Hosseus, Botan. u. kolonialwirtsch. Studien über die Bambusstaude. 51 
Die Bedeutung für die Philippinen leitet J. Fore- 
mann 1 ) mit den Worten ein: „Its uses are innumerable, and 
it has not only become one of the articles of primary necessity 
to the native, but of incalculable value to all in the Colony .. 
Sir B r a n d i s 2 ) schlägt vor, die beiden besonders für 
die Praxis wichtigen Bambusen in Neu-Süd-Wales an¬ 
zupflanzen: Arundinaria spatiflora Trinius, Arundinaria falcata 
Nees. 
Colonel Y ule 3 ) teilt uns in seinen Reisen von Marco 
Polo folgendes mit: 
,, M a r c o might well say of the bamboo that ,,it serves 
also a great variety of other purposes.“ An intelligent native 
of trakan who accompained me in wanderings on duty in the 
forests of the Burmese frontier in the beginning of 1853, and who 
used to ask many questions about Europe, seemed able to apprehend 
almost everything except the possibility of existence in a country 
without bamboos. „When I speak of bamboo huts, I mean to say 
that p^sto and walls, wallplates and rafters, floor and thatch, and 
the withes that bind them, are all of bamboo. In fact, it might, 
almost be said that among the Indo-Chinese nations the staff of 
life is a bamboo. Scaffolding and ladders, landing-jetties, fishing 
apparatus, irrigation wheels and scoops, oars, masts and yards 
(add in China, sails, cables, and caulking, asparagus, medicine, 
and works of fantastic art) spears and arrows, hats and helmets, 
bow, bowstring and quiver, oil-cans, water-stonps and cooking 
pots, pipe-sticks (tinder and means of producing fire) conduits, 
clothes-boxes, pawn-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles, presewes, and 
melodions musical instruments, torches, footballs, cordage, bellows, 
mats, paper: these are but a few of the articles that are made 
from the bamboo;“ and in China, to sum in the whole, as B a r r o w 
observes, it maintains Order throughout the Empire! (Ava Mission 
p. 153; and see also Wallace Ind. Arch. I, 120 pp.) 
W. Robinson 4 ) betont, daß die Bambusstauden für 
Assam die wichtigsten Pflanzen sind: ,,It is the prinzipal, and 
in most instances the only material of which the houses of the 
natives are compared. Their furniture, their implements of agri- 
culture and in fact every article used by them entirely, or in 
part, made from this valuable reed, and not unfrequently is it 
introduced as an article of food. In this very useful plant, nature 
seems to have been by no means sparing.“ 
S. Kurz 5 ) berücksichtigt für Birma ebenfalls die Be¬ 
deutung der Bambusstaude, ebensolches habe ich für Siam getan, 
wie wir noch sehen werden. Eine große Rolle spielen die Bambus¬ 
stauden auf den Fidschiinseln! 
1 ) Foremann, John, Philippine Islands. 1899. pp. 362—364. 
2 ) Brandis, Sir , Royal Soc. of New South Wales. 1885. 
3 ) Yule, Col., Travels of Marco Polo. London, p. 271. 
4 ) Robinson, W. , A descriptive account of Assam. 1841. pp. 49—53. 
5 ) Kurz, S., Bamboo and its Uses. 
4 * 
