Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/192

 *[Footnote: *gically in the different parts of the world. In the northern hemisphere, in the valley of the Mississipi, the traveller is gratified, long before reaching the tropics, with the sight of a form of bamboo, the Arundinaria macrosperma, formerly called also Miegia, and Ludolfia. In the Southern Hemisphere Gay has discovered a Bambusacea, (a still undescribed species of Chusquea, 21 English feet high, which does not climb, but is arborescent and self-supporting) growing in southern Chili between the parallels of 37° and 42° S. latitude; where, intermixed with Drymis chilensis, a uniform forest covering of Fagus obliqua prevails.

While in India the Bambusa flowers so abundantly that in Mysore and Orissa the seeds are mixed with honey and eaten like rice, (Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, Vol. ii. p. 341, and Stirling in the Asiat Res. Vol. xv, p. 205) in South America the Guadua flowers so rarely, that in four years we were only twice able to procure blossoms; once on the unfrequented banks of the Cassiquiare, (the arm which connects the Orinoco with the Rio Negro and the Amazons River,) and once in the province of Popayan between Buga and Quilichao. It is striking to see plants in particular localities grow with the greatest vigour without producing flowers: it is thus with European olive trees which have been planted for centuries between the tropics near Quito, 9000 (about 9590 English) feet above the level of the sea, and also in the Isle of France with Walnut-trees, Hazel-nuts, and, as at Quito, olive trees (Olea europea): see Bojer, Hortus Mauritianus, 1837, p. 291.]*