ON THE ECONOMIC USES OF BAMBOOS. 
271 
Of far greater import is the connection of the Bamboo with 
letters. The “ Ch‘u shu chi nien,” or, Annals of the Bamboo 
books, is an historical classic of an authenticity which has 
never been doubted, and which was discovered more than 1,600 
years ago, graven in the old seal character upon bamboo tablets. 
And in this connection it is amusing to see that only a few weeks 
ago the Corean Government, wishing to record for all ages their 
sense of gratitude to Mr. McLeavy Brown, the able financier 
whose name has been recently so much before the public on 
account of the Russian intrigue to oust him from his post, 
enacted that his great deeds should be “ written on silk and 
graven upon Bamboo Tablets.” The Cocoanut Palm can show 
no such connection with letters and politics. If it wishes to save 
the family honour in this respect, it must call in its cousin the 
Talipot Palm (Corypha umbmculiferci ), though it would be 
difficult to argue that the writings of the Buddhist monks, the 
highest use to which its leaves have been applied, could compare 
with the importance of the “ Annals of the Bamboo Books.” 
As regards geographical distribution it may be said briefly 
that Europe is the only quarter of the globe in which Bamboos 
are not found. In Asia, America, Africa, and Australasia, in 
fact in all tropical and subtropical climates, they are indigenous. 
Probably there are more species in Asia and in South America 
than in any other part of the world. I say probably, because of 
the African genera and species little information has, up to the 
present, been available. They affect the most various situations. 
The home of some families is among the steaming swamps of 
Siam and the Malay Archipelago ; others thrive at high alti¬ 
tudes on the snow-clad Himalayas. One species, Chusquea 
aristata, “first makes its appearance at a height of 18,000 
feet above sea-level on the eastern chain of the Andes in 
irregular patches ; at 15,000 feet (the height of Mont Blanc), it 
completely covers the whole surface, forming what the natives 
call a carizal, impenetrable to man or beast. It continues 
nearly to the limits of perpetual snow ” [Jameson, quoted by 
General Munro, p. 61 of his Monograph on the “Bambusese ”]. 
It not unfrequently happens that one and the same species is 
found in widely differing conditions as to climate, rainfall, and 
soil, and, not unnaturally, so changed in character and appear- 
| ance as to puzzle the very elect, and completely bewilder the 
D 2 
