The ancient origin of the bamboo, its prolific and giant, growth,. its marvellous mechanical structure, its manifold uses, its historical, legendary, and artistic: interest were: all touched upon in a lecture by' Mr. Porterfield given before the. American Woman's Club on Tuesday afternoon, The bamboo, he said, is really -a|" giant grass. It has a hollow stem with colid joints placed at intervals, Tt has fibrous roots and an under-Jground stem. The leaves are paral-Tel veined. "The flowers ate very: rare because the bamboo is s0 old, /having originated in the Cretaceous Age. The plant flowers once in from 16 to 60 year, Then all the culms Jor eanes of one particular plant fower within a period of one to two years when the culms turn yellow, the leaves drop off and sometime the roots die. After this seedlings come up.
One of the marvellous things about the bamboo is the extensive tarea over which one plant extend Jcometimes covering many squat Imiles of territory. Some types grow with the culms very close together. These are the clump-types. With lather species the culms are separate and give the appearance of a fore: of separate trees, while, as a matter of fact, if one were to dig: beneath the ground, one would find that the rhizomes, or underground stems, con-nested with one another. The fact that one entire grove flowers and Produces seeds at the same time also proves that it is a physiological unit, There is a saying in China that the bamboo flowers when there is a famine and saves the people from starvation It has been recorded Jof a bamboo forest in India that at the time of its lowering over 50,000 people came to it and camped for ind gathered the seed to take This seed usted them through the winter and they were able, besides, to sell some in the market, The seed resembles tige. Bamboo shoots are also 00d for food and have been tested and found to contain Vitamine B.
In Amoy there is an industry for tinning bamboo shoots. Last year 80,000 catties of bamboo shoots were. shipped from Foochow to Amoy at. $2.50 Mex. per 100 catties.
One of the mort wonderful things about the bamboo, as everyone knows, is the rapidity of its growth, 'a fact which increases the useful: ness of the plant many time
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.