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,
throughout the greatest reach of time, their native character. The
works of man are ever varying their aspect; his towns and his fields
alike reflect the unstable opinions, the fickle wills and fancies of
each passing generation; but the forests on his borders remain to-day