4 4 ANNALS OP THE EOYAL BOTANIC GAEDEN, C.aCUTTA.
Pkmi. Spcc. 198 [1821] {czd. Syn. Eoem. and Sck. Spst. Vcg. 1337 according to Miinro)-,
Riipr. Bamh. 47, iah. xi. fig. 47 ; Steiidel Syn. 329 ; Griseh. Fl. Br. W. Ir.d. 528 ; Miq.
Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 417; Dalz. and Gibs. Bonib. Flora 299; Miinro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi.
106 ; Beddome Flora Sylv. ccsxsii ; Brandis For. Flora 568 ; KÌÌTZ For. FL Burma ii. 551
{in analysis): Ind. Forester \. 339 ; Rivière Les hambous 191, iigs, 18, 19. BAMBUSA THOUARSII,
Kiinth Not. Gen. Bamhisa in Jotirn. de Phys. 148 (1822) ; Syn. PL Miidn. i. 252 : Rev.
Gram. i. 323 t. 73, 74 : Bmm. 431 : Sappi. 356 ; Rupr. Bamh. 48, tab. xi. fig. 48 ;
Steudel Syn. 329 ; Dcsf. GaL 23 (1829) ; ScktcUes Syst. Veg. vii. 1347 ; Nees in Linn. 466;
Tkw. Emm. PL ZeyL 375; C. P. 3252. BAMRUSA SURINAÌIENSIS, Rupr. Barnb. 49, tah. xi.
fig. 49 ; Steudel Syn. 329. BAMBUSA SIEBERI, Griseh. Fl. Br. V f . Ind. 528. BAMBUSA ITOMILIS,
Reich. MS. [teste Btipr. Bamh. 50). BAJIBUSA AEUNDINACEA, Moon Cai. 26 ; Ait. Ilort.
Kew. Ed. ii. 316. BAMBUSA, Wal'. Cut. 5034. BAMBUSA STEIATA, Loddiges ; Munro in
Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 121 ; Curtis Bot. Mag. xxx. 1874, t. 6079 (YAE. STEIATA).
VASTUS THOUAESII, Spr. Syst. Veg. ii. (1825) 113.
Cultivated and run Avild over tlie -warmer parts of India, Burma, JIalaya, and
Ceylon. Its original country is uncertain ; but it ia found in Java and the Moluccas
generally, in Mauritius, Bourbon, Madagascar, the Cape, St. Helena, and Algeria, the
West Indian Islands, Mexico, Centi-al and South America ; and it is cultivated in
most tropical gardens and in hothouses in Europe, as in the Royal Gardens at Kew
and the Glasnevin Gai-dcns at Dublin. The " I n d e x Kewensis" mentions Mexico as its
indigenous locality, and Kunth (Rev. Gram.) gives Madagascar and Bourbon. Obtained
in flower by Thwaites (Ceylon) in 1863; by E. G. Chester (Chittagong) in 1879; by
Hooker (Chittagong) in 1851; by King (Calcutta Botanic Garden) in 1890; by
Ridley (Singapore Garden) in 1892; and by others without date given.
VAE. striata is rather smaller in size, has the culms striped with yellow and
green, the branohlets yellow, and the leaves somewhat smaller and paler,
othei-wise it does not appear to differ from the ordinary green kind. It
appears to come from Cliina and Japan, and is probably the result of
c\iltivation.
Though not indigenous, this bamboo is so common in India that any work which
proposed to assist in identifying species would be incomplete without reference to it.
Ualzcll and Gibson refer to it as if it were wild, though there is some doubt about
the vernacular name KuUuJc given by them, for all the specimens I have received
under tliat name have proved to be B. arundinacea. It is cultivated in the Poona and
Satara districts, but not in the south, according to Talbot. In Bengal it is known
as Basini or bansini, that is, 'female bamboo' (see Babu Protapa Chandra Ghose in
Joiu-n. Agvi.-Hortl. Soc. Calcutta, Vol. YIU^.S., p. xci). It is common in Chittagong
and there° known as Boriala. Specimens received from Khorda, Orissa, from Babu Sree
Dhur Chakravarti, bear the name Sundrogai. In Ceylon it is called Una, and used
for building puriMses. According to Kurz, the Malays distinguish four varieties according
t o the colour of the culms and branches, viz.—
Var. 1. Culms and branches gi-een—Hower i
2. Culras yellow or occasionally striped—ITOWIR konneng, koonieng.
3. Cuhns yellow and green striped—iTowr sehah, Jcooda.
„ 4. Culms gi-een, blo/ched -«rith black when o\d.—Tootool.
INDIAN BAMBUSEiE; GAMBLE.
Km-z also speaks of it as wild in Java as well as cultivated. There is a long
account of it in Rivifere's 'Les Bambous' with excellent pictures of the rldzome and
culm-sheath. The part of India in which tlus species is most common and most
commonly cultivated is probably the Concan, whence specimens have been received.
I also identify with this the Bulo pan collected by L. Wray Jr. in Perak (No. 1-il),
also the Wanet (Burmese) sent fi-om Pegu by P. J. Carter and from Tenassorim by
W. T. McHarg. The striped variety is very ornamental, and deserves
wider
cultivation in gai-dens in India. At the Saharanpur Botanic Garden it is
regularly
propagated both by cuttings and by layers. There is also another variety,
portion
of the culm of which is figu-red by Km-z in Ind. Forester, vol. i, in which the
internodes are swollen into a flask shape.
PLATE NO. iO.—Bamhusa vulgaris, Schr. 1, leaf-branch ; 2, part of flowering
b r a n c h ; 3, portion of young culm—o/ natural size; 4, culm-sheath (var. striata)—
reduced to about ; 5, young branch (var. striata)—of natural size; 6, leaf-sheath;
7, spikelet; 8, empty glume ; 9, flowering glume ; 10, palea ; 11, lodicule ; 12, anther
13, ovary with style and stigmas—enlarged (all from Calcutta Botanic Garden
13. BAMBUSA BISGHAMI, n. sji. Gamble.
A wiry bamboo. Culm? not known. Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, 3 to 6 in.
long, '4 to '6 in. broad; rounded at the base into a very short, scarcely '05 to -1
in. long petiole ; ending above in a long, acuminate, twisted tip which is not scabrous;
smooth on both sides ; main vein slender, secondary veins 5 to 6 paii-s, intermediate
7 ; leaf-sheaths smooth, striate, ending in a naiTOW callus and furnished with a few
white stiff cihas at the somewhat produced mouth ; ligule very short. Inflorescence a
short terminal leafy panicle bearing loose heads of few (2—4) spikelets ; rachis short,
joints sometimes geniculate, clavate. Spikelets -5 to -6 in. long with 1 to 2 empty
glumes, 5 to 6 fei'tile flowers and 1 terminal imperfect one, much flattened, the flowers
spreading, distichous; rachillaj broad-clavato, flexuose, visible; empty glumes striate,
mucronate ; flowering glume ovate-acute, smooth, mucronate, many nerved ; palea as long
as flowering glume or longer, conspicuous, blunt, long-white-fringcd on the keels.
Lodicules rounded, obtuse, long-ciliate on the upper margins, one edge hardened, 3- to
5-nerved. Stamens pai'tly exserted ; anthers linear, blunt or with a single hair at the
apex. Ovary elongate, naiTOW, hairy above, style very speedily divided into 3 short
white plumose stigmas. Caryopsis lineor-oblong, beaked, fui-rowed on one side, hairy
on the beak.
Lower Burma: received through Major Bingham, Conservator of Forests m
Tena^serim, from the Nyaungdaungle forest.
Very little is known of this species, which seems not to differ very greatly from
the Chinese B. flcxuosa, Munro. Its name is Ngachatwa (Burmese).
PLATE No. 41.—Bambusa Binghami, Gamble. 1, leaf-branch ; 2, floweriAig braneh—
of natural size-, 3, spikelet; 4, flowering glume ; 5, palea ; 6, lodicules ; 7, anther ;
8, ovary and stigmas ; 9, caryopsis—ento-^rcrf.
» Plates 73 and 7'i of Kuntli'a ' Eovisio Grammum, ' vol. i, are also good.