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v ere purchafed in Afia Minor, in Greece, or in the iflands 
oi the Archipelago, by Mr. William Petty, who in the 
year 1624 was lent by Thomas earl of Arundel for tiie 
pt rpofe ot making Inch collections for him. They were 
brought into England about the beginning of the year 
1627, and placed in the gardens belonging to Arundel- 
hcufe in London. Soon after their arrival they excited it 
gtneral curiolity, and were viewed by many inquifrtive and 
learned men ; among others by Sir Robert Cotton, who 
prevailed upon Seiden to employ his abilities in explaining 
the Greek infcriptions. Seiden, and two of his friends, 
Patrick Young, or, as he /byled himfelf in Latin, Patricias 
Junms, and Richard James, immediately commenced-their 
operations, by cleaning and examining the marble contain¬ 
ing the Smyrnean:and Magnelian league. The following 
year Seiden publilhed a fniall volume in quarto, including 
about thirty-nine infcriptions, copied from the marbles. 
In the turbulent reign of Charles I. and the fubfequent 
ulurpation, Arundel-houfe was often deferted by its illuf- 
trious owners ; and, in their abfence, fome of the marbles 
were defaced and broken, and others either ftolen or ufed 
for the ordinary purpofes of architecture. The chronolo¬ 
gical marble, in particular, was unfortunately broken and 
defaced. The upper part, containing thirty-one epochag, 
is faid to have been worked up in repairing a chimney in 
Arundel-houfe. In the.year 1667, the honourable Henry 
Howard, afterwards duke of Norfolk, the grandfon of the 
fil'd collector, presented thefe fuppofed remains of anti¬ 
quity to the univerfity of Oxford! 
1 he Arundelian marbles have generally been regarded 
as a curious monument of antiquity. They were, how¬ 
ever, in fome inltances, found to be inconfiftent with the 
molt authentic hiftorical accounts ; Sir If'aac Newton,.and 
levetal other modern philofophers, paid little regard to 
them ; and of late their abfolute authenticity was feverely 
queftioned by Dr. Robertfon, in an exprefs difiertation 
upon the fubjedt, entitled, “The Parian Chronicle.” In 
this difTertation much ingenuity and learning are difplayed ; 
and yet the Monthly Reviewers very fairly turned moft of 
this ingenious author’s obfervations againft himfelf. The 
arguments of Dr. Robertfon have alfo fince been combat¬ 
ed by Mr. Hewlett, and Mr. Gough; both of whom have 
defended the Arundelian marbles with fo much reafon and 
ability, that all the former objections againft their authen¬ 
ticity finally appear to be done away. 
ARUNDIN A'CEOUS, adj. [_arundinaceus, Lat.] Of or 
like reeds. 
ARUNDl'NEOUS, adj. [arundineus, Lat.] Abounding 
with reeds. 
ARUNDINE'TUM, J. A ground or place where 
reeds grow, ilnjl. 4. And it is mentioned in the book of 
Domefday. 
ARUN'DO, f. [from areo, Lat. becaufe it foon be¬ 
comes dry.] In botany, a genus of the triandria digynia 
.clafs, ranking in the natural order of gramina, or grades. 
The generic characters are—Calyx : glume one or many 
flowered, two-valved, erect: valves oblong, acuminate, 
awnlefs ; one fliorter. Corolla: two-valved; valves the 
length of the calyx, oblong, acuminate ; from their bafe 
arifes a lanugo, almoft the length of the flower ; neCtary 
two-leaved, very fmall. Stamina : filaments three, capil¬ 
lary ; antherac forked at both ends. Piftillum: germ ob¬ 
long ; ftyles two, capillary, reflex, villofe; ftigmas limple. 
Pericarpium: none ; corolla adheres to the feed without 
f aping. Seed: tingle, oblong, acuminate at botlt ends, 
urniflied with a long down (pappus) at.the bafe.— EJ/en- 
tiai Charatter. Calyx, two-valved ; florets heaped, lur- 
Xpunaed with wool. 
Species. 1. Arundo bambos, or bambu, or bamboo-cane: 
calyxes many-flowered, fpikes in tiirees, fellile. The 
bamboo lias a woody, hollow, round, flrait, column, forty 
feet high and upwards, Ample, and fhining; the internodes 
a foot in length and circumference; (heaths thick, hairy, 
rough, convolute, deciduous; branches alternate, (lender, 
ffojtd, fpiny, reclining, fpringing out from the bafe to the 
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very top'; the lower ones being ufually cut off. Rumphius 
was deceived in aliening that it branches only towards the 
top. Leaves fmall, quite entire, lanceolate, roundilh at 
the bafe, ftriated, rough, on alternate round petioles. The 
hollow internodes of tire culm are frequently found filled 
with a limpid liquor, which in India beyond the Ganges: 
is not eondenfed into the fubftance called tabaxir or ta- 
bajher , as it is, though rarely, in Malabar. Although the 
bamboo be very common in Japan, Tliunberg never law it 
in flower; and, there being no.accurate defeription in any 
author, it is obferved by Lonreiro, that Linnreus’s fpecific 
character is very erroneous. He therefore, having had the 
opportunity of feeing living plants flowering in their na¬ 
tive foil, has fubflituted the following: Flowers fix-ftamen- 
ed; panicle diffufed., with imbricate fpikelets ; branches 
of the culm fpiny; calyxes one-flowered. Retzius, feeing 
that the bamboo has nothing in common with the reeds, 
would make a diftindt genus of it. His character of the 
fpeciesis this : Panicle branched, divaricate, hat'd ; fpikes 
heaped alternately, unequal in number, fertile. The bam¬ 
boo-cane grows naturally almoft every where within the 
tropical regions. Over a great part of Afia it is very 
common. In China, Cochin-China, Tonquin, Cambodia, 
Japan, Ceylon, the peninfula of India, and the iflands. 
This ufeful plant has been long fince introduced into the 
Weft-Indies ; and is faid to flourilh likewife in South Ca¬ 
rolina. Mr. Miller cultivated it in 1730. He fays we 
have plants more than twenty feet high ; and if our (loves 
were high enough, they would probably rife to twice that 
height. A ftrong (hoot front the root will grow twenty- 
feet in five or fix weeks. Some of the ftents are as large 
as a man’s wrift, but in general they are as big as com¬ 
mon walking-flicks, and when dried are as fit for that 
purpofe as thole which are imported. There is perhaps 
fcarcely any plant that ferves for fitch a variety of dontef- 
tic purpofes as the bamboo. In the Eaft Indtes great ufe 
is made of it in building, and the houfes of the meaner 
people are almoft entirely contpofed of it. Dr. Patrick 
Browne mentions, that it was yet ftrong and perfect in 
fome of the houfes which had been built by the Spaniards 
in Jamaica above a hundred years before. Bridges are 
alfo made of it, malts for their boats, boxes, cups, balkets, 
mats, and a great variety of other utenfils and furniture, 
both domeftic and rural. Paper is alfo made from it, by 
bruifing, and fteeping it in water, and thus forming it into 
a pafte. It is the common fence for gardens and fields ; 
and is frequently ufed as pipes for conveying water. The 
leaves are generally put round the chefts of tea which are 
lent to Europe from China, as package, faftened together, 
fo as to form a kind of mat. The tops of the tender ihoots 
are frequently pickled in the Weft Indies. In the cavities 
or tubular parts of the bamboo, is found at certain feafons 
a concrete w hite fubftance, called tabajheer or tabachir, an 
article which the Arabian phyficians hold in high eftinia- 
tion. It is commonly found in what are called the female 
or large bamboos. The bamboos which contain this con¬ 
crete are found on (baking to contain a fluid, which, after 
fome time, gradually leflens, and then they are opened, 
in order to extraift the tabafheer. The nature of this 
fubftance is very different from what might have been ex¬ 
pelled in the product of a vegetable. Its indeftrudtibility 
by fire, its total refiftance to acids; its uniting by fufion 
with alkalies in certain proportions into a white opake 
ntafs, into a tranfparent permanent glafs ; and its being 
again feparable from thefe compounds entirely unchanged 
by acids, &c. feem to afford the ftrongeft reafons for con- 
fidering it as very nearly identical with common filiceous 
earth. As to its medical virtues, though the drug be, as 
before obferved, in much efleem with the orientalifts, yet 
they are not fitch as to cauf'e it to have any regard paid it 
in the modern practice of phyfic in Europe. Yet the vir¬ 
tues of the feveral parts of the bamboo are very confide- 
rablc, according to Loureiro, who, in his Flora Cochin- 
chinenfis, tells us, that the leaves, bark, buds, and root, 
are ufed. The leaves, he fays, are cooling, emollient, and 
refoMent s 
