Indian Forest Records. 
16 
[Vol. IY. 
as far as the paper industry is concerned, it is quite as suitable for pulp" 
as that species. 
Melocanna bambusoides —the Wanwe bamboo of Arakan, Burma 
and Assam—is found throughout Arakan, the Surma and Assam Valleys 
and Chittagong. It has an entirely different habit to those above men¬ 
tioned in that, instead of growing in clumps, it emerges from the ground 
at short intervals, each stem being at a considerable distance from the 
next. It is a small, unarmed, soft bamboo, rarely over 30 ft. to 50 ft. 
in height, weighing from 3 lbs. to 10 lbs. when dry, with thin walls and 
small nodes. A full description of its mode of growth is given in Part 
IV of this report. 
2. Bamboo as a fibre-yielding plant. 
Bamboos come under the Natural Order Gramineae, to which order 
also belong the grasses. The fibres formed by the vascular bundles 
are extremely silky and fine and if seen under a microscope show fine 
barbs, an important factor in the “ felting ” and strength of pulp made 
of this material. The fibres in the internodes are arranged in regu¬ 
lar parallel lines, with no tendency to be twisted or contorted, as is the 
case in certain species of timber, so that they can not only be split 
with great ease, but also be cut up into very regular sections. Another 
important point is that owing to the regular arrangement of the fibres 
and to the bamboo being hollow, the fibre can easily be reduced 
by crushing to a substance not unlike tow, an alternative me¬ 
thod of treatment to cutting the bamboos before boiling which 
has been proposed by Baitt. That bamboos lend themselves to 
either of these methods of treatment is an important consideration 
in obtaining uniform digestion while boiling. 
The suitability of bamboo fibre for the preparation of paper-pulp has 
been already fully demonstrated in former years by experiments carried 
out on a laboratory scale by various experts. The question of the 
quality and grade of paper produced by the various species of bam¬ 
boos is fully discussed in Part III of this report. 
3. Mode of growth of bamboos. 
Mode of growth of Bamboos. —In order to determine the best methods 
of cropping bamboos in order to obtain the largest sustained yield, it 
is necessary to know something about the mode of growth of the various 
species. It might be said with justice that this information is out of 
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