The Bamboo Plant and its Uses.
The most beautiful plant in the colony is bamboo. It grows everywhere except in marshy places—on the hills, along the banks of rivers, in open spaces, and in woods. Groups of bamboos are invariably cultivated by the natives in the vicinity of their homes. It has a light, feathery, tufted top, that waves in the slightest breeze and gives a spirited look to the landscape. It frequently grows to the height of fifty or sixty feet, is from five to eight inches in diameter, and strongly jointed, every joint strengthened by an inside web.
There are also many smaller kinds.
The plant is constantly propagated by the natives from young shoots; for bamboo-sticks always bring their price in Manila markets, according to size and season. There are several varieties; and the uses to which they are put are endless, the wood being tough, flexible, and elastic.
From bamboo-sticks huts, houses, and churches are made; and even roofed and thatched. For the latter, however, nipa palm and cógon grass are preferred. Bridges are constructed of them several hundred feet in length, over which a drove of elephants could safely cross; they are used in the making of furniture, walls, flooring, rafts, scaffolding, carts, baskets, vessels to contain liquid, and measures for wheat, organs, and small instruments, and every kind of household utensil used by the natives. They are used, also, for weapons, for cordage, for hats, for mats, for palings, for carrying poles, for blowers to a furnace, and for condensing-pipes in making brandy,—and for a hundred other articles of amusement or convenience.
Bamboo-leaves are eaten by horses and cattle, and its tender shoots by man. In one variety of the cane a stone is occasionally found. This the Indians believe will heal sickness. In another kind is a white substance used to allay inflammation of the eye. This disease is very common in the colony, owing to the intensity of the sun-rays.
The rattan, or calamus family, is very much like the bamboo, and its varieties are only a little less useful. One kind, the bojo, is used for much the same things that the lighter bamboo is.