BAMBOOS.
The giant grasses, that are more familiar to us in fish poles than in any other of the uses they serve, grow from sea level to an altitude of 15,000 feet. If we think of the clump of bamboo that makes an attractive feature in a neighbor's garden, it is a surprise to learn that some tropical species reach a height of over one hundred feet, and a diameter of a foot at base. Even these jointed canes that almost touch the sky are slim and graceful. In all, there are over two hundred different species of bamboo, growing chiefly in tropical countries, all around the globe. The Temperate Zone has a few species that are small and unimportant in comparison.
In Chinese restaurants a savory stew contains the tender shoots of bamboo. These blanched tips of oriental species are also served like as paragus, or boiled with rice, or pickled, or candied. The seeds of some species are like wheat, and these are mixed with honey, or parched for food. Nut-like seeds of another kind are roasted.
We must go into a tropical country, where primitive people live, to see how many everyday uses the bamboos can be put to. The great naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, was amazed at what he saw in Borneo, of the admirable qualities and clever uses of the abundant reeds. "Their strength, lightness, smoothness, straight ness, roundness, and hollowness, the facility and regularity with which they can be split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their joints, the ease with which they can be cut and with which holes can be made through them, their hardness outside, their freedom from any pro nounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and the rapidity of their growth and increase are all qualities which render them useful for a hundred different purposes, to serve which other materials would require much more labor and preparation.
The bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of Nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilized man." Then follows a long account of the Dyak houses, built and furnished with useful articles, even to cooking vessels, all of bamboo. The solid wall that separates the pithy joint sections enables the brown man to make, with his knife in a very short time, a complete set of dishes that stand straight and hold water. A single reed makes cups and bowls, the sizes ranging from the thick base to the narrow tip.
Certain dwarf bamboos cultivated in China furnish material used in the manufacture of paper of all grades. Quite as many uses are found for small species as for the giant reeds used as posts and joist for houses and masts for vessels. The thin, hard rind makes knives with which arrows, pens, and such small things are cut and finished.