BAMBOO. This plant is generally ranked by botanists in the number of reeds; but some, less sensible of its analogies with them, incline to institute a separate genus for it. In the Systema Naturae, Linnaeus describes two species, under the genus Bambusa, which is characterized thus: “scales three, covering the spikelets, which are about five flowered; calyx none; corolla, a two-valved glume; style biful; seed one.” Loureiro, who had an opportunity of studying the nature of the bamboo in its own climate, characterizes it as having “flowers with six stamina; panicle diffused, with imbricate spikelets; branches of the culm spiny; calyx one flowered.” We shall abstain from discussing the more minute botanical characters, as it is to the real utility of the plant that our attention is to be directed. The bamboo is, then, 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 slender hollow stem, shining as if varnished. Many, however (probably according to the particular species), are only twelve or fifteen feet high; and those which attain the greatest height here mentioned are rather to be viewed in the same light as the overgrown vegetable productions of our own country. 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. Small alternate branches spring from the base to the top, and, together with the narrow-pointed leaves issuing from the knots, give the tree an elegant feathered appearance as it waves in the wind.

The rapidity of growth is surprising in the bamboo. It [7:4:337] sometimes vegetates 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 assertions of those naturalists who maintain that its full dimensions are attained in a year; and that the only subsequent change is greater thickness and induration of the wood. It is always more solid and compact towards the root, and the hollow cells of the stem become wider in proportion as they ascend. In Malabar it is said to bear fruit when fifteen years old, and then to die. Slenderness is a distinguishing characteristic of the whole plant, and it seems probable that there are several different species which have not yet been recognised by systematic botanists. Soil and climate may have also produced effects which would disappear on uniformity of circumstances. An observer of the bamboos of China, in general, considers that there are ten species or varieties, and an observer of those in Cochin-China admits of eight. The former judges the difference to consist, first, in the size and height; for there is here the greatest disparity in those that are full grown. 2dly, The distance of the knots, or length of joint, which, in certain species of full-grown bamboo, is only four inches, while in others young and slender it extends to nine or ten feet. 3dly, In the colour of the wood, which is whitish, yellow, brown, pale blue, or speckled, 4thly, In the size and form of the knots, some swelling out from the stem above and below; others encircling it like a cord, and not penetrating within so as to interrupt the tubular part of the bamboo. 5dhly, In the surface and figure of the internodes being channelled or covered with tubercles; and a kind is said to exist called the square bamboo. The varnished surface is also of different quality, 6thly, In the substance and thickness of the wood, which, varying without any relation to the dimensions of the plant, afford sufficient characteristics for constituting a species. The wood is either soft and tender, or very hard and of great strength; and the stem is either very thin and hollow, or almost totally filled up and solid, like other trees. But elsewhere, in Bangalore for example, this solidity is not ascribed to the difference of species, but to the tardiness of its growth in stony places. 7thly, It is said that there are bamboos entirely devoid of branches, however old they may be; whilst other branches protrude as they spring from the earth. 8thly, There is a great difference both in the hue and figure of the leaves, as also in their size; they are bluish, ash-coloured, reddish, or mottled. Some are so large as to make very good fans. 9thly, The roots, though knotty and irregular, are found in one species to penetrate like a large tuft of filaments into the earth. 10thly, There are certain singularities which distinguish the species of this piant, as excrescences from the knots, which may be eaten; a saccharine pith; and wood of a red colour and agreeable odour.

It will easily be observed that these remarks are too general to warrant the establishment of species from all the bamboos enumerated; but it is not improbable that a plant so widely diffused may consist, as before observed, of a greater number than has yet been recognised.

The bamboo grows wild in most places of the East, and the warmer parts of the West, and is resorted to as occasion requires. Where the country is principally dependent on its use, it is cultivated in regular plantations, and, m more ungenial climates, preserved by the curious in greenhouses. Its culture is different, according to soil and climate; but apparently it succeeds best in low sheltered grounds, with rich, soft, spongy earth. Contact of the root with water is reputed to be immediately destructive, and too much humidity occasions gradual decay. 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 if it be designed to obtain bamboos of considerable size, the scions are cut over as they spring up. Some scrupulous cultivators among the orientals take care to preserve the plant exactly in the same position, with respect to the cardinal points, as that in which it originated. The greater the number in a plantation, the better is the chance of success, as they shelter each other in their progress. Their subsequent treatment depends entirely on the uses to which they are to be converted, whether of profit or pleasure; much care being bestowed on those designed for beauty or ornament only. They are propped up with rods of a proper height, by which they are trained and supported; and, if complete plants, cut over in order to obtain suitable shoots, which are chiefly sought after; besides, this operation makes the root strike out and take a secure hold of the ground. In a rainy season, it is always necessary to surround the plantation with a ditch, in order to drain off the superabundant humidity, which would otherwise be prejudicial. Various expedients are followed to obtain good bamboos, of which one of the most usual is to take a vigorous root, with firm wood, 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.

Scarcely has this plant been put in the ground before its utility becomes conspicuous. The soft and succulent shoots, when just beginning to spring, and only a few inches long, 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 an agreeable beve-> rage, and in sufficient quantity to satisfy several persons. If allowed to remain in the tree, a concrete substance, highly valued for its medicinal properties, called tabaxir 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 supposed to be nearly allied to siliceous earths; it resists the impression of all acids, is indestructible by fire, and with alkalies forms a transparent glass. Notwithstanding its repute in the East, we are not aware that it has yet 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. The seed which it produces is recorded in Chinese history to have preserved the lives of thousands; the Hindoos 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 [7:4:338] 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 substance: 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 Thibet 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, Jhats, 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.

It has been proposed to naturalize the bamboo in France. Perhaps were the naturalization of plants and animals attempted by slow and regular gradation, instead of great and sudden transition, experiments might be more successful than former practice has shown them to be. Probably it would require the renewal of several successive generations, each advanced into a different climate, not remote from the abode of the one which preceded it, before naturalization could be completely effected. 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. (n. n.)