Bamboo

Bamboo, the common name for the large tree-like grasses belonging to the genus Bambusa, of which upwards of thirty species are known, mostly natives of the tropics. Some of them send up canes from their rhizomes fifty or sixty feet high in a single season, and in others one of the hollow intemodes may reach a foot in diameter or more than three feet in length. They sometimes secrete masses of silica, known as tabasheer, in their joints. Their leaves are broader and more distinctly stalked than those of most grasses, and their flowers more nearly approach the type of monocotyledons, having generally three lodicules, or perianth-leaves, six stamens, and three carpels. In China, Japan, Java, etc., the canes are employed for an infinity of purposes, masts, sails, mats, tables, chairs, flower-pots, etc.