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arrows with such deadly aim that they can even kill tigers with 
them, are a good example of such weapons. So are the assegais 
of the Basutos, the shafts of which are made from culms of 
Arundinaria tessellaico. It is said that some Malayan tribes use 
the bristles which are found on the sheaths of certain species as 
a means of poisoning their enemies. The bristles are mixed 
with curry, and escape observation; they stick in the victim’s 
throat, violent irritation and inflammation are set up, and, 
finally, death ensues. This, however, hardly comes under the 
category of the economic uses of Bamboos. The great debt 
which European commerce owes to the Bamboo must never be 
forgotten ; it was in canes of Bamboo that two Persian monks 
smuggled the first Chinese silkworms’ eggs to Constantinople for 
the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. 
I would willingly have dwelt longer upon this branch of the 
question, but I have already had my say upon it elsewhere,* and 
you have a wholesome rule that the papers which you honour 
by accepting shall break new ground. I propose therefore to 
give you some account of the uses to which those Bamboos 
which have been exhibited here to-day are put in their own 
country. 
I will begin with the five Indian species :— 
Arundinaria racemosa furnishes food for cattle and horses ; 
it is used for making mats, for roofing native houses, for fences, 
and other purposes. 
Arundinaria falcata makes Hookah tubes, fishing-rods, and 
basket-work. 
Arundinaria spathiflora and Arundinaria aristata (Fig. 63) 
are made into baskets, pipe-stems, pea-sticks, &c. 
Arundinaria Falconeri. Of the uses which this species 
serves I find no account. They probably do not differ from 
those of its congeners. 
We now come to the (from an economical point of view) far 
more interesting species of China and Japan. 
The foremost of these is Phyllostachys mitis, a truly glorious 
Bamboo, which, in its own country, grows to a height of from 
60 to 70 feet, with a girth in proportion. In the gardens of the 
Chateau Eleonore, at Cannes, there is a clump of which the 
canes measure 35 feet, and are 12 inches round. The walls of 
* See R.H.S. Journal , Vol. XIX. p. 359 at seq. 
