From the copious draught which a joint of the bam boo naturally yields, mankind are taught its use as a vessel for carrying water, and in some places np other bucket is employed. The Eastern nations build their houses solely of the wood without any auxiliary sub stance; if entire, it forms posts or columns ; split up, it serves for floors or rafters ; or interwoven in lat tice-work, it is employed for the sides of rooms, ad mitting light and air. The roof is sometimes of bam boo solely, for which two species growing in"Laos, an Asiatic country, are described to be specially adapted ; and when split, which is accomplished with the greatest ease, it can be formed into lath 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 likewise, and fitted for sea. The hull is obtained from the stem ; and 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 consider able dimensions are used in the higher yards of ships of four or five hundred tons, for which ser vice 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, m trans mitting water, for the distance of several miles, to re servoirs or gardens. The species from which these pipes are constructed is- said to grow in the moun tains ; and ftom 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 bottnni, it can be reduced to the small est dimensions, and bent into every shape. It is woven into baskets, cages, hats, or various ornamental articles. By a particular process in bruising and steep ing the wood or bark, a paste is procured that is made into paper. In short, from its very origin until its de cay, 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 advantage they have derived from it. Its uses are so nume rous, so various, and so beneficial, that it is impos sible 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 possession of the bamboo." It has been proposed to naturalize the bamboo in France. Perhaps were the naturalization of plants and animals attempted by slow and regular grada tion, instead of great and sudden transition, experi ments might be more successful than former prac- , tice would authorize us to conclude. Probably it would require the renewal of several successive generations, each advanced into a different cli mate not remote from the abode of the one which preceded it, before naturalization could be complete ly effected. Some European climates might not prove noxious to the bamboo ; but the same rapidity of ve getation, the same natural qualities, could not be ex pected, or only in an inferior degree, even in the most favourable situation, and consequently its utility would be infinitely diminished. (s.)