24 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. IV. 
experts on bamboos, divides them up into three classes when dealing with 
this question. The first group seeds yearly or nearly so and dies after 
flowering. With the species included in this group we are not con¬ 
cerned. The second he describes as flowering gregariously and period¬ 
ically, all culms of one clump and all clumps in one district flowering 
simultaneously. He adds, however, that in different districts they flower 
at different times. In this case the culms die after ripening their seed, 
and usually the under-ground rhizomes also die. To this class belong 
Bambusa polymorpha (Kyathaung) and Bambusa arundinacea, two 
species with which we are closely concerned in the paper-pulp business. 
The third group contains irregularly flowering species, amongst which 
come Cephalostachyum pergracile (Tinwa). 
Definite data as to the intervals at which the different species of 
bamboos flower are not yet available. Brandis states that Bambusa 
polymorpha flowers at long intervals, he records it as flowering in 
different localities in Burma in 1854, 1859, 1860, 1862 and 1871. 
Since then no general flowering has been recorded. Bambusa arundinacea 
of the West Coast and Peninsula is said to flower every 30 to 32 
years, while Cephalostachyum pergracile (Tinwa) belongs to the third 
class, and is said by Brandis to flower frequently, at times gregariously 
over large areas. While on inspection in the Toungoo Division, an area 
of Tinwa which flowered in 1904 was seen ; many of the old dead culms 
were standing over a dense crop of young plants, six years after the 
flowering had taken place, and thess old culms, though dry, appeared 
still suitable for pulping. Melocanna bambusoides , the last species with 
which we are concerned, flowers at long intervals. Brandis states that 
in Arakan it flowers every 30 to 35 years. The writer inspected 
certain areas which had flowered in various places in Arakan and he 
arrived at the conclusion that the bamboos flowered in large patches 
of several square miles on one hill-side, ' but found no instance of 
wholesale flowering all over one district or large catchment area.* 
The question of the flowering of the bamboo and its subsequent 
drying is a factor that has to be seriously considered as affecting the 
sustained yield. There are, however, certain factors which make it 
possible to rely on a continued supply of raw material from the bamboo 
areas. The first is that generally more than one species occurs in every 
*Note. —It is understood that B. arundinacea has flowered heavily in certain 
localities of Kanara during the rains of 1911. Since the above was written the writer 
has noted nearly universal flowering of M. bambusoides in the Cachar Division of Assam. 
[ 181 ] 
