d many others of the same order, being its more
gigantic dimensions.

My young reader, I may safely assert, that in all the vegetable kingdom
there is no species or form so valuable to the human race as the
"grasses." Among all civilised nations bread is reckoned as the food of
primary importance, so much so as to have obtained the sobriquet of "the
staff of life;" and nearly every sort of bread is the production of a
grass. Wheat, barley, oats, maize, and rice, are all grasses; and so,
too, is the sugar-cane--so valuable for its luxurious product. It would
take up many pages of our little volume to enumerate the various species
of _gramineae_, that contribute to the necessities and luxuries of
mankind; and other pages might be written about species equally
available for the purposes of life, but which have not yet been brought
into cultivation.

Of all kinds of grasses, however, none possesses greater interest than
the bamboo. Although not the most useful as an article of food, this
noble plant serves a greater number of purposes in the economy of human
life, than perhaps any other vegetable in existence.

What the palm-tree of many species is to the natives of South America or
tropical Africa, such is the bamboo to the inhabitants of Southern Asia
and its islands. It is doubtful whether nature has conferred upon these
people any greater boon than this noble plant, the light and graceful
culms of which are applied by them to a multitude of useful purposes.
Indeed so numerous are the uses made of the bamboo, that it would be an
elaborate work even to make out a list of them. A few of the purposes
to which it is applied will enable you to judge of the valuable nature
of this princely grass.

The young shoots of some species are cut when tender, and eaten like
asparagus. The full-grown stems, while green, form elegant cases,
exhaling a perpetual moisture, and capable of transporting fresh flowers
for hundreds of miles. When ripe and hard, they are converted into
bows, arrows, and quivers, lance-shafts, the masts of vessels,
walking-sticks, the poles of palanquins, the floors and supporters of
bridges, and a variety of similar purposes. In a growing state the
strong kinds are formed into stockades, which are impenetrable to any
thing but regular infantry or artillery. By notching their sides the
Malays make wonderfully light scaling ladders, which can be conveyed
with facility, where heavier machines could no