Two happy years in Ceylon . The unconscious action of these leaves always seems to me aperfect illustration of that sense of dull aching anxiety which is sonearly akin to physical suffering, and which is so expressively de-scribed as serrement du cxur—a phrase for which we have no Englishequivalent. Splendid clumps of bamboo, imported from Java and Malacca,are mirrored in the broad glassy stream, and truly in the wholevegetable world I know nothing more beautiful than these monarchsof the grass kingdom, with their jointed stems, like polished green oryellow marble, and exquisite plumes of feat
Two happy years in Ceylon . The unconscious action of these leaves always seems to me aperfect illustration of that sense of dull aching anxiety which is sonearly akin to physical suffering, and which is so expressively de-scribed as serrement du cxur—a phrase for which we have no Englishequivalent. Splendid clumps of bamboo, imported from Java and Malacca,are mirrored in the broad glassy stream, and truly in the wholevegetable world I know nothing more beautiful than these monarchsof the grass kingdom, with their jointed stems, like polished green oryellow marble, and exquisite plumes of feathery foliage, growing inclumps upwards of a hundred feet in height, and curving gracefullylike branches of gigantic ostrich feathers. It is scarcely possible to realise that such stately growth can allbe the work of one season, but so it is, for, though some species areabout thirty years before they flower at all, yet, in common with thehumblest grasses of the field, the bamboo flowers but once and then Mimosa KAND V igi dies, to renew its glory in the following year. On an average, eachclump numbers about sixty stems, all springing from one hidden root,which creeps beneath the ground, throwing up stems here and peep above ground during the rains, about July, and shoot upat the rate of twelve inches in twenty-four hours. The Malaccabamboo, which is the largest known species, continues growing till itattains a height sometimes considerably above a hundred feet, with anaverage diameter of nine inches. The common bamboo indigenousto Ceylon is a very much smaller plant with a yellow stem. Strange to say, some species of bamboo flower gregariously, allthose in one district coming to maturity in the same year, afterwhich no flowers of that species will blossom till a new generationhas come to full age. The male and female plants are distinct: the latter are by far themost numerous, and yield the light hollow stems, jointed at regularintervals by thick wood f
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsrilank, bookyear1901
