528 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I December 19,1889. 
means £5 as the produce of one plant, while, strange to say, the 
plant itself if put in the market would not fetch that price. 
"When the spikes are expanded and the flowers open it does the 
plants no harm, but rather, I imagine, is to their benefit to keep 
them in a cool and dry structure, giving little or no water mean¬ 
time. The flowers keep thus much longer in good condition, and 
the breaks, though later, come more evenly and in greater number 
than if kept on in the stove. Before returning to the stove the 
foliage and pseudo-bulbs are thoroughly washed, a white scale 
appearing in small numbers, and this is the period when cleans¬ 
ing can be pursued with the greatest success and with the least 
chance of damage to the plants. I have seen plants very much 
damaged by the minute Orchid thrips, but it is only where a very 
high temperature and a dry atmosphere is kept up that this destruc¬ 
tive pest attempts to gain a footing, and as it is on the young 
growths that thrips congregate the damage they effect is of a very 
serious nature. Whenever they are seeD, or rather the blackish 
appearance of the pseudo-bulbs and foliage which results from their 
attention, for the insects themselves are not easy of detection, the 
sponge must be brought into immediate and unremitting use. 
The kind of soil this Ccelogyne appears to do best in is one of 
best fibrous peat, sphagnum, and sand, with free drainage. In 
potting it is best to give good shifts, and allow the plants to remain 
undisturbed for a few years, as my experience shows that they 
flower best when undisturbed at the roots. Our plants are freely 
watered from the time the growths are well started until the 
flowers are open, when the water pot is dispensed with for a month 
or two. I have tried plants in a cool house, but results have been 
so much inferior that all our stock is now grown in a stove 
temperature.—B. 
The Clyde Disaster. 
I have much pleasure in informing you that this fund amounts 
to £450, including the munificent donation of 20 guineas from 
G. N. Stevens, Esq., Tulse Hill ; 3 guineas from Messrs. Hurst and 
Son ; 1 guinea from Mr. A. Methver, gardener to Baroness A. 
Rothschild, Geneva, and other smaller sums. As we have another 
and final Committee meeting on Friday next, I cannot foreshadow 
either the distribution of the money or the thanks to the Journal 
of Horticulture for kind co operation with us, but will give you 
full particulars next week. —Fred. Horsman, Hon. Sec . 
BAMBOOS. 
The Kew Bulletin for December contains several interesting chapters, 
and amongst them is one comprising a report of a visit to the Riviera, 
and notes on the tropical and subtropical plants there seen. The 
remarks on Bamboos are here reproduced. 
After the Palms the most tropical feature in the gardening of the 
Riviera is the Bamboos, which are largely used in the composition of 
the best gardens, both public and private. To a northern gardener 
the elegance and grandeur of some of these Bamboos constitute some of 
the chief chai ms of the Riviera. Some of the specimens are of very 
large dimensions, as for instance one of B. vulgaris, in Baron Vigier's 
garden at Nice, which measures 40 feet through in every direction, and 
is 35 feet high. It contains hundreds of stems or canes, each 3 inches 
in diameter, and straight and smooth as a gun barrel. It is planted on 
one side of the lawn near the house. As fences, screens, and boundary 
lines the Bamboos are frequently used, and nothing could be better, as 
they are quick growers and evergreen. All the kinds noted were in 
splendid health, and from the manner in which they had taken posses¬ 
sion of the ground it was evident that their requirements are abun¬ 
dantly satisfied. The finest and healthiest examples are in wet ground, 
often on the edge of water. Most of them are heavily manured 
annually. 
In England we have not hitherto made the most of this beautiful 
family of plants, many of which may be grown out of doors successfully 
in all the milder parts of the country, whilst in large conservatories, 
where they would get protection from cold in winter, a still greater 
number would be found to thrive. That they are much superior to 
many of the plants at present used for such positions must be evident 
to anyone acquainted with the extraordinary elegance and grace of a 
well-grown Bamboo. 
The Kew collection comprises over fifty named sorts, a few of which 
are tiopical, whilst the bulk of them are either quite hardy or require 
only the temperate conditions supplied by the winter garden. 
The names of Bamboos are as confusing as are those of garden Palm 1- . 
In one as in the other it is only very rarely that the plants flower under 
cultivation, so that many of the names which are given by nurserymen 
can only be problematical. For garden purposes this would not be of 
much consequence, the difficulty arising only when growers do not 
agree as to what names the plants shall bear. 
Now that so many kinds of Bamboo are in cultivation under favoured 
conditions on the Riviera it would be worth while to watch them, and 
as they flower get them properly determined. 
It is genera'ly supposed that nearly every member of the Bamboo 
order perishes immediately after flowering. There are many recorded 
instances of this having occurred. But with regard to a considerable} 
number of the species the exact flowering age has not been ascertained. 
Some are said to grow forty years before flowering. Another remark¬ 
able fact is that all the plants of one generation flower at the same time, 
no matter how different may be the conditions in which they happen to 
be placed. I was told that all the p'ants of Thamnocalamus Falconeri 
(Bambusa gracilis) of the Riviera flowered and died last year. Nume¬ 
rous seedlings have since sprung up about the old stools, but the latter 
certainly all perished. This proved to be the case with a plant of 
Arundinaria falcata, which flowered at Kew in 188G. 
The following are the kinds noted. The names in brackets are what 
I consider to be the correct names, according to Munro, &c. 
B. aurea, Sieb.—A Japanese species, now well known in gardens. 
It was in cultivation at Kew in 18(56, and is here still. It is one of the 
most elegant of the hardy Bamboos. In the gardens of the Acclimatisa¬ 
tion Society at Hyeres there is a magnificent specimen with stems 
25 feet high, and not more than 1* inch in diameter. The nodes are 
prominent, and less than 4 inches apart on the lower part of the stem. 
When ripe the stems are of a rich greenish-yellow colour. The leaves 
are small, with a distinct petiole. 
B. gigantea ( Bendrocalamus giganteus , Munro).—The largest of all 
the Bamboos. The specimen at the Palm house at Kew produces stems 
40 feet long and 12 inches in circumference, but wild plants have stems 
as much as 26 inches round. In the garden at Villa Valetta, Cannes, 
there is a very fine mass with stems 30 feet high and 4 inches in 
diameter. It is a native of India. 
B. gracilis (Thamnocalamus Falconeri, Hook, f.).—A slender andr 
somewhat fragile stemmed plant from the Himalayas. It is not 
uncommon in gardens, as it makes an elegant pot plant. It was 
plentiful on the Riviera last year, when all the plants flowered. There 
is a plant at Hyeres called B. gracilis rustica, in which the leaves are 
narrow, with incurved margins. 
B. Mazelii , Hort.—A fine mas3 at Hyeres and Cannes. The stems 
are 25 feet high, bright yellow when mature, the nodes prominent and 
close together at the base, the branches loose, and the leaves short and 
twisted on the petiole. It looked suspiciously like B. aurea. 
B. Metalte ( Arundinar'a japonica, Sieb. & Zucc.).—Much used oa 
the Riviera, where it is as ornamental as it usually is in England. It 
is always strongest when grown near water, although it grows well in- 
an ordinary border. At Kew there is a specimen 12 feet high. Accord¬ 
ing to Munro it is known as B. mitis in the gardens of Paris. 
B. mitis, Poir.—A magnificent specimen on the lawn at Villa 
Valetta, the stems 30 feet high and 3 inches in diameter at the base, 
becoming shining yellow with age. The nodes are prominent, and 
about 9 inches apart ; the leaves short and not dense. There is a small 
plant of it at Kew, obtained last year from LavalKe’s collection. It is 
said to be from Cochin China. 
B. nigra QPhyllostachys nigra, Munro).—A clump of this, 20 yards 
through, and rising to a height of 30 feet, in the garden of Baron Vigier 
at Nice, was one of the most striking objects seen on the Riviera ; 
thousands of naked shining blackish purple stems rising from the lawns, 
and losing themselves in the mass of green foliage above. This species 
is quite hardy in England, but it does not grow to its full height 
except when in a very sheltered situation or under glass, as at Chats- 
worth, where in the large conservatory it is exceedingly handsome. 
B. guadrangularis, Fenzi.—A very interesting species from China,, 
with stems 15 feet high by 1 inch in diameter, and distinctly quad¬ 
rangular ; the nodes are armed with decurved teeth-like spines. These, 
dimensions are of a clump 6 feet through on one of the lawns at Villa 
Valetta. There are plants at Kew, both outside and in the Temperate 
house. It is a handsome and distinct Bamboo. For an account of it 
see an article in Nature, vol. xxxii. (1885), p. 391. 
B. Quilloi. —I cannot find any information with regard to this plant.. 
Carriure described a Bamboo in the Rerue Horticole under the name of 
B. Duguilioi, but Munro appears to have referred this to Phyllostachys- 
puberula, included by him under P. nigra. The plant known under the- 
above name is represented at Hyeres by a large clump with stems- 
23 feet high, l^inch in diameter, bright yellow, with a faint tendency 
to become quadrangular. We have a plant of it at Kew. It is a most, 
elegant Bambro. 
B. scriptoria, Hort, (A. nana, Roxb).—I believe that B. scriptoria 
of the Riviera gardens is merely a form of the well-known Chinese: 
B. nana. It has the same dense habit, thin green canes, and small leaves 
with the under side glaucous, which characterise B. nana. In some 
of the specimens seen the stems were 9 feet high. A variegated* 
form called B. scriptionis is the same as is grown at Kew as B. nana. 
variegata. 
B. Simoni, Carr.—A beautiful Bamboo, and perfectly hardy in 
England, as is shown by the fine example in the Cambridge Botanic 
Garden, and by the plants at Kew. It is also very handsome at Hyeres,. 
where the canes are 15 feet high, quite smooth and cylindrical, less 
than an inch in diameter, and coloured deep olive green. This plant is 
worth the attention of English horticulturists on account of its elegance 
and hardiness, and its evergreen character. 
B. sulphurea. —Apparently a garden name for a very handsome 
Bamboo, with stems 18 ftet high, 1£ inch in diameter, the nodes 
9 inches apart, and the internodes deeply furrowed on one side. Whem 
mature the stems are a rich orange yellow colour. There is a fine 
mass of it at Villa Valetta, It is also in the Kew collection. 
B. verticillata. —This is probably the “Male Bamboo” (Dendroeal- 
amus strictus, Noes'), a common Indian species, the stems of which, 
