understand
these divisions. We hope those trade growers who still group everything
as Bambusa will follow the now accepted classification. The following
have proved the most hardy and beautiful in the Bamboo garden at Kew:
_Phyllostachys Henonis_, _P. fastuosa_, _P. viridi-glaucescens_, _P.
flexuosa_, _P. nigra_, _P. boryana_, _P. sulphurea_, _P. Marliacea_, _P.
ruscifolia_, _P. Castillonis_, _Arundinaria nitida_, _A. japonica_, _A.
auricoma_, _A. Simoni_, _A. Fortunei_, _A. anceps_, _A. Hindsii var.
graminea_, _Bambusa palmata_, _B. tessellata_, and _B. marmorea_.

[Illustration: _BAMBOO GARDEN AT KEW, WINTER_

(_In centre, Bambusa palmata; left, Phyllostachys Quilioi; right,
Bambusa tessellata_).]

In selecting a place for the Bamboo colony, think well of position.
Shelter from north and east is essential. Luxuriant leafy stems are only
possible when the plants are screened from winds in these quarters,
indeed from _all_ winds. Cold north and east winds are more harmful than
severe frost, and this applies to all the tender evergreens. A moist and
rich soil is also important. Without it luxuriant growth is impossible,
and a Bamboo that is not leafy, that does not bend its tall, graceful
stems to the breeze and make willowy shoots yards high, when it is
natural for it so to do, is not beautiful: the garden is more
interesting without it. Many of the species spread rapidly by
underground stems, and for this reason must never be planted without
careful thought. Each plant should tell its own tale, and not suffer
partial extinction through a choke-muddle arrangement that makes a bank
of leafage perhaps, but in which all individual beauty is hopelessly
lost. Some Bamboos, like _Phyllostachys viridi-glaucescens_ and _P.
Henonis_, need ample space for full development. Transplant always in
_late spring_, never in winter and early spring. When bamboos were first
grown in this country on a large scale many deaths occurred through
transplanting in winter.

With the utmost care Bamboos in the fickle British climate get sadly
browned in February and May, the outcome of either a hard winter or keen
east winds in spring. The stems are seldom injured, and Mr. Bean says
"the underground portion of the plants never is." This scorched look is
not beautiful, and is more apparent as the spring meets summer, when the
whole plant world is bursting into new life and tinting the landscape
with green. Therefore, Bamboos can never be plante