GIANT BAMBOOS. 
215 
Measurements were made at 12 noon also, and these showed 
that the rate of growth was sometimes greater in the morn¬ 
ing, sometimes in the afternoon. 
Kraus did not associate these differences with changes in 
conditions. Neither did he associate the violent oscillations 
from day to day with any conditions of climate. On the 
contrary, he states that temperature, rainfall, and moisture of 
the air showed practically no oscillations of a corresponding 
nature. He gives, however, no records of the conditions. 
Moreover he found different halms on the same plant to 
show widely different rates of growth on the same day. To 
illustrate this circumstance I reproduce a small portion of 
one of the published tables. 
Table from Kraus. 
Date. 
1894. 
I. 
II. 
III. 
Length 
in Cm. 
Growth. 
Length 
in Cm. 
Growth. 
Length 
in Cm. 
Growth. 
January 1 
1,244 
47 
914 
24 
923 
31 
January 2 
1.288 
44 
942 
28 
964 
41 
January 3 
1,329 
41 
984 
42 
971 
7 
January 4 
1,341 
12 
1,006 
22 
1,015 
45 
The disagreement between the growth of the 3 culms was 
not always so great as on these particular four days. Kraus 
suggests that these oscillations may either be partly due to 
the resistance of the enveloping leaf-sheaths being suddenly 
overcome, or may represent “ Stossweise Aenderungen ” 
(of Sachs) of a magnitude previously unrecorded. 
In his “ Beitrage zur Wachstumsgeschichte der Bambus¬ 
gewächse,”* Shibata publishes a most interesting table in 
which is recorded the daily growth of six halms of Phyllos- 
tachys mitis in Japan for three weeks during April and 
May, giving at the same time records of the mean daily 
temperature and relative humidity of the air. These 
measurements are given only in illustration of the rate of 
growth, and there isno discussion of the very interesting points 
* Journ. Coll. Sei. Tokyo, 1900. p. 456, 
