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THE BAMBOO GARDEN
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THE
BAMBOO GARDEN
BY
Paes PREEMAN-MITFORD, €.p:
AUTHOR OF ‘TALES OF OLD JAPAN’
ILLUSTRATED BY ALFRED PARSONS
LIBRARY
NEW YORK
BOTANICAL
GARDEN.
London
Mee Wari IAN AN Di CGO;wErp.
NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1896
Printed by R. & R. CrarK, Lrm1TeD, Edinburgh.
TO
SIR JOSEPH HOOKER, K.C.S.I., C.B., F.RS.
THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH
AFFECTION AND RESPECT
LIBRARY
NEW YORK
BOTANICAL
GARDEN,
PREFACE
Tus little book has no scientific pretensions. It is simply
an attempt to give a descriptive list, what the French call
a catalogue raisonné, of the hardy Bamboos in cultivation in
this country, and to focus such information in regard to them
as could be obtained from Japanese as well as from European
sources, and was therefore not readily available to the general
“munhlia Gama af tha mattar hae alraadw anneared in a. series
NOTE
Since these pages went to press BaMBusA LAYDEKERI has shown flower
and fruit in various parts of England. Botanically, according to an
examination made at Kew, the flower and fruit are not to be dis-
tinguished from those of ARUNDINARIA Srmont. _ It is possible, there-
fore, that B. LayDEKERI may be a dwarfed and variegated form of
ARUNDINARIA Simoni. It is known in Japan as HAKON#-CHIKU.
Edmund Loder, the Right Hon. A. Smith-Barry, M.P., and
= Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly have very kindly communicated
i)
AN 19 19
9
N19 190
1A
LIBRARY
NEW YORK
BOTANICAL
GARDEN,
PREFACE
Tus little book has no scientific pretensions. It is simply
an attempt to give a descriptive list, what the French call
a catalogue raisonné, of the hardy Bamboos in cultivation in
this country, and to focus such information in regard to them
as could be obtained from Japanese as well as from European
sources, and was therefore not readily available to the general
public. Some of the matter has already appeared in a series
of articles which I published last year in the Garden news-
paper; but all of these have been revised and corrected,
while the descriptions of species have been almost entirely
rewritten. The task has not been an easy one, and would
have been impossible but for the very kind encouragement
and assistance which I have received from Sir Joseph Hooker
and Mr. Thiselton Dyer, the director of Kew Gardens. I
have also to acknowledge the help so cordially given by
Messrs. Nicholson, Watson, and Bean of Kew Gardens. The
latter gentleman’s articles on Hardy Bamboos which appeared
in the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1894 contain much valuable
information. Some of the chief growers of Bamboos in this
country, notably Lord Annesley, Lord de Saumarez, Sir
Edmund Loder, the Right Hon. A. Smith-Barry, M.P., and
Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly have very kindly communicated
Vili THE BAMBOO GARDEN
to me their experiences of Bamboo cultivation in various
parts of these islands. M. Latour-Marliac, of Temple-sur-
Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, France, the greatest European importer
of these plants, has always been most amiably ready to
furnish me with the results of his observations. To all of
these gentlemen my thanks are due.
Messrs. Riviere’s beautifully illustrated book, Les Bambous,
and the late General Munro’s monograph, published in The
Transactions of the Linnean Society, 15th November 1866,
are respectively the French and English classics upon the
subject. I have not hesitated to draw largely upon such
rich storehouses of knowledge; but since the publication of
those works many new species have been discovered, and
they are therefore not up to date, otherwise there would be
no reason for any further book treating of Bamboos.
One attraction, at any rate, I may claim for my book in
the admirable drawings so kindly furnished by Mr. Alfred
Parsons, whose life-long devotion to the portraiture of plant
life found a new scope in the flora and landscape of Japan,
of which his transcripts by pen and pencil have charmed
the reading and the artist world of England and America.
24th February 1896.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THe BamMBoo GARDEN .
CHAPTER II
PROPAGATION OF Harpy BAamMBoos
CHAPTER III
CHOICE OF PosITION, SoIL, AND CULTURE
CHAPTER IV
Usres—CustomMs—SUPERSTITIONS .
CHAPTER V
EryMoLoay—CLassiFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS
CHAPTER VI
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES
NATIVES OF CHINA AND JAPAN—
Arundinaria Simoni
ef a var. striata
PAGE
12
19
bo
~I
39
~I
>) |
59
68
THE BAMBOO GARDEN
NATIVES OF CHINA AND JAPAN (continwed)—
Arundinaria japonica or Métaké
nitida
”
Bambusa senanensis
» palmata
» angustifolia
5, Nagashima
» quadrangularis
» Laydekeri
» marmorea
Arundinaria chrysantha
9 pumila
“5 auricoma
Fortunei
humilis
”
Bambusa fastuosa
Arundinaria Hindsii
99 99
Bambusa pygmea
Phyllostachys aurea
a mitis
sulphurea
Quilioi
“ viridi-glaucescens
5 flexuosa
Me violescens
5 nigra :
3 nigro-punctata .
3 Boryana .
- Henonis .
Bs Castillonis
FS bambusoides
a Marliacea
_ heterocycla
Ar Kumasasa
NATIVE OF THE UNITED States oF NortH AMERICA—
Arundinaria macrosperma
(or Bambusa ?) Veitchii
tessellata or Ragamowski
var. graminea
PAGE
oO © =I =I -1I 1 &
10D © CO 1 W ©
(0.2)
165
CONTENTS
NATIVES OF THE HIMALAYAS—
Arundinaria falcata ; : ;
Falconeri or Thamnocalamus Falconeri .
spathiflora or Thamnocalamus_ spathi-
florus
racemosa
aristata
9?
9
3?
BaMsBoos THE NATIVE HOME OF WHICH IS UNCERTAIN—
Arundinaria nobilis
anceps
Bambusa disticha
CHAPTER VII
Future POSssIBILITIESs .
CHAPTER VIII
APOLOGIA PRO BAMBUSIS MEIS
APPENDIX—Note on JAPANESE NOMENCLATURE
xl
PAGE
167
169
172
174
176
178
181
183
185
bo
—
on
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
PHYLLOSTACHYS NIGRA, FROM AN OLD JAPANESE DRAW-
ING
ARUNDINARIA JAPONICA
Frontispiece
TESSELLATED AND STRIATED VENATION OF LEAVES OF
BaMBoo
ARUNDINARIA NITIDA
= VEITCHII
BAMBUSA PALMATA
ue LAYDEKERI
7 MARMOREA
PHYLLOSTACHYS NIGRA
a HETEROCYCLA
TAILPIECE
Page 1
To face page 56
bie)
be)
Page 218
as CHAPTER I
THE BAMBOO GARDEN
wi there be one feature which
more than any other dis-
pat tinguishes our modern gar-
\ ae | C dens from the trim pleasaunces
ERRATA
P. 14, line 10, for “more productive” read “ non-reproductive.”
line 28, after ‘first year” for comma substitute colon.
” ? d
P. 40, line 20, for “ Colloquois” read “ Colloquios.”
P. 90, line 12, for ‘‘three sides, there” read ‘three sides: these.”
P. 93, line 13, after “brilliant” cnsert ‘‘ green.”
b) +) co}
P. 96, line 6, for “later” read “latter.”
’ b)
P. 172, line 19, after “leaves” insert “which are tessellated.’
H La fray | 3 7 { SYNE ~ a a
4 ae of Phyllostachys mitis,
Arundinaria japonica. the Brobdingnagian plumes
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PHYLLOSTACHYS NIGRA, FROM AN OLD JAPANESE DRaw-
ING : : ; : : Frontispiece
ARUNDINARIA JAPONICA : ; ‘ SL Agee Or.
TESSELLATED AND STRIATED VENATION OF LEAVES OF
BaMBOO ‘ " : . To face page 56
i
‘z CHAPTER I
THE BAMBOO GARDEN
F there be one feature which
more than any other dis-
tinguishes our modern gar-
dens from the trim pleasaunces
in which our forebears took
their ease, playing their rub-
ber of bowls decorously on
lawns hemmed in by Yew
hedges as stiff as their own
ruffs, it is the value given to
beauty of form in plants as
apart from that of colour.
No one who has seen at
their best the giants and
pigmies of the Bamboo
family will deny their
supreme loveliness in this
‘ respect. The stately spears
of Phyllostachys mitis,
Arundinaria japonica. the Brobdingnagian plumes
2 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
of Arundinaria Simoni, the trembling grace of Phyllo-
stachys Henonis or P. viridi-glaucescens, not to speak of
many others, have added to our borders, our shrubberies,
and more especially to our wild gardens, a wealth of
beauty which a few years ago would have been deemed
beyond the craziest dreams of the enthusiast. It needed
the energy and enterprise of such collectors as Messrs.
Veitch, the brothers Villa of Genoa, and above all
M. Latour-Marliac of Temple-sur-Lot (a name which will
always be associated with the hybridisation of Water-Lilies)
to establish the fact that, even if we may not hope to
see our Bamboos grow to the huge dimensions which they
attain in their native countries, there are many the hardiness
of which is proof against our severest winters. Surrounded
as the present writer is by a great number of varieties of
these famous Grasses, it is impossible for him to doubt
their powers of resistance. They have stood through four
winters and 26° of frost; they have resisted an even more
deadly enemy than frost in the droughts of 1892, 1893, and
1895. In the more congenial summer of 1894 they shot
into life with a vigour which gave the best promise for a
future when they shall have been thoroughly established.
But, alas! the great Sun-God, who should have ripened the
shoots, hid his face throughout the year, and when the grim
winter of 1895 set in the culms had not the enduring power
to resist its attacks. All the tallest shoots of Phyllostachys
mitis perished, and many species were badly cut. Evidently,
moreover, what took place above ground was only a repetition
of the havoe which was going on underground. The rhizomes,
which must have made rare growth during a wet summer and
THE BAMBOO GARDEN 3
an autumn which lasted beyond Christmas (witness the
roses !), can have been no more ripened than the culms, and
must have been cruelly pinched when at last the frost came
armed with its iron nippers. As a matter of consequence, the
first shoots of 1895 were not as strong as they would have been
but for this combination of adversities. The normal yearly
increase in the size of the young plants was not observable.
But there was no falling out of the ranks, not a single species,
hardly a single plant was lost; and now at the end of a hot
but terribly dry summer the plants have increased in bulk,
if not in height, and hope again tells the most flattering
of tales.
From all quarters—I am writing only of places under the
normal climate of England, and not of the favoured regions of
the Far West and South—the same report reaches me: a severe
check, but no deaths. As for Phyllostachys nigra, nigro-
punctata, Boryana, Henonis, ‘and viridi-glaucescens, they
simply laughed at the thermometer, and were as bright at
the end of the winter as at midsummer.
Hitherto our plants have had to struggle for bare exist-
ence against every disadvantage. Ruthlessly torn from their
native soil, sent away with hardly so much root as would
furnish an adequate knob to a walking-stick, condemned to
undergo the horrors of a journey of several weeks by sea and
by land without light, air, moisture, or soil, what wonder if
the poor home-sick starvelings have found it a hard matter
to retain a spark of life in a strange land, where they find
neither the glorious sunshine nor the bounteous rains which
gave them birth? But the fight is over now and the victory
is won. The death-roll is practically nil, and the survivors
4 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
are thriving peacefully, accommodating themselves to new and
altogether strange conditions of existence, proof, to all appear-
ance, against any treachery which the climate of the Cotswold
Hills may bring to bear upon them. We need not despair
of seeing in a few years miniature groves of Bamboos clothed
in all their marvellous grace, and lacking no native beauty,
save only at night the myriad darting lamps of the fire-flies,
by whose light, as the pretty fable runs, Confucius and his
disciples used to study.
Up to the present the nomenclature of the Bamboos is
more or less in a fog, and of the many varieties grown here
some will doubtless prove to be identical with others sent out
under a different name. Making allowance, however, for this,
there will yet be nearly fifty distinct types which may be
successfully cultivated in all but the most inclement and
exposed portions of our islands. From the horticultural, in
contradistinction to the botanical, point of view it may be
hoped that the determination of the relationship of the
various species to one another may never be arrived at here ;
for this can only be attained with accuracy by the inflorescence,
and when the Bamboo flowers and fruits it dies, or at best is
so weakened that it takes years to recover its pristine vigour.
Messrs. Auguste and Charles Riviere, in their treatise on
Bamboos, observe that a large number of the family, unlike
the rest of the Graminez, are very miserly in the production
of their flowers, which they only show at long intervals—
sometimes of more than thirty years, and they cite Colonel
Munro and others in support of this assertion. Humboldt
says that Mutis, during twenty years of botanical work in the
swampy forests of the Bambusa guadua, never once saw it in
oO ?
I THE BAMBOO GARDEN 5
flower. Roxburgh only once came across the flowers of
Bambusa Baleoa. On the other hand, the male Bamboo
(Dendrocalamus strictus), Dendrocalamus edulis, Arundinaria
Hookeriana and some others, flower every year. But the
most noteworthy phenomenon is the simultaneous flowering
of certain Bamboos. When the given moment has come
round, every plant of the same species, whether old or young,
over a vast region will put forth its flowers at one and the
same moment, and, having seeded, for a time the plant dis-
appears. Auguste St. Hilaire, the botanist who explored
Brazil, mentions a forest of the Toboca, a gramineous plant,
where he was entranced by the aérial beauty of the long
canes, from 40 to 50 feet high, bending in elegant arches,
crossing one another in every direction, tangling their huge
panicles and giving glimpses of the deep blue sky through a
spreading and diaphanous web of foliage. “The plant was
then in flower. When I passed that way a few months later
the forest had disappeared.” Colonel Munro called attention
to the reports upon this subject contained in vols. xii. and
xiv. of the Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural
Society of India. Sir W. Sleeman records the fact observed
by him that in 1836 all the great Bamboos, which for
twenty-five years had been the most beautiful feature of the
valley Dehra Dun, between the Ganges and the Jumna to
the south-west of Gurwhal, began to flower and seed—canes
which had only been transplanted during the previous season
following the example of their twenty-year-old mates—
after which all perished together. Wallich tells of a grove
of Bamboos surrounding the town of Rampore, in Rohilcund,
which flowered and died in 1824. He was informed that the
6 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
same thing had happened forty years previously. In 1859,
according to Spilsbury, all the Bamboos between Jubbulpore
and Mundlah died soon after flowering. Similar annihila-
tions of whole forests of Bamboos are noted in the case of
Melocanna bambusoides, which disappeared after flowering
throughout Tipperah, at Runipore, Arraca, and Chittagong,
causing a great inconvenience and loss in Tipperah through
the want of Bamboos for building. All the famous botanists
—Humboldt, Bonpland, Roxburgh, Mutis, Spence, Wallich,
Spilsbury, Gray, Hooker, Brandis, Bory de St. Vincent,
Auguste St. Hilaire, and others who have travelled through
the Bamboo forests—are agreed in confirming the facts given
above as to the simultaneous flowering of the species, the
death of the plants after flowering or seeding, and the rare
recurrence of the flowering period in most species, a fact
which sufficiently explains the uncertainty which surrounds
the nomenclature of the Bamboos which are now cultivated
in Europe.
On the other hand, as against these observations, Dr.
Anderson, superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta,
reports that in 1857 and 1858 many Bamboos flowered and
seeded near Calcutta, when, contrary to expectation, there
was no general mortality among the plants. So far as he
was able to ascertain, only the culms which had flowered
perished, and were replaced by young shoots which came
from the roots ; but before flowering and seeding, the foliage
of the canes almost entirely disappeared. He further states
that in 1861, when Bambusa gigantea flowered for the first
time for thirty years, the plants, though weakened, lived.
Having dealt with the suicidal mystery of the flower of
I THE BAMBOO GARDEN 7
the Bamboos in their own country, Messrs. Rivitre proceed to
examine the phenomenon as it has been observed in Europe.
It appears that in 1867 or 1868 flowers began to appear on two
fine clumps of Arundinaria japonica (Bambusa Métaké) in the
Bois de Boulogne ; at the same moment they were noticed on
the same species in the nursery gardens of Messrs. Thibaut
and Keteleer at Sceaux, at Marseilles, in the pleasure grounds
of M. Paulin Talabot, and in other European collections.
What is more strange is that the infection crossed the
Mediterranean, for the plants of Arundinaria japonica in
the Government gardens of the Hamma at Algiers flowered
in concert with their European brethren; and not only did
the whole of the canes, old as well as young, bear flowers
together, but the very shoots as they showed above the soil
were transformed into flowering stems. Yet were the plants
not altogether killed, though weakened and exhausted by
this exaggerated inflorescence. The new shoots were but
from 3 to 4 inches high, and even these were covered with
flowers. For a long time the plants remained paralysed.
Still, careful nursing and coddling saved the few rhizomes
which had resisted the epidemic ; the species was preserved,
and in 1878 the canes had reached a height of from 10 to
12 feet. In 1875 M. Carriére noted in the Revue Horticole
the appearance in the autumn of that year of flowers on
Arundinaria faleata’ in Brittany and Normandy. The plants
at Angers, at Nantes, and in Algiers followed suit. In
March and April 1876, those in the garden of the Luxem-
! Under the description of THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI will be found
my reasons for supposing that these plants which fiowered over France and
in Algiers were THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI, and not ARUNDINARIA
FALCATA.
8 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
bourg, even the specimens in pots, did the same. Mr.
Osborne, gardener to Mr. Smith-Barry at Fota Island, Co.
Cork, writes me word that his plants of Thamnocalamus
Falconeri, then named Arundinaria falcata, flowered and
fruited the same year. His diary for 11th August 1876
records the gathering of Bamboo seeds. A third instance
has been recorded in the case of Phyllostachys flexuosa.
It was in the garden of the Hamma at Algiers that the
flowers first made their appearance in the month of February
1876. In the month of May following they were observed
at Toulon in M. Turrel’s garden, and in July in Messrs.
Thibaut and Keteleer’s nursery at Sceaux and in the Jardin
d’Acclimatation in Paris. Allowance being made for the
difference of climate, it is evident that these plants practically
flowered together. In these three species it was remarked
that immediately before flowering the leaves turned yellow,
withered, and fell off, to be replaced by the inflorescence.
Now comes the question whether it is to be taken as
proven that the Bamboo after flowering and fruiting
necessarily dies. Some eminent botanists, as we have seen,
have described the death of whole forests of Bamboos from
this cause; others hold a contrary opinion, notably Dr.
Anderson, who observed the exhaustion of the plant after
flowering, but saw the new growth spring from the roots.
In the cases recorded above of the flowering of Arundinaria
falcata (or Thamnocalamus Falconeri) and Arundinaria
japonica, the canes died, but new buds came from the
roots. In the case of Phyllostachys flexuosa, new stems
came in the same way. It is true that the plants suffered
greatly from exhaustion, but they did not perish.
I THE BAMBOO GARDEN 9
On the whole, modern opinion appears to incline to the
belief that the older botanists and travellers came to rather
hasty conclusions in this matter, which could only be
determined by protracted observations on the spot. For
instance, take St. Hilaire’s case of the vanished forest of
Toboca. What happened in the ensuing season? Were the
plants renewed? There is nothing to show. How are the
forests renewed? Hardly by seed, for the seed falling on a
soil encumbered with the remains and roots of the dead
plants would scarcely find the nourishment essential to its
successful germination. Moreover, experience shows that
even in the wildest nature one kind of tree, if destroyed,
is followed by another totally different species. Is it not
more probable that, given the wonderful powers of vegetation
under the conditions of tropical rain and sun, the rhizomes
having preserved some degree of vitality should quickly
replace the dead by living canes? Sir Joseph Hooker, in
a passage of his Himalayan Journals quoted below in
Chapter IV., distinctly states that the small Bamboo Praong
sends up many flowering branches from the root, and “after
maturing its seed and giving off suckers from the root, the
parent plant dies.” That is the point—“afler giving off
suckers from the root.” Surely this is strong evidence in
favour of the theory that the Bamboos generally do not
reproduce themselves solely by seed. If we consider what
‘a stemless particle of Squitch root will do in our climate, it
needs no great effort of the imagination to realise the rampant
power of growth in the rhizomes of these monstrous Couch
Grasses in the Tropics, or in those countries, like China and
Japan, where the rainy season occurs during the great heats
10 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
of summer. This, at any rate, is the view to which their
unrivalled experience in the gardens of the Hamma at
Algiers has led Messrs. Riviere.
We should note that, although in late years large
importations of all manner of Bamboos have taken place,
at the time when the simultaneous flowering of Arundinaria
japonica (Bambusa Métaké) took place, the whole of the plants
then in cultivation in Europe and at Algiers were but offsets
of the parent plant introduced by Siebold in 1850. It may
be urged, therefore, that it was in truth one and the same
plant, reaching maturity at the same moment in its various
parts, wherever those parts might be distributed. Possibly
the same may be said of Arundinaria falcata (or Tham-
nocalamus Falconeri) and Phyllostachys flexuosa. Even so,
the wonder is great.
It might at first be imagined that the period of flowering
would recur at regular fixed intervals, when the Bamboo has
reached the length of its tether to life; but Sir Joseph
Hooker in his Himalayan Journals, p. 107 (ed. 1891), says,
“At about 4000 feet” (on Mount Tonglo, near Darjeeling)
“the great Bamboo (Pao Lepcha) abounds; it flowers every
year, which is not the case with all others of this genus, most
of which flower profusely over large tracts of country once in
a great many years, and then die away, their place being
supplied by seedlings which grow with immense rapidity.
This well-known fact is not due, as some suppose, to the life
of the species being of such a duration, but to favourable
circumstances in the season.” It used to be commonly said
by natives of Bamboo-growing countries that the plants
flowered once in thirty years, and that the age of a man
I THE BAMBOO GARDEN ll
might be determined from the number of times that he had
witnessed the phenomenon. It is, however, now established
that the flowering is variable, infrequent, and due to climatic
causes,
Arundinaria Simoni furnishes one exception of a Bamboo
which flowers in England without dying. It has not infre-
quently borne seed in this country, and has been apparently
none the worse. Last year (1895) it flowered and seeded in
more than one English garden. I myself gathered seed from
one culm of a large clump in a garden in Surrey. The
remaining culms were all in their normal condition, and
there was no sign of the leafy stems being replaced by flower-
bearing branchlets, or of any injury to, or exhaustion of, the
plant.
CHAPTER II
PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS
THE following observations are taken almost entirely from
Messrs. Riviére’s very able treatise. Personally I have had
but a very limited experience in Bamboo propagation. Nor
indeed, for obvious reasons, climatic and other, is it very
likely that it will ever be a successful industry in most parts
of this country, though if seed could be obtained it would
not be a difficult matter. In Cornwall, however, and other
favoured localities where the climate is not very different
from that of Japan, and where it follows that root action
must be far more free than it is in the Midlands, I have little
doubt that the methods recommended by Messrs. Riviere
might be followed with most profitable results by nursery
gardeners. There is a large and growing demand for the
plants; they are expensive and difficult to obtain—in many
instances we are compelled to seek them in foreign nurseries—
and I feel sure that any enterprising man, taking advantage
of the rare opportunities afforded by the conditions of soil
and climate in the far west of our island, and in parts of
Treland, would reap a rich harvest by starting this new
industry. To send to Japan, or even to the South of France,
for plants is an expensive and risky process. Why should
Har. II PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS 13
our own gardeners not have the profit which now goes
abroad ?
The hardy Bamboos may be propagated in any one of
four ways :—
1. By seed.
2. By division.
3. By cuttings of the base of the culm, with or without
the rhizome attached.
4, By cuttings of rhizomes.
A fifth process, propagation by layering, is available in
the case of the autumn-growing or tender Bamboos, but it is
impossible in the case cf the whole family of Triglossze to
which our hardy Bamboos belong. It may be well before
going any further, in order to save beginners from the
disappointment of a vain attempt, to explain the reason of
this impossibility. The two or three knots at the base of the
stem, which are close together and barren of branches,
contain in a potential state the bud from which a new culm
springs upward and the roots shoot downwards. The upper
knots contain no such buds; they carry only their two or
more branches which are absolutely barren and unproductive.
As it is, of course, the upper part of the stem which would
be bent down to the ground for layering, it follows that the
effort must be abortive. Endless experiments conducted by
Messrs. Riviére in Algiers have resulted only in proving the
futility of the attempt. It is not uncommon to see a new
culm shoot out of a branchless knot of the base of a mature
stem. Great care must be taken not to brush against or
interfere with this young growth. The roots do not develop
downward until after it has ripened, and the attachment is
14 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
exceedingly brittle. I have before me such a culm which
was snapped off by a hen pheasant; it is fully branched,
but much smaller than the parent stem. At its base
are two new knots ready apparently to start into life;
the verticillate roots are on the point of taking their down-
ward course. Had that end been accomplished, the new
stem would have been safely fixed in the ground. In its
frail condition it fell a victim to the rush of a frightened
bird.
This more productive character of the upper branches goes
to show that the method of planting horizontally adopted by
some Bamboo growers cannot be so advantageous as they
believe it to be. I have seen it asserted that by laying
newly-received Bamboos horizontally in the ground roots are
struck and culms formed all along the stem. I have never
tried the method myself, though I intend to do so as an
experiment. But it seems to me that, in the case of the
Triglossee, Messrs. Riviere have established the fact that, at
most, roots and new culms could only be produced from the
few branchless nodes at the base of the stem.
1. PROPAGATION BY SEED.—Owing to the rarity of the
occurrence of the fruit—which, indeed, in some species has
not yet come under the observation of science—this must
always be the least used method. On one occasion indeed
we received some seed of a Bamboo under the name of
Bambusa siamensis, probably from its habitat a tender
species, which germinated freely, but which we did not
succeed in rearing beyond the first year, with the same seed
Kew fared no better. We also raised from seed a number of
plants of the Burmese Bamboo (Dendrocalamus membrana-
II PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS 15
ceus)—scarcely a grain missed fire—but we have never yet
been able to get ripe seed of any of the hardy species.
The seed should be sown sparsely in pans filled with garden
soil—the more silicate it contains the better—and well
drained with broken potsherds or stones. Cover the seed
with fine soil about a quarter of an inch deep or less. If the
seed be sown too thickly, the development of the young plant
is hindered. Water well with a very fine rose until the
whole soil be thoroughly soaked. The pans should be placed
in hotbeds and frequently watered, great care being taken to
prevent the soil from drying. The frames should be partially
shaded from the sun and kept fairly ventilated, more air
being admitted as the seedlings gain strength. Assuming the
seed to have been sown in the latter end of March or in
April, the young plants may bear full exposure to air and
sun in June. In the following spring the plants should be
pricked out into 3-inch pots, which, after generous watering,
again should be placed under glass upon a hotbed to help
the plants to root in their new abode. At first the outer air
should be excluded or very sparingly admitted. By degrees
they will bear longer exposure, until in the latter end of May
or early June the pots are plunged in open beds, buried a
little below the surface, and covered with a mulching of dead
leaves or straw. The beds should be well watered during
the summer. In the month of October the pots must be
taken up and placed in a cool or temperate house, or under
cold frames, which must be covered up during. severe frosts.
In the month of May following they may be planted out in
their permanent places. The very slight variations necessary
if the seed should not be sown until the summer or autumn
16 THE BAMBOO GARDEN i CHAP.
will be patent to every gardener. In the latter case germina-
tion may possibly not take place until the following
spring, and even then it may be advisable to help it by
again having recourse to the hotbed. In all cases be it
remembered that moisture is the first essential element of
success.
2, PROPAGATION BY Diviston.—The best moment for this
operation is, in our climate, the latter end of April. The
process is very simple. The plants should be divided into
clumps of two or three culms with their rhizome, in order
to ensure a new growth from the buds on the internodes of
the root-stock. If the tufts can be lifted with a ball of
earth, so much the better. They should be planted in beds
at distances of 2 feet, carefully watered, and protected by a
top-dressing of well-rotted cow manure and dead leaves.
With the same care they may be planted at once in their
permanent homes.
3. PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS OF THE BASE oF THE CULM
WITH OR WITHOUT THE RHIZOME ATTACHED.—Cut off about
a foot’s length of rhizome bearing a stem; cut down the
stem to about the same length. Plant at such a depth as
will ensure the two or three lowest and branchless knots at
the base of the culm being covered with earth. This may
be effected either in pots or in the open ground. It is
essential that the stem should be cut down, otherwise it
begins to wither downwards; a sort of creeping paralysis of
the whole plant ensues, ending in death. Reproduction is
also possible without the attached rhizome, and this method
is specially valuable where, owing to the rarity of the plant
or for other reasons, economy is an object. For the rhizome
II PROPAGATION OF HARDY BAMBOOS Wy
being left in its place continues its work of multiplication
undisturbed. We have seen above that the lower knots,
occurring at short intervals and barren of all ramification,
are each furnished with verticillated roots and a reproductive
bud ; indeed, the former may often be seen falling downwards
to the earth in a little cascade all round the culm, sometimes
burying themselves and rooting in the ground, at others
remaining in an abortive or embryonic condition. This
reproductive power may be turned to account by cutting the
stem with a very sharp instrument as close to the rhizome
as possible. The stem is then cut back and the lower
nodes buried in a pot, allowing only the end of the last
branchless internode to protrude. Slight warmth and
moisture are all that is required to ensure rooting. The
operation should be performed in the spring, and by
the end of the year a new plant will have been ob-
tained.
4. PRopAGATION By Curtines or RuizomEs.—This is a
very simple process. It takes place in the spring, and
consists merely of lifting the rhizomes, cutting them into
lengths of from 6 inches to 8 inches, which are planted at
a depth of from 4 inches to 6 inches in good rich loam
and copiously watered during the summer. Care should be
taken to see that each length, which will have three or
four knots, should be the growth only of the preceding year,
containing living eyes or buds, for the older rhizomes are
sterile, those buds which have not shot up into canes having
withered still-born. It is therefore only the young rhizome
which is reproductive.
If the end to be attained be commercial the third and
Cc
18 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. II
the fourth of these methods are those which will recommend
themselves to those who desire to propagate Bamboos in
this country ; and in that case potting will be substituted
for open ground cultivation ; in other respects the procedure
will be the same.
CHAPTER III
CHOICE OF POSITION, SOIL, AND CULTURE
Bampoos are hungry plants and well repay generous treatment.
They should be planted in rich loam, not too stiff, and for
the first year or two should be well mulched. cara:
indeed one of these, Thamnocalamus Falconeri, can scarcely
be called hardy, though it flourishes in Cornwall and in
Ireland. From the United States of North America we draw
one species, Arundinaria macrosperma. The Andes (unless,
indeed, Bambusa disticha should prove to be identical with
Chusquea tessellata) and Africa have hitherto given us
nothing. I shall call attention to their possibilities later on.
The botanical distinctions between the inflorescence of
the two genera Thamnocalamus and Arundinaria are so
slight, that it seems probable that the two will ultimately
be merged in one. But between these and the Bamboos of
the Phylostachys group the differences are great and strike
the eye at once, and it is, therefore, important to point them
out. Leaving to skilled botanists the task of lifting the veil
which still enshrouds the mysteries of flower and fruit, it
may be said roughly that the main and more easily observable
characteristics of the two sections are as follows :—
In Arundinaria the stems are straight and round, the
branches are partially verticillate, that is to say, they
seem to nearly encircle the stem, and they appear almost
simultaneously along the whole length of the cane as soon
as its full growth has been attained, and not before. If
anything, the lower branches are rather behind the middle
and upper ones.
In Phyllostachys, on the contrary, the branches begin to
open out at the lower end of the stem a little while before
the full growth in height has been attained, and gradually
develop themselves upwards. The internode or merithal on
the side on which the branches spring is grooved or
channelled owing to the pressure of the branches (of which
v ETYMOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS 45
there are generally two, or at most three, in which latter
case one drops off), which, being closely packed under the
sheaths against the cane while it is in a soft state, leave a
permanent double furrow on the internode, and the cane
itself is more or less, sometimes almost imperceptibly,
zigzageed from joint to joint. Of the two persistent
branches one is always much longer than the other. As a
rule, the sheaths which protect the branches in their embryo
state are far more persistent in the Arundinaria than in the
Phyllostachys, their dead appearance being a sore disfigure-
ment to some species, as, for instance, in Arundinaria
japonica (Métaké) and Arundinaria Simoni. In the Phyllo-
stachys the sheaths drop as soon as the branches spring
away at an angle from the side of the stem, while in the
Arundinaria they are apt to bend back with the branches
and remain encircling them, furnishing them with a comfort-
able jacket until they are able to take care of themselves.
Then, and not till then, they fall off.
Many of the Arundinarias have those portions of the
internodes which are not encased in the sheaths covered by a
thick, waxy, white secretion ike the bloom on a purple grape,
contrasting finely with the green colour of the stem. This is
very noticeable in Arundinaria nitida, Arundinaria Hindsu,
and others. This waxy bloom in plants serves a distinct and
important purpose in preventing the stomata, or mouths which
are the organs of transpiration, from becoming stopped with
water either in the shape of rain or dew. In the leaves of
Bamboos there is another provision for protecting the
stomata in the shape of solid peg-like projections of the
cuticle—of course, both the stomata and their protections are
46 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
only visible under the microscope. An illustration of a
vertical section of a Bamboo leaf magnified 180 diameters
is given at page 296 of Part ILI. of Kerner and Oliver's
Natural History of Plants, together with parts of the same
section magnified 460 diameters: this illustration clearly
shows the whole mechanism. But the same authors
describe a very simple experiment by which its effect
may be seen.
On plunging a bamboo leaf in water a surprising sight presents
itself. The upper side, covered by a dark green, smooth, flat
epidermis, with no stomata, becomes wet all over and retains its
dark colour and dull appearance ; but the under surface, blue green
in colour, and beset with stomata and thousands of cuticular pegs,
does not allow the air to be displaced, and this layer of air, spread
thin over the surface, ¢listens under water like polished silver! The
leaf may be shaken under water to any extent, and may even be left
submerged for a week, but the silvery glistening air stratum is not
dislodged. If such a leaf is now taken out of the water, the upper
surface is quite wet, but the under surface is dry, like a hand which has
been dipped in mercury and then withdrawn, and not the smallest drop
of water adheres to it. On placing a vessel of water, in which some
bamboo leaves are half immersed, under the receiver of an air-pump
and then pumping out the air, numerous small air-bubbles are at once
given off from the submerged portions of the leaves. At length the
silvery lustre disappears, and the air between the cuticular pegs is
replaced by water. If now the leaves be completely submerged, the
silver lustre is only shown on those parts which were not previously
immersed, and where water could not replace the exhausted air,—the
spaces round the pegs in this region having been again supplied with
air on the opening of the stopcock of the pump in order to submerge
the leaves. It may be imagined from this experiment how much
the stomata would be damaged by water if the plants mentioned were
not protected from moisture by the pegs to which the air adheres
so strongly.
A third contrivance of Nature for guarding the stomata
of plants against excessive wet is to be found in “the hair-
v ETYMOLOGY—CLASSIFICATION, CHARACTERISTICS 47
like structures which interlace and form a loose felt work.”
This is very noticeable, even without a lens, especially on
the under side of many of the Bamboo leaves, for example in
Arundinaria auricoma. But those who are curious upon
the subject must go for further information to the fountain-
head from which I have quoted.
The waxy bloom is especially thick immediately below
the projecting nodes of certain Arundinarias, to wit Arundi-
naria Simoni; from which it would seem that for structural
reasons there is more danger of the stomata being choked by
the rising dew than by the falling rain, that is to say, either
that they are more numerous immediately under than
immediately above the node, or that the lower part, not
being protected at an early stage by the sheaths which
spring from and encircle the upper node, need this extra
defence.
In the very differently constructed plants of the Phyl-
lostachys group, such as P. mitis, P. aurea, P. nigra,
P. viridi-glaucescens, there is no hairy down to be found
on the stems, and the bloom is only seen sparsely scattered
immediately below the nodes. Probably their hard, compact,
and almost flinty epidermis does not stand in need of any
protection, the stomata, or transpiratory organs being situated
on the under side of the leaves."
Again, in Arundinaria the axillary buds of the branches,
1 Some idea of the vast numbers of these stomata may be given by the
statement that on the under side of an Oak leaf no less than 2 millions of
stomata have been found, while in the Water Lily leaf they reach 114 millions !
In succulent plants, such as the House-leek and the Stone-crop, there are very
few stomata, only from 10 to 20 in one square millimeter, which in the
majority of plants would show from 200 to 300,—Kerner and Oliver, Part
III., pp. 281, 288.
48 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
which are the future branchlets, are out of sight, imprisoned
closely as in a strait-waistcoat by the sheaths which clasp the
stems so tightly that until they fall aside of themselves you
can hardly strip them off by force. Im Phyllostachys the
sheaths of the branchlets are developed from the outer scale
of the conspicuous bud ; and this bud is of no small use in
helping us to identify the very inconveniently similar species,
for in each member of the family it has a distinct character.
In the early spring, before the plants have begun to put forth
new leaves, in the axils of the ramification are to be seen
the brilliant, richly-enamelled, scaly buds, which the summer
will develop into new branches, beginning to swell. * Ae _) »- a: , i
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CHAP. VI PHYLLOSTACHYS HETEROCYCLA 161
(1895). But the plants which were received from Japan
had only vertical roots without a scrap of active rhizome, and
this must be developed before any stem buds can be formed.
I have every hope that next summer new shoots may make
their appearance, and that we may be able to claim the plant
as thoroughly established.
It appears to be likely to grow into a tall Bamboo of the
stature of PHYLLOSTACHYS MITIS, and perhaps equally slow
to make a start ina new home. The branches are borne in
twos and threes (the third falling off), one much longer than
the other. The internodes are grooved by the pressure of the
branches. The leaves are small, from 24 to 4 inches long by
half an inch wide. They are bright green on the upper surface,
glaucous on the lower, minutely tessellated, serrated more
on one edge than on the other. They are finely pointed, and
the petiole is well defined. The secondary nerves on either
side of the midrib are from three to four in number. My
plants having made no new growth I have only seen the
sheaths of the branchlets, which have a ligule rather large in
proportion to their size, but hairless, with a very small
limbus. As might be expected from their glaucous colour,
the lower surfaces of the leaves have a very fine covering of
silvery hairs. The upper surface is practically smooth.
I believe that the first living plants of this species
introduced into England were those received here and at
Kew from Japan in the winter of 1893, though it was
shown at Paris at the great Exhibition of 1878, and named
HETEROCYCLA by Carriere.
PHYLLOSTACHYS KUMASASA or VIMINALIS
A SPECIES as pretty as it is unique in character. Munro
says: “This is certainly unlike any Bamboo I have seen,”
and quotes Stendel, who calls it “species singularis” and
“neculiaris certe formationis et vix dubie distinctum genus.”
Munro talks of having only seen the upper part of a culm
6 feet long, which points to a far taller plant than it is with
me and at Kew, where it is a dwarf not more than from
18 inches to 2 feet high. A Japanese catalogue gives 3 feet
as the height which it attains in its own country. Was
Munro misinformed as to the length of the culm of which his
specimen was a fragment ?
The culm is green, channelled on the Hieachas side,
almost solid, the fistula being so minute as almost to escape
observation, and very tough. The rather prominent nodes,
which are of a darker green than the rather pale stem, are
from 1 inch to nearly 2 inches apart, and the internodes
are prettily zigzagged. The sheaths, which are richly fringed
with hairs, are purple, fading at the top, which gives the
undeveloped culm a rather strange, mottled appearance. The
ligule is small and also fringed with silky hairs. The limbus
is infinitesimal and very short-lived.
The branches are borne in threes and fours and are not
CHAP. VI PHYLLOSTACHYS KUMASASA 163
more than 1 inch or 14 inch long, sometimes less, though in
this short space they have two or even three nodes. They are
enveloped in sheaths longer than themselves and of very
peculiar structure, resembling a purple stem flanked by two
tissue-like membranes each ending in a pointed growth of
the same texture on either side of a true leaf, which takes the
place of the limbus. The leaves at first sight appear to be
clustered in threes or fours, but close examination shows that
each leaf is borne singly either upon a branchlet or a sheath.
A large-sized leaf will be about 3 inches long by nearly 1
inch in breadth, pointed at the top and broadly rounded at
the base, ovate in shape, resembling the leaf-like branches or
cladodes of Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus), whence Siebold named
the plant “ BAMBUSA RUSCIFOLIA.” The petiole is rather long.
The down on the lower surface of the leaf is plainly visible
to the naked eye. The tessellation is very close and minute.
Both edges are very sharply serrated with prominent teeth.
The secondary nerves are six or seven on either side of the
midrib.
By giving the name Kumasaca to this Bamboo, Munro
has given rise to some difficulty. Sasw (in composition after
a vowel zasa) is a Japanese version of the two Chinese words
hsiao chw (small Bamboo), and is the generic name given by
the Japanese to the dwarf Bamboos. Kuma signifies an
edge or border. The etymology of the word kumazasa
(barbarously altered by Munro into /wmasaca) would seem
to point to the ARUNDINARIA VEITCHII, on account of its
leaves withering at the edge in winter, and so having a
distinct edge or border. It is certainly often used in that
sense by natives. As I have already pointed out, KUMASASA
164 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. VI
is the name given by Japanese gardeners to BAMBUSA
PALMATA, and to ARUNDINARIA VEITCHII, the latter being
distinguished as the lesser KumAsASA. It is also apparently
sometimes applied by Japanese botanists to BAMBUSA TESSEL-
LATA or RAGAMOWSKI, while our English botanists, following
Munro, give it to PHYLLOSTACHYS VIMINALIS, the native name
of which is BunGozasa, probably from the province of that
name in the southern island of Japan. There is thus utter
confusion, and a triangular duel between science, etymology,
and common use which is most bewildering, and so long as
this lasts it would seem wiser to leave the Japanese names
alone, contenting ourselves with the European nomenclature.
But when science does find it necessary to adopt words taken
from a foreign tongue with which she is unacquainted, she
will do well to avoid altering consonants, as Munro did when
he made saca out of sasa, or she may get herself into dire
trouble. Try it upon a few English monosyllables!
Munro’s barbarism is the more regrettable in that Von
Siebold’s name RUSCIFOLIA seems so very appropriate; the
other synonym, VIMINALIS, appears to me to be the reverse.
But Kumasasa is simply a filching of the native name of
another Bamboo, with a special meaning indicating a special
character which this species does not possess, and is therefore
the worst of all.
NATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES OF
NORTH AMERICA
ARUNDINARIA MACROSPERMA
THE solitary species from the United States of North America.
This Bamboo appears to vary in height according to its geo-
graphical position. In the Southern States it grows to from
10 feet to 20 feet, or even 35 feet high, while in the north it
does not exceed 10 feet. It is the typical Arundinaria described
by Michaux. The stems are round (sometimes slightly flat-
tened on one side at the point of branching), slender, and much-
branched. The sheaths are purplish in colour, very persistent,
and fringed at the top with a few rather coarse hairs. The
leaves are about 7 inches long by 14 inch broad, the
upper face smooth, the lower face downy, having the edges
slightly serrated—very partially on one side. The secondary
nerves vary from six to fourteen in number. ‘The leaves
are rounded at the base and petiolated. The veins are tessel-
lated. Interesting rather from the fact of its being the one
representative of the family on the vast continent of North
America than from any special beauty of its own. Some
botanists divide the taller and shorter varieties into two
species, but Munro treats them as identical. M, Marliac
166 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. VI
sends out a Bamboo under the name of BAMBUSA NEUMANNI
(it is called HERMANNT in the Botanic Gardens at Brest), which
appears to be the same plant as ARUNDINARIA MACROSPERMA ;
indeed, both M. Marliac and M. Blanchard, the Director of the
Brest Gardens, so regard it, although they do not know from
what country their Bamboo was originally received. The
shrubby form, ARUNDINARIA MACROSPERMA SUFFRUTICOSA or
TECTA is the variety grown at Kew and here. It is a very
active runner and demands plenty of space.
Mr. Bean in his description of the plant in the Gardeners’
Chronicle of 10th March 1894, says: “Mr. Nicholson tells
me that in the Southern United States he saw immense
quantities of it frmging the flat, muddy banks of rivers, and
forming almost impenetrable thickets. These thickets are
known as Cane Brakes, and in the old slave days of the
Southern States were of the greatest service to fugitive negroes
for shelter and concealment.”
I have tried growing this Arundinaria in dense shade and
in the open sunlight. I have perhaps not had the plant long
enough to form a definite opinion as to the merits of the two
positions, but it certainly seems, so far, to thrive best in
shade. The growth is taller, the leaves larger, and altogether
the Bamboo has a better appearance.
“Carey mentions that this grass, which was once common
in Kentucky, has become now nearly extinct there,” Munro
p: 16:
NATIVES OF THE HIMALAYAS
ARUNDINARIA FALCATA.
Tuts Bamboo is described by Munro as belonging to a group
of four species (the others being ARUNDINARIA KHASIANA,
ARUNDINARIA INTERMEDIA, and ARUNDINARIA HOOKERIANA,
all of which, seeing the great altitudes at which they are
found in the Himalayas ought to be tried in this country), in
which the flower-bearing and leaf-bearing culms are distinct,
which flower and seed every year, and, dying down under the
snows of winter, throw up new shoots from the stools in the
succeeding spring. The slender culms, with prominent nodes,
erow to a height of from 6 to 10 feet ; the internodes from 6
inches to 1 foot in length. The branches are very numerous.
The culm sheaths are loosely tessellated, with the cross veins
running diagonally. The ligule is rather long and fringed.
The limbus narrow, varying in Jength from half an inch to 1}
inch. The leaves are brilliant in colour and rather glaucous,
especially on the lower face. They are from 3 to 6 inches
long, pointed, and tapering to a petiole at their base. The
secondary nerves on either side of the midrib are from two to
six or more. The edges are serrated, the teeth being more
marked on one side than on the other. The leaf sheaths are
168 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP, VI
very downy, and prettily fringed with longer hairs at the in-
sertion of the leaf. As in their native country, so here, the
culms die down every year in the winter; and since in our
climate the new shoots do not make their appearance until the _
summer is well advanced, it follows that for some months of
the year the plant is but a poor withered thing, and that, in
spite of its undeniable beauty when at its best, it cannot be
recommended for general cultivation under the difficulties by
which it must be surrounded in all but the most favoured
spots of our country. It is to be noted that in the temperate
house the plant seems to change its nature. Safe from the
attacks of snow and frost, its culms do not die down but re-
main green and flourishing like those of its congeners. The
home of ARUNDINARIA FALCATA is in the north-western
Himalayas, where it has been found as high as 12,000 feet
above sea level.
In my remarks upon ARUNDINARIA FALCONERI I have
drawn attention to the confusion which has existed between
it and ARUNDINARIA FALCATA.
ARUNDINARIA FALCONERI or THAMNO-
CALAMUS FALCONERI
A TALL and singularly graceful Bamboo, growing to a goodly
height in favoured localities even in the British Isles. But
in the Midlands it is sadly dwarfed, rarely growing to a
height of more than 8 feet, and is cut down to the roots
every year by the winter’s frosts. Indeed, in many places
it seems to dwindle away, year by year throwing up feebler
shoots, until it finally disappears. It is, however, so beautiful
where it does succeed, even in its less vigorous form, that
it is worth a trial in a sheltered nook. In the year 1895
I saw a lovely specimen in a Surrey garden, where, dying
down every winter, it makes a most graceful growth of about
8 feet in the early summer. When I saw it in the month
of September it was a perfect picture of elegance. The
tapering culms are very slender in proportion to their height,
and both stems and foliage are of a most brilliant green.
The internodes of the culms are thickly covered with a
white waxy bloom. The leaves are about 4 inches long,
narrow, thin, pointed, and petiolated, with striated venation
on the upper surface, and having, according to Munro, a few
inconspicuous transverse veins on the lower surface very
far apart, but I have not been able to detect these. The
edges are slightly serrated. The secondary ribs or nerves
170 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
on the lower side on either hand of the midrib are from two
to three in number. The leaf sheaths are smooth, as it were
cut short at the top, without any fringe, and having an
elongated ligule, slightly hairy on the back (Munro).
Habitat, N.-E. and N.-W. Himalayas. Altitude, 7000 to
9000 feet.
The confusion between ARUNDINARIA FALCATA and THAM-
NOCALAMUS FALCONERI has been very general. The majority of
the plants hitherto cultivated in this country as ARUNDINARIA
FALCATA have proved to be THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI. Mr.
Osborne, gardener to Mr. Smith-Barry, at Fota Island, Co.
Cork, informs me that the late General Munro identified the
specimens grown there under the former name as true THAM-
NOCALAMUS FALCONERI. The so-called ARUNDINARIA FALCATA
flowered in the gardens of the Luxembourg, in the South
of France, and at Algiers in 1876. Mr. Smith-Barry’s plants
flowered and seeded at the same time; it is, therefore,
probable that the mistake in nomenclature was universal,
and that all these plants were truly THAMNOCALAMUS FAL-
CONERI. Indeed, if Munro is right, and so far as I know
this has never been called in question, ARUNDINARIA FALCATA
is simply a perennial herb, flowering, fruiting, and dying
every year, and shooting again from the stool in the spring.
The French and Algerian plants are spoken of in quite
another category, as plants with which flowering, fruiting, and
death constitute a rare phenomenon. Messrs. Riviére them-
selves seem to have had personal experience of only one
of the two species, and I cannot but think that they have
fallen into the common error of confounding THAMNOCALAMUS
FALCONERI with ARUNDINARIA FALCATA. It may seem pre-
vI ARUNDINARIA FALCONERI 171
sumptuous to call in question any statement issuing from
so high an authority, but all the evidence seems to point
to a mistake.
As regards the hardiness of the species, Mr. Osborne
writes as follows: ‘‘The above-named Bamboo (THAMNOCALA-
MUS FALCONER!) throws up numerous canes here from 20 feet
to 25 feet. I have often wondered at the reports in gardening
papers in England of its sending up canes from 6 feet to
8 feet high, but, unfortunately, I have learned the reason
this season. We had an unprecedented sharp frost in
January last (1894) which killed the tops of all the THAMNO-
CALAMUS, with the result that instead of throwing up a few
monster canes to the height mentioned, they have thrown up
numerous small canes about 6 feet or 8 feet high around the
old stools. It must take several years of very mild winters
before they reach their usual strength. Many other Bamboos
were not the least injured, as far as I could judge.’ The
frost registered at Fota was 26° Fahrenheit below freezing
point. From this it is evident that the species is not
thoroughly to be depended upon even in the usually warm
climate of the west of Ireland. How it fared in Devonshire
and Cornwall, where there are, or were, many fine specimens,
I have not heard. Messrs. Watson and Bean consider the
BAMBUSA GRACILIS of the French cultivators to be identical
with THAMNOCALAMUS FaLconeRI. I can detect no difference
between the two.
Mr. Bean did not find any plants of ARUNDINARIA FALCATA
in any of the gardens which he visited in south Cornwall in
1893. Of THAMNOcALAMUS FALCONERI he found magnificent
specimens.
ARUNDINARIA SPATHIFLORA or THAMNO-
CALAMUS SPATHIFLORUS
THis beautiful species from the north-western Himalayas,
Sikkim, Bootan, and Nepal, where it is found at an altitude
of from 7000 to 10,000 feet, bids fair when established to
prove one of the most ornamental Bamboos. I was at one
time led to think that the true plant had not hitherto been
introduced into this country; but at last, in August 1895,
I found it flourishing in full grace and beauty in a Surrey
garden, and was assured by the owner that it had not
suffered in any degree during the great trials of the pre-
ceding winter. I have since then obtained specimens from
Messrs. Veitch of Exeter. The tallest culms which I have
seen are only from 6 to 8 feet high, but in their own
country they grow to a height of some 20 feet. They are
a pale yellowish or pinkish brown in colour, slender,
fistulous, very smooth, and much-branched at the nodes,
which are fairly prominent and conspicuous for a very
distinct white ring at the base of each. The internodes in
the immature specimens which I have seen are about 4 to 5
inches in length. The leaves are small, from 2 to 3 inches long
by a quarter of an inch across, the petiole is well defined,
the shape linear-lanceolate, ending in a fine point. The
CHAP. VI ARUNDINARIA SPATHIFLORA 173
texture of the leaf is very thin and delicate; there is no
roughness, no prominent midrib, the serration on one edge
only to be discovered by the aid of a lens. The secondary
nerves are from three to five on each side of the midrib.
Nothing could exceed the beauty of the plant which I
saw in Surrey. It was most striking, and at once arrested
attention. It had all the grace and delicate distinction of
ARUNDINARIA FALCATA, and what higher praise could be
bestowed upon it? I am given to understand that it is
found as an undergrowth in the great coniferous forests of
the north-western Himalayas. Like ARUNDINARIA NITIDA,
therefore (which, by the by, it somewhat resembles), it will
probably be wise to plant it in a shady position.
ARUNDINARIA RACEMOSA
A NATIVE of the Himalaya range, found near Darjeeling, in
Sikkim, in Eastern Nepal, and in other places, at heights
varying from 6000 to 12,000 feet.
It is a small Bamboo of low growth, according to Munro
from 2 to 4 feet high, though other authorities give it as
much as 15 feet,’ the stature probably varying according to
the altitude at which it grows. The culms are brownish in
colour, and very thick in proportion to their height, being from
half an inch to as much as 2 inches in diameter. The pale
leaves, glaucous on the lower surface, are long and narrow,
very finely serrated, lanceolate, round at the base, or often
tapering into a short petiole (Munro); the point is long
and setaceous (bristle-like). The midrib is flanked on either
side by from three to five secondary nerves. The tessellation
is conspicuous on both surfaces. The sheaths are striated,
fringed and ligulate, hairy in a young state, smooth later, the
ligule fringed.
Munro says: “This species has very rarely been found in
flower; and when in foliage only it is extremely difficult to
distinguish it from THAMNOCALAMUS SPATHIFLORUS. The best
1 At Derreen in County Kerry it grows to a height of 9 feet 10 inches.
The plants are five-year-old seedlings.
CHAP. VI ARUNDINARIA RACEMOSA 175
marks of distinction are the roughness of the stem below the
nodes, the long points to the leaves, and the membrane at
the top of the vagina and below the articulation of the
petiole, which is only shghtly hairy. The leaves have often
long hairs below.”
The only specimen which I possess of this Bamboo is
not sufficiently mature to show its characteristics. I am
informed that it is largely used in the high mountain ranges
as fodder, besides being employed for the many uses to
which natives apply the whole family. The great altitude
at which the plant grows in its native home, and the tessel-
lation of the leaves indicate a perfectly hardy Bamboo, and
this has been proved at Kew during the winter of 1895, which
does not seem to have injured it. Whether it will prove
to be of any great distinction as an ornamental plant, or
whether it is only valuable to the curious as an addition
to their collections, is a fact which remains to be proved.
Time will show.
ARUNDINARIA ARISTATA
To Lord Annesley, I believe, is to be assigned the credit: of
having been the first to introduce this species into our
islands, and it is to his kindness that I am indebted for
the specimen in my possession. Though still travel-sick,
it seems to indicate a bright and ornamental Bamboo, and
as it flourishes at a height of some 11,000 feet in the north-
eastern Himalayan range, and has tessellated leaves, there
is every reason to hope that it will prove a valuable and
hardy addition to our gardens. The culms of my plant are
about 5 feet high, of a purplish brown colour. The internodes
about 4 inches long, but from so immature a plant it is not
possible to judge accurately of the ultimate development of
which it is capable. The nodes are fairly prominent, the
stems much branched.
The leaves are of a bright green colour, shghtly glaucous
on the lower surface. They are long and narrow, about 4
inches in length by a quarter or three-eighths of an inch in
breadth, tapering to a very fine point. The petiole is quite
inconspicuous or absent, the leaf appearing to be sessile.
The edges are very slightly serrated; indeed, the.teeth are
hardly perceptible. There are from three to five secondary
nerves on either side of the midrib, which is well defined
CHAP. VI ARUNDINARIA ARISTATA Vb
and prominent. The tessellation is very prettily marked.
The leaf sheaths are fringed with soft silky hairs, the ligule
being very inconspicuous. The culm sheaths are hairy and
very slightly tessellated, the cross veins being rare, at great
distances apart, and rather diagonally inclined.
BAMBOOS THE NATIVE HOME OF
WHICH IS UNCERTAIN
ARUNDINARIA NOBILIS
Tu1s Bamboo, of uncertain origin, has been grown in various
places under the names of ARUNDINARIA FALCATA, THAMNO-
CALAMUS FALCONERI, and ARUNDINARIA KHASIANA, indiffer-
ently. That it differs from each and all of these is perfectly
manifest. Moreover, as it is impossible to identify it with
any of the hitherto described Indian Arundinarias, I am
inclined to the belief that it has been imported, in circum-
stances now long since forgotten, from China. In this theory
I am supported by a letter from Mr. Rashleigh of Menabilly
in Cornwall, in whose garden the plant has been cultivated
for more than half a century, which I have his permission to
quote, and in which he says :—
Your suggestion that my Bamboo may have come from North-
Western China has revived my recollection, that about 1836-38 my
father’s friend, Mr. Henry Alexander, an East-Indian director, procured
for him from China a large parcel of seeds, which came in charming
little china pots or vases ; and it was about this time that much atten-
tion was drawn to the parent of the present race of these plants of Bam-
boos which, during about thirty years or more, grew on (a fine plant
unchecked by winters) in that part of the garden here which is still
called the Chinese garden. I feel sure, however, that this Bamboo
came here through the East India Company’s directory.
CHAP. VI ARUNDINARIA NOBILIS 179
It will be remembered that between fifty and sixty years
ago, the date of this importation, the East India Company
had still practically a monopoly of trade with China, and it
was their officials who carried on relations with that country
until some years later, 1842, when the opium war took place.
I look upon Mr. Rashleigh’s letter, therefore, as strong
corroborative evidence in favour of my supposition.
Regarding it then as a hitherto undescribed species, I
have named this Bamboo ARUNDINARIA NOBILIS, from its
great stature and imposing appearance. At Menabilly it is
growing in clumps 24 feet high: my far younger specimens
promise to grow with great luxuriance.
The culms are tall, round, slender, and straight, with a
cavity large in proportion to the girth; the internodes are
about 7 inches apart. The nodes are not prominent, but very
conspicuous from their purple-brown colour in contrast with
a yellowish stem; the lower rim of the knot is broadly
marked with gray. The culm sheaths are much longer than
the internodes, which they overlap ; they are rather rough in
texture, and show a few cross veinlets; the ligule is small
and much divided at the top into a sort of fringe (though
there are no hairs), and the recurved limbus is short, narrow,
and very perishable. At each node are a great number of
branchlets, giving the plant a verticillate appearance. The
leaf sheaths, purple in colour, have a very small ligule ; there
are no hairs at the insertion of the leaf. The leaves are linear-
lanceolate, from 2 to 3 inches long by rather more than a
quarter or nearly half an inch broad; they taper to a point, and
end at the base in a dark purple petiole. The serration of the
edges is very slight indeed. The leaves are striate, having no
180 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. VI
cross veinlets, but a number of pellucid dots. There are
from three to four secondary nerves on each side of the
midrib. The surface of the leaf, which is very thin and
papery, is a bright green with the purple hue of the petiole
continued along the edge, the line of colour being broad at
first, and gradually narrowing till it fades away near the point.
The lower face equally shows this purple edging, but is shghtly
more glaucous than the surface. The roots are czespitous.
Although this Bamboo cannot be called entirely hardy,
still it is more so than either ARUNDINARIA FALCATA or
THAMNOCALAMUS FALCONERI, the only other two Bamboos
with striated leaves which are grown in our gardens. In
ordinary winters the culms do not die, though the leaves are
shed, but on the contrary in the spring new branches are
formed in great profusion. Eight degrees of frost have not
sufficed to strip the leaves. But a prolonged winter of
intense severity like that of 1895 kills the culms to the
ground without, however, injuring the roots. In Cornwall the
old leaves do not fall until the early summer, when the new
ones are ready to come out. In the Midlands, then, we may
regard ARUNDINARIA NOBILIS as a deciduous Bamboo, and to
that extent hardy. Its gigantic stature, beauty of colouring,
and elegance of form give it an ornamental value as to which
there cannot be two opinions.
It is, of course, a difficult plant to obtain, for where it does
exist it is muddled up under wrong names with species to
which it does not belong. The expert must seek for it pain-
fully, and when he does find it, probably it will be under the
name of ARUNDINARIA FALCATA, or ARUNDINARIA KHASIANA.
It was under the latter title that it came into my hands.
ARUNDINARIA ANCEPS
A LOVELY waif, picked up at the sale of a dead nurseryman’s
effects by Mr. Jordan, the superintendent of Regent’s Park,
who very wisely bought the whole stock. What was its
birthplace, how it came here, must remain a mystery ; for
the only man who could tell the tale is dead, and his
books destroyed or lost. However, it has fallen into good
hands, where it will be well cared for, and will be a pleasure
to thousands in one of the very best of our London gardens.
I have carefully searched such descriptions as we possess of
the Indian Arundinarias, and can make it tally with none, so
I can only surmise that it may be one more treasure from the
imperfectly ransacked Chinese Flora. Its nationality being
uncertain, and the species showing no one conspicuous feature
by which it may specially be recognised, and which would
lead to the choice of a descriptive name,—though it is
obviously as a whole perfectly distinct,—I have ventured
to name it AncrEpPs,! the “ Doubtful” Arundinaria.
At a little distance the habit of this Bamboo is so like
that of ARUNDINARIA NITIDA, that the two species might at
first sight be taken for one another, but there are marked
differences not difficult to detect: 1st, The stems of A.
1 Sequor hune Lucanus an Apulus anceps—
Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 34.
182 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. VI
NITIDA are of a purple-black colour, whereas those of
A. ANCEPS, purple at first, ripen to a greenish yellow or brown ;
2nd, The leaf sheath in A. ANCEPS has a circular fringe of
short bristly white hairs at the insertion of the leaf: this
is a feature not found in A. NITIDA, whose leaf sheaths are
hairless ; 3rd, The petiole and edges of the leaves lack the
purple tint which is conspicuous in those of A. NITIDA.
The culms of ARUNDINARIA ANCEPS are tall, round, smooth,
very slender and rush-like; I have seen them as much as 7
feet high, and shall be surprised if they do not attain a far
ereater development. The cavity in a 4-foot stem is very
small indeed, not more than half the diameter of the wall.
The nodes are fairly salient, the lower rim sharply defined,
the upper rim more rounded and protuberant ; the colour of
the node is purple. The branches are purple in colour, very
slender, with comparatively long internodes. In the leaf
sheaths the ligule is hardly to be detected, but the little halo
of hairs at the insertion of the leaves is very persistent and
distinct, and markedly different from all the Arundinarias of
anything like kindred habit, such as FALCATA, SPATHIFLORA,
NItTIpA, NOBILIS, and FALCONERI.
The tender leaves—about 2 inches long by about a quarter
of an inch wide, more or less—are of a very brilliant green,
rather more glaucous on the lower face, linear-lanceolate,
ending in a sharp point, and attenuated to a rather short
petiole. The tessellation is very minute and perfect. There
are from two to three secondary nerves on either side of the
midrib. Such serration as exists, and it requires a lens to see
it, is more on one side than on the other.
BAMBUSA DISTICHA
THis charming little Bamboo has hitherto been sent out
by nurserymen under the name of BAMBUSA NANA, a title
which belongs to a totally different and tender species
described by Roxburgh. It has great beauty and most
distinct characteristics, being quite unlike any other member
of the family, and this alone would give it a claim to have
a name all to itself without usurping one to which it has no
right. I have therefore called it BAMBUSA DISTICHA, on
account of the peculiar arrangement of the leaves, which are
carried alternately in two vertical ranks all along the stem
and branches.
The culm, which is about 2 feet high, is green, rarely
clouded with purple, round, fistulous, and zigzagged; it is
very slender. The internodes are markedly variable in
length, indeed, capriciously so, for I have seen before me a
stem, in which an internode all but 3 inches in length is
followed by one three-quarters of an inch long, while that
again is followed by one which measures over 2 inches, whereas
in most Bamboos the internodes, short at the base, lengthen
towards the centre of the culm in regular progression,
and grow shorter again as gradually: the nodes, without being
very prominent, are well defined. The sheaths are downy at
184 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. VI
first, but this feature disappears as they wither; the tiny
ligule is furnished with small hairs, and the limbus is, as
might be expected, very small. The branches are borne
singly ; the leaves are a bright green on both sides, tessellated,
and serrated on both edges. They are very small, about 17
inch to 21 inches long by three-eighths to a quarter of an inch
wide. They have a very minute silvery down, quite impercep-
tible to the naked eye, on both surfaces, especially towards the
base. In shape they are lanceolated, ending in a very small
petiole. Each side of the midrib has two to three secondary
nerves. The distichous arrangement of the leaves is most
characteristic and singular.
Altogether BAMBUSA DISTICHA is a lovely and most
attractive little plant. It was rather roughly handled by the
last two winters, but never quite lost its leaves; with the
renewal of summer it sprang into beauty again, and, as the
roots are great wanderers, soon began to make a thick carpet
of brilliant greenery, full of character and individuality.
The origin of this Bamboo is doubtful. Mr Watson of Kew
says, “it is most like Chusquea tessellata of New Granada
(Munro) of any of the specimens in the Herbarium.” It may
possibly be the same as the species which the Japanese call
OROSHIMA CHIKU, but I am without any evidence as to its
being indigenous in Japan.
CHAPTER Vil
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
THERE is nothing finite in science—nothing finite in the arts
and crafts which are her handmaids. Certainly nothing in
gardening ; for year by year, almost day by day, new treasures
are discovered, or old ones reveal new secrets ; more especially
in the matter of hardihood do we meet with surprises. For
how many lustres was the Aucuba cribbed, cabined, and
confined as a tender plant in greenhouses, until some kindly
but audacious hand set it free? and now it is to be found in
every London square, smut-begrimed and filthy, but glorying
and rejoicing in its filth, And so it has been with many
plants once marked with a capital G in every catalogue, but
now thriving gaily in a climate to which they have
accustomed themselves without difficulty. Not five years
ago one of the most famous of our gardeners, looking at my
newly-imported starveling Bamboos, said with the sneering
grunt of the unbeliever, “They'll all die.” The laugh is on
my side now, for the rickety babies have grown into stalwart
young giants, full of lusty life, with the joy of many days
ahead of them. And the best of it is, that the great and
unexpected success which has attended the acclimatisation of
those Bamboos which we already possess is but a herald of
186 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP.
further triumphs. For as yet we have only touched the
fringe of what we may hope to achieve in the decoration of
our wilderness gardens with the grace of these Royal
Grasses.
When we consider that in Asia and in South America
alike there are Bamboos, known hitherto only from the
dried specimens in herbaria, growing at incredible altitudes
—that among the Andes, for instance, there is one species,
CHUSQUEA ARISTATA, which has been found at an elevation
equal to the height of Mont Blanc,—we must believe, nay,
we know that there is many a Sleeping Beauty only waiting
till some lover shall carry her off from her mountain
fastness, to awake under the faint but kindly rays of an
English sun.
It must, however, be remembered that altitudes in tropical
climates by no means represent the same temperatures that
they do in Europe. JI am assured that in Madras and
Ceylon snow does not fall below a height of 9000 feet above
sea-level ; that in Khasia it does not fall below 7000 feet,
in Sikkim below 6000 feet, and that at a height of 5000
feet the vegetation of Tenasserim is subtropical. But when
these facts are discounted, it is still certain that the Hima-
layas are full of treasures which we do not yet possess. In
India, however, there are a Forestry department and Botanical
Gardens, under the direction of men of science, and all the
machinery for learned exploration, and shortly, it may be
hoped, will appear Mr. Gamble’s great monograph on Indian
Bamboos, published under the auspices of the Government,
which will throw a totally new light upon the subject. It
is safe to prophesy, therefore, that all that is to be found in
VII FUTURE POSSIBILITIES 187
the Himalayas fitting our climate will before very long be
available.
The exploration of the Andes is a less hopeful matter.
They are rich in species with tessellated leaves, growing at
heights of from 4000 to 15,000 feet above the sea-level, and
assuredly they should be laid under contribution. The great
difficulty will be, that in the absence of great botanical
establishments, such as those of India, the burthen must
more or less fall upon private shoulders.
Africa is, so far as we at present know, a less promising
field for the collection of hardy Bamboos ; but it must be
borne in mind that the chief authority to which we have to
look is still General Munro’s monograph, which appeared in
1866, when the Dark Continent was still a mysterious fable-
land. It is probable that since the European powers have
penetrated its most hidden recesses many botanical secrets,
as rich and as hidden as the gold which has so recently been
discovered, will be brought to lght.
A short while ago I believed that we had already
exhausted the resources of China and Japan. But since then
we know that one species certainly, ARUNDINARIA NITIDA,
and probably two others, A. ANCEPS and