o the ground, it
thrives and spreads without further care or labor. Of these sixty
varieties, each thrives best in a certain locality, and throughout the
whole empire of China the bamboo groves not only embellish the gardens
of the poor, but the vast parks of the princes and wealthy. The use to
which this stately grass is put is truly wonderful. The tender shoots
are cultivated for food like the asparagus; the roots are carved into
fantastic images of men, birds, and monkeys. The tapering culms are
used for all purposes that poles can be applied to, in carrying,
supporting, propelling, and measuring; by the porter, the carpenter,
and the boatman; for the joists of houses and the ribs of sails; the
shafts of spears and the wattles of hurdles, the tubes of aqueducts
and the handles and ribs of umbrellas and fans. The leaves are sewed
upon cords to make rain-cloaks for farmers and boatmen, for sails to
boats as well as junks, swept into heaps to form manure, and matted
into thatches to cover houses. The bamboo wood is cut into splints and
slivers of various sizes to make into baskets and trays of every form
and fancy, twisted into cables, plaited into awnings, and woven into
mats for the bed and floor, for the sceneries of the theatre, for the
roofs of boats, and the casing of goods. The shavings are picked into
oakum to be stuffed into mattresses. The bamboo furnishes the bed for
sleeping and the couch for reclining, the chair for sitting, the
chop-sticks for eating, the pipe for smoking, the flute for
entertaining; a curtain to hang before the door, and a broom to sweep
around it. The ferrule to govern the scholar, the book he studies and
the paper he writes upon, all originated from this wonderful grass.
The tapering barrels of the organ and the dreadful instrument of the
lictor--one to strike harmony, and the other to strike dread; the rule
to measure lengths, the cup to gauge quantities, and the bucket to
draw water; the bellows to blow the fire and the box to retain the
match; the bird-cage and crab-net, the fish-pole, and the water-wheel
and eaveduct, wheelbarrow, and hand-cart, and a host of other things,
are the utilities to which this magnificent grass is converted."

ENDURING CHARACTER OF THE FORESTS.

Of all the works of the creation which know the changes of life and
death, the trees of the forest have the longest existence. Of all the
objects which crown the gray earth, the woods preserved unchanged,
thro