m
ANNALS OP THE EOYAL BOTANIC GAKDEN. CALCTTTTA.
ciliate; H¡/iih short. Inflorescence a huge leafy panicle, the leaves eai-ly docicluous, bearing
spicate branchlots with heads o£ spikelets, many together, both very long fertile and short
sterile ones; racliis síríate, heads 1-5 to -3 in. apart, up to 3 in. in diameter. Spikelets
1 to 2 in. long, -1 in. broad, linear, sharply subulate, acuminate, usually straight, marked
by the conspicuous black fringes to the glumes; fertile flowers 2 to 3; terminal flower incomplete
or reduced to a subulate produced rachilla; empty glumes 2 to 3, ovate, mucronato,
•3 to -6 in. long, black-fringed on the edge, and with few appressed black stifi: haii-s on
the many-uervod back; flowering glume similar but longer and longer mucronate, linearlanceolate,
convolute; palea very narrow, nai-rowest at the base, -7 to 1 in. long,
2-kecled, white-ciliate on the keels, minutely bilid at the apex, 3-to o-nerved on "the
back. Lodicules none. Stamens exserted, the tube at first short, thick, afterward^ produced
and thin, membranous; anthers ¡nu-ple, -4 to -6 in. long, each ending in a fine
setaceous haiiy point. Ooarg narrowly ellipsoid, rounded above and surmounted by a
long fine curved haii-y style mth imdivided stigma. Caryopsis narrow, Hnear, rounded
above and minutely pubescent, tipped with the persistent style.
Assam, Chittagong and Burma, chiefly in tropical forests, often cultivated. Collected
by Brandis in the Sittang Hills in 1862 (flowers), and in the Karen Hills in
1880; by K\irz in Pegu and Hartaban and at Boronga Island in Arracan in 1869,
1871; by J. W. OHver in the Kachin Hüls, 1893; by W. SchHch, and by myself (1879)
in Chittagong; and by G. Mann in the Garo Hills of Assam in 1889.
This handsome bamboo is difficult to distinguish from several other specics unless
it is found in flower. Its leaves resemble those of ßamhiisa Tulda; its sheaths those
of B. nutans and B. ieres; and even the spikelets aro hke those of Oxytenanlhera
nigrociliata in theii- black fiinges and narrow shape, though they differ by being much
longer and in having the terminal palea keeled. It is known in the Garo Hills by the
name Toltserah; in Chittagong as Madi or Madaywa; in Burma under the names of
Wanet, toapyugyi, tahendcinwa (Burmese); Walray (Karen). It is cultivated in the Calcutta
Botanic Garden and is a handsome kind.
PLATE NO. b\.— GigantocUoa macrostachya, Kurz. No. 1, leaf branch; 2 & 3, flowering
branches-o/««¿«m^ sise; 4 & 5, culm-sheaths-rcíÍMCácí to i or more; 6 & 7, spikelct;
8 & 9, empty glumes; 10, flowering glume; 11 & 12, palea, the former showing also
the imperfoct terminal flower; 13, staminal tube, anthers and style; U, apex of antliers;
15, caryopsis {jourvg)—enlarged. (No. 4 from Kui-z' specimen, No. 5 from his drawing
in the Calcutta Botanic Garden Herbarium, the rest from Brandis' specimens).
4. GIOANTOCHLOA WKAYI, n. sp. GamUc.
Culms about 3 in. in diameter, branohlets smooth, clothed with glaucous scurf. Leaves
12 to 15 in. long, 2 to 2-5 in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, cuspidate, acuminate, somewhat
roundly attenuate at the base into a -2 to -3 in. broad petiole; ending above
in a subulate, scabrous, setaceous point; smooth above, except the scabrous poiQts on
the marginal veins, pale and softly strigosely hairy beneath, scabrous on the edges;
main vein broad, yellow, secondary veins 10 to 13 pairs, intermediate 7, faint transverse
veinlets formed by pellucid glands; leaf-sheaths smooth, keeled, ending in a
narrow callus below the petiole and furnished at the mouth with a short auricle
which is, as well as the top of the sheath, fringed with long stiff white bristles; ligu.h
INDIAN BAMBUSE^; GAMBLE.
short, minutely pubescent. Inflorescence a large cottpound panicle of spicate branches
beaiiog heads of spilcelets; heads with few fertile flowers, several sterile flowers and
many short bracts; racbis slender, somewhat grooved, minutely pubescent, joints somewhat
cui'ved from 3 in. down to '5 in. in length. Spikelets conical, somewhat flattened, -7
to -8 in. long, '2 in. broad, acute, bearing 2 to 3 empty glumes and 3 to 4 fertile
flowers; empty glumes oval, mucronato, striate, fringed with stiS blackish-brown hairs;
flowering glumes similar but longer, and longer mucronato; palea narrow, oblanceolate,
bifid at apex, 2-keelcd, keels not or only very faintly ciliate, 5- to 7-norved. Lodicules
none. Stamens exserted, tube thick at first, afterwai'ds long membranous; anthers very
long, narrow, ending in a long hairy setaccous point. Oi-ar^ narrowly orate, hairy,
surmounted by a long, very slender, pubesceirt style and a broadly plumose stigma.
Caryopsis not known.
Malaya: collected at Bakit Gantang, Perak, by L. Wray, Jr., in May 1888.
This species, which ought to be a fine one, but oí which no information is
available except that it grows in the plains and has culms 3 in. in diameter, is
known as Bulu Plang. The long cilia of the leaf-sheath and the almost complete
absence of ciliai to the palea are its chief characteristics.
PLATE No. bb.— Gigantochloa Wrayi, Gamble. 1, leaf-branch; 2, part of flower-panicle
—of natural size; 8, spikelct; 4, empty glume; 5, palea; 6, staminal tube and stigma;
7, anther point; 8, ovary, style and silgma—enlarged. (All from Wray's spccxmeDS.)
5. Gigantochloa IvuKzit, n. sp. Gamble.
Habit and culms not known. Culm-sheaths glabrous, cylindrical, about 6 in. long
by 3 in. broad, truncate at top; imperfect Uadc longer than sheath, recurved, lanceolate,
acuminate, decui-rent in a naiTow, black, glabrous band lining the top of the
sheath and ending in a small, round, naked auricle; ligule nan-ow. Leaves linearlanceolate,
8 to 13 in. long, -5 to 1-5 in. broad, attenuate at the base into a -3 in,
long petiole; glabrous above, except the scattered scabrous points on marginal nerves,
whitish and with scattered hairs beneath, scabrous oti the -edges; main vein narrow,
secondaiy veins 9 to 11, intermediate 7 to 8; leaf-sheaths appressed-haiiy when young,
then smooth, truncate above and furnished with small rounded auricles; ligule short.
Inflorescence a leafy panicle of spicate branchlets bearing distant heads of 2 to 3 spikelets
in the axil of a smooth narrow bract; rachis slender, striate. Spikelets '4 to 'ó
in. long, acute, conspicuously fringed on the edges of the glumes; empty glumes 2 to
3, ovato, mucronate, thickly brown-ciliate on the sides' and edges, many-nerved;
fertile flowers 2 to 3 ; flowering glumes similar to empty glumes but longer, narrower,
and with a longer muero; palea linear, blunt, 2-keeled, ciliate on the keels, 3- to
5-veined; terminal flower incomplete. Lodicules not found. Stamens with tube short,
thick; anÜiers about '2 in. long, blunt, apiculate; ovary elongate, stalked, minutely haii-y,
ending in a long simple style^ with a plumose stigma. Caryopsis (young) oblong, truncate
above, pointed below, glabrous.
Coasts of Southern Burma and the Malay Peninsula: collected in Tenasserim by
Kurz on his last voyage in January-February 1878 under the name of Kobah; also
in Pevak in 1893 by H. N. Ridley (No. 3114) under the name Bulu akar (Malay)
and by L. Wray, Jr., at Thaipang, Perak, under the name Bulu mcUa kusa or 'deer's
eye bamboo.'
AXN. HOT. BOT. GAFD. CALCUTTA, YOL. Y I I .