214 
LOCK : THE GROWTH OF 
The climatic conditions during the Buitenzorg experiments 
are described as having been very regular. In the months 
November to January, during which the growth of Dendro- 
calamus was recorded, the temperature varied only between 
23° C. and 32° C. On only 5 days out of 57 did no rain fall. 
From November, 1894, to January, 1895, Kraus took daily 
measurements of three halms belonging to a single clump of 
bamboos, which he describes as being labelled 64 Dendro- 
calamus sp. from Ceylon.” From his description and 
measurements there can be no doubt that this was a young 
clump of Dendrocalamus giganteus Munro , a native of 
Burma introduced into Ceylon in 1856, and now becoming 
widely distributed. The following are the principal results 
of these measurements. 
The early part of the grand period showed a gradual and 
steady increase in the rate of growth ; later on there was 
considerable irregularity. When the culms had reached a 
height of nearly 14 metres there was a marked falling off in 
the rate of growth, and this Kraus supposed to indicate a 
rapid setting in of the final part of the grand period, 
characterized by slower growth. Here the records come to 
an end, and Kraus gives no indication of the total height 
which his culms would finally have reached. My own 
measurements of a clump of corresponding extent indicate 
23-24 metres as a likely height. 
During the latter part of the period of Kraus’s observations 
some very violent oscillations in the daily rate of growth took 
place. Thus on six consecutive days the following amounts 
of growth are recorded for a particular culm 27, 57,3, 48, 5, 
and 23 centimetres. 
Kraus found an average daily growth of 22*9 cm., the 
greatest growth recorded during 24 hours being 57 cm. Obser¬ 
vations taken at 6 a.m. and at 6 P.M.for seven days showed on 
the average a ratio of 1*8 : 1 between the amount of growth 
by night and that by day. On a single occasion growth was 
more rapid by day than at night ; on all other occasions less. 
