t be transported. Bruised
and crushed in water, the leaves and stems form Chinese paper, the finer
qualities of which are only improved by a mixture of raw cotton and by
more careful pounding. The leaves of a small species are the material
used by the Chinese for the lining of their tea-chests. Cut into
lengths, and the partitions knocked out, they form durable water-pipes,
or by a little contrivance are made into cases for holding rolls of
paper. Slit into strips, they afford a most durable material for
weaving into mats, baskets, window-blinds, and even the sails of boats;
and the larger and thicker truncheons are carved by the Chinese into
beautiful ornaments. For building purposes the bamboo is still more
important. In many parts of India the framework of the houses of the
natives is chiefly composed of this material. In the flooring, whole
stems, four or live inches in diameter, are laid close to each other,
and across these, laths of split bamboo, about an inch wide, are
fastened down by filaments of rattan cane. The sides of the houses are
closed in by the bamboos opened and rendered flat by splitting or
notching the circular joints on the outside, chipping away the
corresponding divisions within, and laying it in the sun to dry, pressed
down with weights. Whole bamboos often form the upright timbers, and
the house is generally roofed in with a thatch of narrow split bamboos,
six feet long, placed in regular layers, each reaching within two feet
of the extremity of that beneath it, by which a treble covering is
formed. Another and most ingenious roof is also formed by cutting large
straight bamboos of sufficient length to reach from the ridge to the
eaves, then splitting them exactly in two, knocking out the partitions,
and arranging them in close order with the hollow or inner sides
uppermost; after which a second layer, with the outer or concave sides
up, is placed upon the other in such a manner that each of the convex
pieces falls into the two contiguous concave pieces covering their
edges, thus serving as gutters to carry off the rain that falls on the
convex layer.

Such are a few of the uses of the bamboo, enumerated by an ingenious
writer; and these are probably not more than one tenth of the purposes
to which this valuable cane is applied by the natives of India.

The quickness with which the bamboo can be cut and fashioned to any
purpose is not the least remarkable of its properties. One of