f.a. mcclure's handbook on phyllostachys

[john voss]

found this on the web a few weeks ago. delivered yesterday. "bamboos of the genus phyllostachys under cultivation in the united states agricultural handbook no. 114". 69 p. of detailed descriptions of 24 species and 10 cultivars. the absolute motherlode of information written by the Master. today i found it complete and downloadable from the us dept. of agriculture national agricultural library digital repository."permanently available" and in the "public domain". this is a free source of incredibly detailed descriptions of the species available in 1957, which includes all the ph. species i grow with the exception of a few cultivars.i was amazed that so much of this material had been around for so long. lots of detailed drawings and photos. john v

[Bill Howard]

John
This is an Excellent Book. Although 50 years old it has much info that still applies.

The web page where the book can be read or downloaded.
http://naldr.nal.usda.gov/exe/zynet.exe ... e=f&Rank=1

[foxd]

I tried downloading the PDF version and the file is corrupted. Since it is in the public domain I would be willing to convert the document to a different format if a place could be found to host the result. If nothing else, I could change the background from dark gray to white to make it easier to read.

[foxd]

I seem to be stuck downloading the graphic of each page.

On a brighter note, here is another bamboo book at the website:
http://naldr.nal.usda.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe ... SeekPage=x

[Jonathan Poston]

John, very many thanks for that link.

As Bill rightly says this book is still very applicable
if a little lacking in the breadth of species available
today. I for one wish that Mike Bell, Paul Whittaker
and Ted Jordan Meredith had used similar drawings
displaying the culm sheath in addition to the excellent
photos of the shoots. If these very useful tools for
identifying boos had been included in a modern book
it would have saved me hours trawling through
descriptions and internet pages.

And thanks Foxd for the other link
(which BTW doesn't work in pdf either )

[john voss]

the second publication provided by foxd, on page 5, arundinaria variagata, sure looks like plant pix submitted by brad yesterday in a different thread jv (who'd of thunk the gov't had so much cool free stuff?)

[mantis]

I seem to be stuck downloading the graphic of each page.

You could save yourself a lot of trouble just by going here:
http://www.americanbamboo.org/BooksOnBamboo.html

Near the bottom of the page is a link to the PDF which actually works.


Now I'm going to get in trouble again because Bill probably has the book available through a link on bamboo web.