Table I

This botanical plate features two specimens rendered as copperplate engravings. On the left side of the plate, a single, tall, vertical stem is shown without leaves, highlighting a thick and dense fibrous root system at its base. Dominating the center and right side is a second, more complete plant. It has a main stem branching into several vertical stalks with long, narrow, lance-shaped leaves. The top of the stalks bear elongated flower spikes with small flowers organized into compact clusters spaced at regular intervals. While these features are characteristic of the Lavender genus (Lavandula), the accompanying text describes species of bamboo.

AMBOINESE HERBAL Book VI. Chapter I.

The reed itself is much thicker than any preceding species of Leleba A type of bamboo, and it is as hard as Bulu Swangi literally "Ghost Bamboo". It has short nodes and is not very straight. Its leaves are like those of the Leleba, or perhaps just as broad, except for the lowermost ones. These are smaller than those found on the Buly Seru. They are thin and smooth, lacking the small hairs seen on other Leleba varieties. The culms the hollow stems of the bamboo are also smooth, but the sheath from which the branches sprout is very rough and hairy. The Amboinese call it Utte Onitu. On Manipa, where it is also found, it is called Houboubo. It is split and made into laths because of its firmness, often bound over fish-traps. The Chinese select the broadest leaves to wrap cooked rice in during their festival days, a dish called Pelo Pelo likely the sticky rice dumplings known as Zongzi.

In Latin it is called Arundarbor tenuis Thin Tree-Reed. In Malay it is Leleba, following the Ternate names Leleba and Louleba. In the Amboinese dialect of Hitu it is Utte Aul and Aule. On Leytimora it is Utte Aur, and on Hoamohel it is called Tabat. In the Macassarese language it is Bælæ Carissa, which means Bælæ Casser, or rough bamboo, because it bears the most stinging hairs of all bamboo species.

The first species is called in Malay Leleba pæti, and in Amboinese Utte Aul Tuni The True or Original Bamboo. The second is Leleba itam Black Leleba, known in Amboinese as Utte Aul mette. The third is Leleba prava Crooked or Deformed Leleba, called Leleba Djakat in Malay and Utte Aul Boppo in Amboinese. The names of the other three rare species were mentioned previously.

The Leleba Nun is known in the Western islands of "Water-India" The East Indies or Malay Archipelago, though in many places it does not occur at all. On the other hand,