5 4 ANNALS O P T H E E O Y A L B O T A N I C G A E D E N , C A L C U T T A.
But if tliere be some cliiRculty in recoguizmg the three varieties which were
considered by Munro to be spccies, it is easy to recognize two very distinct Taiieties
in habit, viz. (1) the tall handsome largo-culmed variety of the valleys o£ the
Cii'cars and the hills of South India, and so often cultivated elsewhere; and (2)
the almost dwarf, thick-branched, veiy thorny small-culmed variety which grows gregariously
on the low hüls and laterita downs of Orissa and Ganjam and extends
into Lower Bengal and across to Burma. This latter is gregarious in densely thorny
clumps of some 20 feet in height, and is probably the one which Roxburgh meant
as D. spinosa. But I doubt if it can be described as a variety by any more
definite characters.
The thorns on the branches and side shoots; the characteristic culm-sheath
with felted bairs inside the imperfect blade, and the narrow pointed leaves characterize
this species, which is probably the best known and the most cultivated of all the
Indian bamboos. Eoxbm-gh gives as vernacular names: Bans, hehor bans (Bengali),
3M}cas, vedrii (Telugu), Mungil (Tamil); Dalzell and Gibson give the Bombay name
as Mandgatj; Brandis gives Magar bans, nál bans (Punjab), Kattang (Central India);
Kurz gives Kyakatwa, (Burmese); Thwaitcs Kattoo-oona-gass (Cingalese); Van Eheede Ilg
(JIalabar). It is also known as Wahkantch (Garo), Wanah (Magh), Kati wadúr (Gondi),
(see the 'Manual of Indian Timbers.') G. Mann has sent me specimens from Sylhet
bearmg the names Ketúa, Mtáúsi (Bengali), and from Nowgong called Koloha (Assamese).
I 'have also received specimens from the Bombay Presidency bearing names as follows:
from A. D. Wilkins from Ahmednagar, Kalak; from R. C. Wroughton from Poona,
Kalki; from G- P. Millett and L. S. Osmaston from Thana, Padhai, khara, vianwel,
goda, kashti. Babu Sree Dhur Chakravarti has sent both the large and the small
variety from Khurda, Orissa, under the obvious name of Kanta bans (thorny bamboo),
probably the commonest name for it in India.
As regards the flowering of this species, Brandis says: " Isolated flowering clumps
"are found occasionally, but as a rule all clumps in one flowering district come into
"flower simuhaneously, a few clumps flowering in the previous and some in the
"succeeding year." According to Beddome, this species flowered in 1804, 1836, and 1868
on the Western Coast, and Bourdillon {Indian Forester, xiii. 409) says it flowered again
in 1882; it flowered gregariously (planted trees only) in Dohra Dun in 1881 (see
Indian Forester, vol. vi, 336), and previously in 1836 according to Sir W. Sleeman,
quoted by Munro. I myself saw it in flower in the Nallamalai Hills of Kurnool in 1889.
In Orissa it flowered in 1812; in Ganara in 1864; in the Balaghat district. Central
Provinces, in 1865, and in Narsmgpm- in 1885 (G. J. Nicholls in Pioneer, April
1893); in Malda in 1874; in Oudh in 1880 (Captain Wood in Indian Forester, vii. 59).
This year, 1894, it is in flower in Cuddapah (II. Mcintosh). Roughly, it may be
said to flower about every 30 years, and then to die down, reproducing itself
abundantly from seed, and affording a magnificent crop of grain. As the seeds,
which somewhat resemble wheat seeds, are edible, they have in some years proved
of great value to supplement the food-supply. As regards usos, this bamboo is very
largely employed; but it is by no means one of the best kinds, as the culms are rather
crooked and often knotty, and the densely interlacing thorny branchlets make it
difficult to extract them from the clump. It makes a close, almost impenetrable hedge,
and is said to have been largely planted around cities both in North and South India,
and specialJy in Mysore, as a protection against attack. Ag-ainst such a hedge, nothing
I N D I A N B A M B U S E I E : G A M B L E.
but explosives would be of much effect. Cleghom, quoting Buchanan's Joui-nal iii. 261,
says in respect to this: " I n Hyder Ali's tiine, the town of Bednore, in North-West
" Mysore, was defended by a deep trench filled with clumps of this bamboo," and
remarks that in 1856 when he visited the place, he found some clumps still remaining
{Forests and Gardens of South India, p. 207). It is often badly attacked by a small
I-Iemipterous. insect recently described as Oregma. bamhisce, which exudes drops of sticky
liquid and blackens the surfaces of the leases.
P L A T E N O . '^^.—Bambusa armdinacea, Willd. 1, leaf-branch; 2, part of flowerpanicle—
o/ natural size; 3, top of young shoot; 4, culm-sheath of lower intern ode—
reduced; 5, leaf-sheath; 6, thorns; 7, spikelet; 8, floweriirg glume; 9, palea; 10, lodicules;
11, anther; 12, ovary, style and stigmas; 13 & 14, caryopsis; 15, the same
enveloped in glume and palea; 16, part of rachis of var. orienialis—enlarged. (Nos. 3, 4
from Kurz' drawings; No. 16 from Wight's specimen; No. 5 from a fresh Diin specimen;
the rest from my own Circar collections.)
S P E C I E S O F W H I C N T H E F L O W E R S A R E N O T K N O W N .
21. BAIIBUSA AUEICULATA, Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. sxxix. (1870), 86.
An evergreen, arboreous, tufted bamboo. Culms 39 to 50 ft. high, 2 to 2-5 in.
in diameter, glossy green, yellow when old, scurfy when young, branches curving
downwards; nodes hardly thickened; internodes 18 to 30 in. long, the lower ones shorter,
•walls thick. Ctdm-sheaths 10 to 12 in. long, 9 to 10 in. broad at base, attenuate
upwards, and convexly truncate at 4 in. in breadth, thickly black-ciliate on the margins,
the back covered with appressed black or tawny bristles, except for a vacant patch
down the middle; imperfect blade 6 to 9 in. long, triangular acute from a base
about 4 in. broad, which is slightly rounded, and then decurrent on the sheath to
form a rounded naked auricle which is green when fresh; striate on both sides, somewhat
han-y within, densely appressed-hairy without in two longitudinal streaks which
leave the middle line free;, ligule. '2 in. broad, sharply dentate. Leaves lanceolate or
linear-lanceolate, 8 to 16 in. long, 1 to 2-5 in. broad, rounded or attenuate at the base
into a short -1 to '3 in. long petiole; ending above in a long twisted scabrous point;
smooth above, except the scabrous points on marginal veins; minutely puberulous
beneath when young, afterwards glabrous or roughish, often glaucous; one or both edges
scabrous; main veins yellow, shining, prominent, secondary veins 8 to 12, intermediate
6 to 7, pellucid glands between, which give the appearance of transverse veinlets when
dry; leafsheaths smooth, faintly striate, polished, hairy at first, somewhat keeled,
ending in a smooth callus, and a small thick rounded glossy naked auricle which is
often dark in colour. Inflorescence, &c., unknown. G I G A > ' T 0 C H L 0 A AUEICDLATA, Kurs For.
Flora Burma ii. 557.
Assam, Chittagong and Burma. Collected by Tara Kisor Gupta for G. Mann
in Sylhet, by Brandis and Kurz and others in Burma.
This species is included by Munro under Banihusa vulgaris, but it is, as con-ectly
pointed out by Kurz, quite distinct, and this is clearly seen by an inspection of the
handsome clumps of both species in the Royal Botanic Garden of Calcutta. The
round naked auricles of the culm-sheaths and leaves and the peculiar nn-angement
of the bristles in patches on the sides of the culms-sheaths and of their imperfect blades,