This book is a distillation of the author's lifetime of experience in the study of bamboos. The author has seen more living plants of more different varieties of bamboo than anyone alive. This information has been synthesized into this important book - there is no comparable work on bamboos in any Western language. The first part of the book described the plant's component parts, its vegetative and reproductive states, and its role as a member of different genera and species. The work continues with a systematic treatment of seven important species, each from a different genus, and a thorough discussion of propagation methods. Finally, the volume describes the flowering and fruiting behavior of some thirty different species, as a basis for classification, and concludes with a discussion of bamboos from the point of view of taxonomy (modified from jacket blurb).
