456 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[January i, 189a. 
It was anring the years 1863—64, while engaged 
in Coffee planting in the district of Wynaad, m the 
province of Malabar, that I witnessed the phenome- 
non of the seeding of Bainbusa arundinaoea. The 
plantation I had cliargo of at the Unie was aitmted 
in the midst of an extensive Bamboo jungle within 
but a short distance of the frontier of Mysot^ and 
on the main road from the Malabar coast to Sorin- 
gapatam and Bangalore. At the time of ray arriy^ 
in the district, the niagnihcont Bamboo forrat, in- 
terspersed with snch deciduous hard-wooded trees 
as Teak, Kino, Bose, and Bandal woods, and others 
of an equally valuable description, nltliongli 
unknown to me at the time, upon t^ eve ot a 
sudden and wonderful transformation. 
square miles thickly covered with the exquisitely 
(^aoefnl clumps of the Bamboo, mving to the lands- 
cape as far as the eye could roach a beauty difficult 
to describe, were to bo charged in the brief 
of a little over a year by fire into a “mirred and 
blackened wildomoss, thoi my riads of nodding Pmines 
that for half a century liad graced the woodlands 
wore, at the call of Nature to blossom, yield their 
Heed, and disappear from the face of the earth aa 
by the breath of a destroying angel. 
The aouth-weat monsoon rams of 186d had ceased 
about the middle of September, leaving the jungle 
tracts of Malabor in the very heyday of their glori- 
ous greenery, the Bamboo plumes waving to and 
fro by the gentle breezes still prevailing from the 
westward, glistening in the light of a tropical sun, 
and, as yet, showing no trace of the change they 
were so soon to undergo. Aa the season advanerf, 
hot parching winds from tho cast began to take the 
place of llie more kindly breezes from the west, and 
by Christinas, the leaves of the Banilmo thickly 
covered tho ground. Simultaneously with the uia- 
appoaranco of the loaves from the laterals, the m- 
Horoscenco began to appear, and the aspect ot the 
country in every direction changed as it by magic. 
No one was prepared for such an eventuality, and 
the English uWers in tho district wore struck with 
Bomotliing'akiii to alarm when tho f^t dawned upon 
them that; in the oourso of a very brief period, not 
a living Bamboo would be left in the forest. A few 
there were who refused to believe that the culms 
would perish after ripening their seeds, and were 
only persuaded by the actual realisation of the fact. 
As nearly aa I can remember, the seed was niatimed 
bv the middle of May, the piuiioles of gram weigh- 
ing down tho cluras to a third of their length, and 
giving them withal a graceful as well as frmtful 
ippeM-anco. When tho seed, which was about the 
size and had much the appearance of sniall Cats, 
had fully matured, it fell to the ground in showers 
bv every passing breeze, and then came a happy 
season for both man and bird. Sea-fowl, spur-fowl, 
partridge, jungle-fowl, and quail, with which tho 
jangles abounded, revelled in, and got fat upon, the 
plentiful supply of good food so suddenly bestowed 
upon them by tho hand of Nature, and man himself 
was not slow to take advantage of the offering. 1 he 
rneliea from Mysore einployed on tho Coffee plaiita- 
Uoi coffid witli difficu'lty be induced to rciuain 
steadily at work during this Bamboo liarvest, and 
the jiLle tribes coull not bo persuaded to work at 
all, but Bubaiatod solely on the fallen gram ot tho 
Bamboo, so long aa any could bo gathered from the 
ground. This seed they appeared to highly value, 
and judging from appearances, it sooraed to be very 
nutritious. The groin was ground into meal liy the 
aid of small liana-mills, and two modes wore em- 
ployed in its oOoking--the one by bakinj^ in the 
form of cakes, and the other m boiling it inf a 
nf thick DorridKe. 1 mysolf ato tUo cakes on 
several oocasionTana found them fairly palatable. 
Those jungle tribes, although perfectly aware of the 
value of the vast granary thus laid at their teet, 
were, notwithstanding, improvident to a cWoe^ 
They ate abandantly of the frmt 
the ground but made no provision against the ap- 
proaching destruction of the whole 
So after these had licked the ground, ’ 
perforce, to return to work on the Coffee plantation . 
Xt the height of Iho dry season, and when the 
earth was thickly covered with a coating of Bamboo 
leaves and seed, those fires began to do their work, 
and, apparently, so completely that it was hard 
to believe that a single Banibo seed could have es- 
caped destruction, aud that in the course of a decade 
or so, another such magnificent Bamboo forest could 
bo produced; but Nature, in some mysterious way, 
was equal to the occasion, and before I left India 
in 1877, the Bamboo zone of Malabar and Mysore 
was clothed with another jnngle, consisting of 
cIumpR approaching iu size and grandeur those that 
perished in 1863. 
From the date ot tho seeding of the Bamboo, tho 
clumps stood throughout the following monsoon 
leafless and dead, but intact ; and it was not till 
nearly a year after that their complete destruction 
by fire began. AVheu tho dead and sapless clumps 
caught li^t, tho whole country was filled with 
Uame and smoke for weeks together; loud reports 
were heard night and day without intermission, re- 
sulting from the pent-up gases within tlio hollow 
culms, and the whole Bamboo zone so picturesque 
and beautiful but a twelvemonth before was quickly 
reduced to a scene of desolation. Tho total destruc- 
tion of the clumps, however, was not accomplished 
in one season, many escaping tho fires till the second, 
and some till the third. 
Tho young seedlings soon began to appear, liut 
msde but slow progress for several years. Aa time 
went on, the annual growth of culms waxed stouter 
and stouter, till at last a thick undorm-owth of low 
Bamboo tufts covered the ground, which, in tho 
fulness of time began to send up gigantic canes, 
till the forest was restored to its former strength 
and beauty. 
With reference to the period of time required for 
the maturation of Eambusa arundinacea, I-^waa at 
some little trouble, while in India, to ascertain from 
tho native tribes inhabiting the jungles ot the district 
tho approxiiiiato duration of its existence, and was 
told by several men, apparently about sixty years ot 
age, living widely apart, that they remerahered a 
similar phenomenon of the seeding of tho whole of 
tho Bamboos of the district when they wore lioys. 
Prom this I concluded that about fifty years was tlio 
limit to tho life of this giant species of Bamlmsa. 
About threo months before the flowering of tlio 
Bamboo, I had occasion to clear some 80 or 10 acres 
of land for the purpose of Coffee planting, tlioculnis 
of the Bamboo being cut close to the m'onnd. I 
waited patiently, curious to know tho roault of such 
an operation. When the monsoon rains began, the 
huge stools loft in tho ground began at once to send 
up numerous small culms of from 8 to 10 foot in 
iioight, and furnished with laterals. On the oessn* 
tion of the rains those immediately flowered and 
seeded, after which the old stools perished absolutely , 
so that the act of cutting down the original ouliiia 
had only the effect of delaying, not friiatratiiig. Na- 
ture iu her efforts at reproduction. — J. Lowitm. 
— Oartleuers' OhrotucU. 
[The flowering must take place at shorter in- 
tervals than fifty years, for we found tho bamboos 
in South Wynaad, flowering, seeding and dying in 
1877. We suspect much depends on seasonal iiiil li- 
enees. 1887 was a year of faiiiiiio from drought. — 
Ed. 7’. .1-1 
— -♦ 
Thb Storx oi a ooflee-plant as told by Dr. Kerr 
Cross possesacB quite a romantic interest. Some 
ten years ago the authorities of Kow Gardena sent 
out a number of slips of the coffee-plant to Blantyre, 
in Central Africa. Only one survived tho j iurnoy. 
This slip grew, bore seed proved itself wondorfully 
productive, and is now the progenitor of a million 
of plants growing on one estate alone, besides hun- 
dreds of thousands of others in that region. In 
three years the plants give a return. Tho quantity 
is also good, aa shown by the fact that Shire 
oofleo has recently been fetching wholesale 112s. 
a hundredweight in the London market.— A/, Mail, 
Nov. 26th. 
