This plant was ranked by the older botanists in the number of reeds; but some, less sensible of its analogies with them, instituted for it a separate genus. In the *Systema Naturae*, Linnæus describes two species, under the genus Arundo-Bambus, now termed *Bambusa*, which is characterized thus: "scales three, covering the spikelets, which are about five flowered; calyx none; corolla, a two-valved glume; style bifid; seed one." Roxburgh describes about thirty kinds of Bambusa; but the species of Roxburgh have been by later botanists subdivided into several other genera; and we now find but a few species considered as true Bambusa. Thus, in Willdenow's *Species Plantarum* there are but two recognised, *B. arundinacea* and *B. verticillata*. In the *Systema Vegetabilium* of Sprengel, there are three species, *B. arundinacea*, *B. spinosa*, *B. stricta*.

Loureiro, who had an opportunity of studying the nature of the bamboo in its own climate, characterizes it as having "flowers with six stamens; panicle diffused, with imbricate spikelets; branches of the culm spiny; calyx one flowered." The *Bambusa arundinacea* is a native of the warmer climates only, though growing luxuriantly without the limits of the torrid zone. It rises to the height of forty, sixty, or even eighty feet, with a hollow stem, shining as if varnished. The stem is extremely slender, not exceeding the thickness of five inches in some which are fifty feet high, and in others reaching fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter. The whole is divided into joints or articulations, separated by a short interval, called a knot or internode; and in some there is the distance of several feet between each. These joints or divisions are formed by the crossing of the vascular bundles of fibres. They produce alternate lateral buds which form small alternate branchlets springing from the base to the top, and together with the narrow-pointed leaves issuing from them, give the tree an elegant feathered appearance as it waves in the wind.

The rapidity of its growth is surprising. It sometimes grows three or four inches in a single day. Accurate observers have seen it rise twenty feet, and expand as thick as a man's wrist, in five or six weeks; and it has been known to reach thirty feet in six months. This enables us to credit the assertion, that its full dimensions are attained in a year; and that the only subsequent change is greater thickness and induration of the wood. In Malabar it is said to bear fruit when fifteen years old, and then to die.

The bamboo grows wild in most places of the East, and the warmer parts of the West. Where the country is principally dependent on its use, it is cultivated in regular plantations. It apparently succeeds best in low sheltered grounds, with rich, soft, spongy earth; but humidity is especially prejudicial to it. This plant is propagated by shoots deposited in pits at the close of autumn or commencement of winter, eighteen inches or two feet deep; and in order to obtain bamboos of considerable size, the scions are cut over as they spring up. Their subsequent treatment depends entirely on the uses to which they are to be converted; much care being bestowed on those designed for beauty or ornament only. They are propped up with rods; and, if complete plants, are cut over in order to obtain suitable shoots. It is necessary to surround the plantation with a ditch, in order to drain off superabundant humidity, which would otherwise be prejudicial. Various expedients are followed to obtain good bamboos; one of the most usual being to take a vigorous root and transplant it, leaving only four or five inches above the joint next the ground. The cavity is then filled with a mixture of horse-litter and sulphur. According to the vigour of the root, the shoots will be more numerous; but they are destroyed at an early stage during three successive years; and those springing in the fourth resemble the parent tree. It is affirmed that no culture can obtain any thing of larger size.

The utility of this plant soon becomes conspicuous. The soft and succulent shoots, when just beginning to spring, are cut over and served up at table, like asparagus. Like this vegetable, also, they are earthed over to keep them longer fit for consumption; and they afford a supply in succession during the whole year, though more abundantly in autumn. They are also salted and eaten with rice, or prepared after different other fashions. As the plant grows older, a kind of fluid of grateful taste and odour is secreted in the hollow joints, affording a considerable quantity of an agreeable beverage. If allowed to remain in the tree, a concrete substance, highly valued for its medicinal properties, called tabasheer or tabascheer, is produced from it. The presence of the fluid is ascertained by agitating the bamboo; after some time its quantity gradually diminishes, and then the stem is opened to reach the tabascheer. This substance, participating in nothing of a vegetable nature, has been found to be siliceous earth; it resists the impression of all acids, is indestructible by fire, and with alkalies forms a transparent glass. Notwithstanding its repute in the East, it has never been received into the European materia medica. Besides the tabascheer, many parts of the bamboo are said to be endowed with medicinal properties; a decoction of the leaves is recommended for coughs and sore throat; the bark for fever and vomiting; the buds as a diuretic; and a compound of the root with tobacco-leaves, betel nut, and oil, is believed to form an efficacious unguent. But setting aside its medicinal properties, it is highly valuable as an article of food; for many of the poorer classes in the most populous countries subsist on it in times of scarcity. Its seed is recorded in Chinese history to have preserved the lives of thousands. The Hindus eat it mixed with honey as a delicacy, equal quantities of each being put into a hollow joint, coated externally with clay, and thus roasted over a fire.

From the copious draught which a joint of the bamboo naturally yields, mankind are taught its use as a vessel for carrying water, and in some places no other bucket is employed. The Eastern nations build their houses solely of the wood, without any auxiliary substances: if entire, it forms posts or columns; split up, it serves for floors or rafters; or interwoven in lattice-work, it is employed for the sides of rooms, admitting light and air. The roof is sometimes of bamboo solely, for which two species growing in Laos, an Asiatic country, are described as specially adapted; and when split, which is accomplished with the greatest ease, it can be formed into laths or planks. It is employed in shipping of all kinds; and as houses are constructed entirely of it, so are complete vessels framed out of it, and fitted for sea. The hull is obtained from the stem; and some of the strongest plants are selected for masts of boats of moderate size. In Bengal a boat of four or five tons may be furnished with both mast and yard from the same bamboo, at the cost of threepence; and the masts of larger vessels are sometimes formed by the union of several bamboos built up and joined together. Those of considerable dimensions are used in the higher yards of ships of four or five hundred tons, for which service they are well adapted by their great strength and lightness.

The bamboo is employed in the construction of all agricultural and domestic implements; and in all materials and implements required in fishery, hooks and nets excepted. In Tibet the strongest bows are made of it; by the union of two pieces with many bands; and, in the same country also, it is employed, as we use leaden pipes, in transmitting water a distance of several miles to reservoirs or gardens. The species from which these pipes are constructed is said to grow in the mountains; and from other light and slender stalks the inhabitants obtain shafts for their arrows. In the south-west of Asia there is a certain species of equally slender growth, from which writing pens or reeds are made.

From the extreme flexibility of this substance, and also its divisibility, for it splits like whalebone from top to bottom; it can be reduced to the smallest dimensions, and bent into every shape. It is woven into baskets, cages, hats, or various ornamental articles. By a particular process in bruising and steeping the wood or bark, a paste is procured that is made into paper. In short, from its very origin until its decay, it never ceases to produce something beneficial. It has justly been observed: "All that composes a bamboo is profitable, of whatever species it may be. The artists of China have each made their choice, and, in the works they produce, show the advantages they have derived from it. Its uses are so numerous, so various, and so beneficial, that it is impossible to conceive how China could now dispense with this precious reed. It is no exaggeration to affirm, that the mines of this vast empire are of less importance to it than the possession of the bamboo; which, we may add, is also the chief instrument of government."

Some European climates might not prove noxious to the bamboo; but the same rapidity of vegetation, the same natural qualities, could not be expected, or only in an inferior degree, even in the most favourable situation, and consequently its utility would be greatly diminished.