The bamboos are giant members of a group (grasses[118]), the other individuals of which, while widely distributed, valued, and very numerous, are for the most part insignificant as to bulk, height, and structural characteristics. The canes and bamboos are exceptions in that they form what may well be called forests, and produce woods used in construction. The Bamboos (_Bambusæ_), including about twenty genera and two hundred species,[119] are distributed unevenly over the tropical zone. [Illustration: PLATE 39. BAMBOO (_Bambusæ_). Bamboo Grove, Philippines. _By the courtesy of the Manila P.O. Forestry Bureau._ Bamboo Grove, China. Bamboo sections, 5-1/4 inches diameter.] The bamboo plant with its numerous stalks and delicate foliage resembles a plume of giant ostrich feathers. The stems attain heights of seventy feet and diameters of four and six inches (see Fig. 3 plate). Knots or joints are at first close together, but are later one or two feet apart. Growth is surprisingly rapid. A Philippine specimen, which when measured was eighteen inches high and four inches in diameter, grew two feet in three days.[120] Florida stalks have reached heights of seventy-two feet in a single season.[121] The plants are apt to take complete possession of the ground on which they grow. Those who use bamboo value it highly. It is employed entire or else split into segments. Some can be [p191] opened and flattened into rough boards, splitting everywhere but holding together.[122] For vessels it is cut off with reference to the partitions. The subject is thus summarized by Dr. Martin:[123] "The Chinese make masts of it for their small junks, and twist it into cables for their larger ones. They weave it into matting for floors, and make it into rafters for roofs. They sit at table on bamboo chairs, eat shoots of bamboo with bamboo chop-sticks. The musician blows a bamboo flute, and the watchman beats a bamboo rattle. Criminals are confined in a bamboo cage and beaten with bamboo rods. Paper is made of bamboo fibre, and pencils of a joint of bamboo in which is inserted a tuft of goat's hair." The manipulation of this valuable material is not yet understood in America. Prof. Johnson notes[124] that the wood of "bamboo is just twice as strong as the strongest wood in cross-bending, weight for weight, when the wood is taken in specimens, with a square and solid cross-section." Dr. Fernow considers the bamboo worthy of extensive trial throughout the Gulf region.[125] [p192] FOOTNOTES [Footnote 118: Grasses, "one of the largest and probably one of the most useful groups of plants. . . . If grass-like sedges be associated, . . . there are about 6000 species, representing nearly one third of the Monocotyledons." (Coulter, "Plants," pp. 240-241.) The various pasture-grasses, cereals, and sugar-canes are here included. Bamboos and canes are distinct in that they afford structural materials.]