BAMBOO SHOOTS

a favorite vegetable of China and Japan, are young shoots ot the bamboo-plant, cut (preferably) as soon as they show their tips above the surface. They develop from an underground rootstock and are protected by tight, tough. overlapping: sheaths. With the sheath stripped off, the white shoot it has concealed is ready for cooking. Large specimens will average several inches in diameter and weigh several pounds. They are sometimes banked up—as in asparagus cultivation—in order to obtain a greater underground length. Their flavor, suggesting the artichoke, and their firm flesh are attractive to many Occidental palates also, and make them a highly approved addition to the ordinary list of vegetables. They may be eaten in many ways—ecnt in lengths or pieces of moderate thickne and plain boiled in salted water, to be served in any style suitable for asparagus; ov in Jong thin strips, deep-fried in very hot peanut or other oil until crisp—then to be eaten without a moment’s lost time; or added to soups or stews; or salted and served with rice and butter, ete., or pickled, or candied. In this country they are obtainable fresh in only a few localities but the canned product can generally be secured in the larger cities.; The species most extensively cultivated for its shoots is that illustrated in color opposite —the Phyllo stachys mitis—or, in Japanese nomenclature, the ‘‘Moso Chiku.’’ It is one of the largest, reaching a diameter of six inches—and occasionally a still greater size—and a height of fifty or more feet. In some parts of Japan, the moso plantation is stunted by decapitating every plant as it reaches twelve feet or so in height—the leafing branches then uniting in a dense low canopy. The result of this practise is a larger crop of small shoots which are more easily marketable than the very large shoots of the fully developed moso grove. If undisturbed, the new bamboo emerges in its full maximum diameter, but tender and very fragile, and climbs swiftly upward. Under favorable conditions its growth is prodigiously rapid. A height of twenty feet 1s commonly obtained within the first six or seven weeks—under favorable circumstances, growth may he a foot, or even a good deal more, within twenty-four hours. The entire succe ion of internodes, or sections, is sheathed in the same style as the shoots, and the sheaths cling until the plant has made two-thirds of its growth, or thereabouts, then peeling off to permit the leaf branches to appear and exposing the highly polished, fresh, green surface of the cane proper. The sheaths are carefully gathered up to be made into hats, sandals, ete. In some other varieties they are much more tenacious than in the moso, and they differ also in color and other details.