, as to whether this is the case, as many of 
the “ topes,” or clumps of bamboo, which we have 
examined in Bengal, appear to be of considerable 
age, and of growth too irregular, even in the same 
clump, for all the shoots to have attained their full 
height at any given period, as light, space, and 
character of soil must all influence their develop- 
ment. Another notion prevails that in certain 
localities the cane will not bear seed until it is 
fifteen years old, after which it immediately dies. 
Although growing wild over a vast extent of the 
East, the bamboo is at times carefully cultivated, 
and great pains are taken in its management. It 
is very singular, that although rich spongy soil is 
so congenial to its growth, continued moisture 
destroys it to a certainty. We had an opportunhy 
of seeing this fully proved. A small rivulet, which 
had served to drain the superfluous water from a 
miniature lake in the woods, had been dammed 
back by a fallen tree ; leaves, sticks, and dead water- 
plants had added their mass to the obstruction. 
The lake had to find for itself a new outlet, which it 
did at the head of a valley on its border, converting 
that which was a bamboo thicket into a swamp. 
Every cane was soon dead, and standing stark and 
withered, whilst a thousand flowering plants and 
trailing creepers made haste to clothe them with 
their leaves and blossoms. So destructive to the 
bamboo is a too humid soil known to be, that a 
wide, deep trench is cut round each plantation, in 
order to carry off the water. 
The bamboo is propagated from young sprouts, 
which are placed in pits about two feet deep, pre- 
pared for them at the close of the autumn months. 
As the season advances, and the young plants take 
root and shoot up, they are cut ofi' close to the earth, 
in order to impart vigour to the parent root. And 
now comes into operation the art of the cane 
