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n EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 261septa of the joints. This prevents the water from runningout too quickly, and facilitates its being poured out in aregulated stream to the last drop. Three or four of thesewater-vessels are tied together and carried on the back, andthey stand very conveniently in a corner of the hut. Waterpipesand aqueducts are also readily made from bamboo tubessupported at intervals on two smaller pieces tied crosswise.In thisway a stream of water is often conveyed from somedistance to the middle of a village. Measures for rice orpalm-wine, drinMng-vessels, and water-dippers, are to be foundalmost ready-made in a joint of bamboo and;when fittedwith a cap or lid they form tobacco or tinder-boxes. Perchesfor parrots, with food and water vessels, are easily made outof a single piece of bamboo, while with a little more labourelegant bird -cages are constructed. In Timor a musicalinstrument is formed from a single joint of a large bambooby carefully raising seven strips of the hard skin to formstrings, which remain attached at both ends and are elevatedby small pegs wedged underneath, the strings being preventedfrom splitting off by a strongly-plaited ring of a similar materialbound round each end. An opening cut on one sideallows the bamboo to vibrate in musical notes when the harplikestrings are sharply pulled with the fingers. In Javastrips of bamboo supported on stretched strings and struckwith a small stick produce the higher notes in the "gamelung" or native band, which consists mainly of sets of gongsand metallic plates of various sizes. Almost all the commonChinese paperis made from the foliage and stems of somespecies of bamboo, while the young shoots, as they first springout of the ground, are an excellent vegetable, quite equal toartichokes. Single joints of bamboo make excellent cookingvesselswhile on a journey. Rice can be boiled in them toperfection, as well as fish and vegetables. They serve too forjars in which to preserve sugar, salt, fruit, molasses, andcooked provisions ;and for the smoker, excellent pipes andhookahs can be formed in a few minutes out of properlychosen joints of bamboo.These are only a sample of the endless purposes to whichthe bamboo is applied in the countries of which it is anative, its chief characteristic being that in a few minutes it