Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/207

 feet high. In the history of Tai-wan it is stated that there are thirteen varieties of bamboos (a species of grass) known in Formosa, one being reported to attain to the enormous girth of two feet. * I will here give a brief account of the many uses to which the bamboo is applied — a plant which figures exten- sively in the social economy of the people throughout the length and breadth of China. Were every other means of support withdrawn except rice and bamboo, these two plants would, I believe, supply the necessaries for clothing, habitation and food ; indeed the bamboo alone, as I propose to show, would bear the lion's share of the burden. No tending is needed for this hardy- natured plant, nor is it dainty in the choice of its locality; and although it probably reaches its highest state of perfection in the rich valleys of Formosa, yet it grows with nearly equal vigour on the thin soil of rocky hill-sides. It is first used to hedge the dwelling around with an almost impenetrable barrier of prickly stems, and to cast a cool shade over the abodes with its lofty pale-green plumes. The houses themselves may be constructed entirely of its stems and thatched with its dry leaves. Within, the couches and chairs are made of bamboo, and so is the table, except its deal top ; so, too, are the water- cans, the drinking jugs and the rice-measures. Hanging from the roof are a number of prickly bamboo stems, supporting dried pork and such like provisions, and warding off rats with their chevaux de frise. In one corner we may see the proprietor's waterproof coat and hat, each made out of the leaves of the plant, which overlap like the plumage of a bird. The agricul- tural implements are, many of them, made of hard bamboo stems, and, indeed, the fishing-net, the baskets of divers shapes, the

1 Chinese Notes and Queries, ii. 135.