nXTEODrCTIO-V.
in the common " Male bamboo " {Bendrocalamns strictus) wlien it is found growing in
a suitable dry locality and on poor soil,, as for instance in the Siwalik Hills near
liardwar. In Arundinaria Fralnli, a very thin wiry climbing species, the culms are
usually, if not always, solid. The nodes of the culms of bamboos are always
prominent, some, however, less so than others; the lower ones frequently bear
root scars or curved thick stiff rootlets surrounding them as a fringe. These roots
sometimes develo}) and enter the ground, but very often they dry up and leave prominent
scars or projecting stumps. Some bamboos have their nodes shaggy with circles
of hair, in some the nodes broaden out (as in Dendrocalamics patellaris) into ilattish
plates; while some again are furnished with a ring of more or less fonnidable spines.
Such spines occur in Arundinaria callosa and Griffithiana and in Dinochloa
Tjanghorreh; and in these species tliey seem to be due more to arrested rootlets
than is the case Avith the spines of Bamhitsa arundinacea and B. Blimeana,
which are only borne on branches, and not on the main culm, and which are
attached only on one side, where they are obviously caused by arrested buds which
may or may not afterwards develop into branchlets. None of these species, however,
iiave the spines of any great length, nothing hke those of a species which is said
to occur on the hills between Burma and Assam, and to bear at its nodes spines
between di and 6 inches long and very sharp, so that to penetrate the thickets must be
a work of considerable danger even to wild aniuiiilg accListomed to tlie jungles. Usually
the knots cross the culms at right angles, but occasionally specimens are found with the
knots united into a spn-al. (See Knrs Iml. iorester, I. 253, plate 1, figure 2.)
This is especially the case with lldomnm lam'imoides. In size, the culms of bamboos
are very variable, and range from the gigantic culm of Denirooalamm gujmtem,
«•Inch often reaches 100 to 120 feet in length, with a diameter ot 8 to 10 inches,
down to those of the little Arniuliimria densifoUa, which is hardly 3 feet high at
most, with diameter of inch. Between these limits almost every possible size may
be met with, though of course in some of the climbing species the length of culm
may frequently be greater than even the 100 feet of the giant " Waho." The internodes
of bamboos vary in character as much as the nodes, chiefly in colour, or in amount
of pubescence. Most of them are green in colom-, of various shades, some tending to
white when covered with waxy scurf, some to brown or grey when furnished with
thick appressed spicules {e.g., the felted cuhns of Bamiusa jjohjmorpha or the velvety
ones of Oxytmantliera •niomstigma), and some, as in a variety of Bamhma vulgaris, to
yellow with green stripes. In Bamhim affmis and Oiganlochloa vertidllata the internodes
are striped with pale green and white. In length, too, the internodes vary
much, the longest being probably those of Teimstach/iim Helferi, which have been
known to reach 53 inches.
Before completing my remarks upon the cuhns of bamboos, it is necessary to
mention the substance " tabasheer," which is a " sihcious whitish floury substance, which
" is found as a secretion, or more probably as a residuum, in the interior of the joints
"of several species (espedaUy Bambnsa arundinacea), often up to an inch in thickness"
in lad. Forester, I. 239). This substance has been much discussed from the
IKTEODUCIIOX. ^
very earliest tunes, and it is considered in China and elsewhere to be a valuable
medicine. For an account of it, it will, be best for those who are interested in the
subject to refer to various works, and especially to the article "Bamboo" in Dr. G.
Watt's "Dictionary of the Economic Products of India," vol. 1; to the account given
at vol. I l l , p. 587, of the " Pharmacographia Indica," of Messrs. Dymock, Warden
and Hooper; and to a paper by Sir D. Brandis, in " Ind. Porestcr XIII, 107."
The EHIZOSIES of bamboos are of two kinds: (1) those with caispitose cuhns, m
which the rhizomes are short, knotty, thick, sohd growths which form an entangled
network below (or occasionally pushed up above) the surface of the soil, and from
which, as they grow, are thrown out the buds which develop into culms; (2) those
with distant cuhns, in which case the rhizome pushes its way underground and sends
out at intervals rootlets into the soil and buds from which the cuhns arise singly.
Most of the Indian bamboos belong to the first section, and of this Bendroealamus
sinetm and Bamhma arundinacea may be taken as types. The most characteristic
bamboo of the second section is Meloeanna lamhusoiies, whose long rhizomes have
the power of spreading so far and so quickly that vacant spaces in the liiUs wdiere
the bamboo occurs can be covered with culms in an incredibly short space of time.
The species of Bhjllostaclwjs seem to have all this habit of growth, and two of the
newly-described Aruniiimrias, A. Jamisarensis and A. BoUoana, as also A. racemosa,
ate particularly remarkable for their power of spreading. The length of the rhizome
of A. Jaunsarerms between cubns often reaches as much as 3 feet, and the rhizomes
of this and of A. racemosa make good flexible riding canes. Bamboos with long
rhizomes near the surface of the soil are very easy to propagate, for at the base of
each sucker are buds which are capable of developing. In those with CEespitose cuhns
the rhizomes are much shorter, and the detachment of portions fit for propagation is
not so easy, though it is quite feasible and usually successful if a portion of rhizome
furnished with good buds and with the roots intact is removed. The new culms
usually develop witli the beginning of the rainy season, and it is noticeable that
whichever is the chief rainy season in any part of India, that season is the one
for the new cuhns to come up. In Northern India both Bamhma arundinacea and
Beudrocalamis strictus send np their new culms in June or July, when the
south-west monsoon begins; but in South India, as may be excellently seen on the
eastern slopes of the Nilgiris {e.g., in the Coonoor Valley) the new culms appear in
September or October, probably with the first burst of the north-east monsoon rains.
When the young onhn-bud first begins to develop, a conical growth is seen
protruding from the ground, covered with imbricating sheaths, often of a bright
colour and furnished with blades. Gradually, the cone lengthens, the sheaths separate,
the nodes appear, and in a greater or less time, according to locality and climate, a
full culm is produced. Then usually, one by one, the sheaths drop ofi", the buds at
the nodes put out branches, and these produce their leaves. Kurz in "Bamboo and
its use " gives an account of observations taken in Calcutta, under the superintendence
of Dr. Wallich, which shewed that a cuhn of Bendroealamus giganteus grew 25 feet
9 inches in 31 days, and one of Bamhusa Balcooa 12 feet ^ inch in 23 days;