AfTNALS OP THE ROiAL BOTANIC GARDEN', CALCUTTA.
1 large, soft, congested heads, leaTes usually broad—Section II.
Spikelets acute, culm-sheaths Tery hairy.
Heads large, 1'5 in. broad, dark-coloured; leaf- aud culm-sheaths
conspicuously fringed 4. 2). sikkimensis.
Heads not more than 1 in. broad, palo; leaf-sheaths naked, oulmsheaths
little fringed H- D- Bookeri.
Spikelets blunt, culm-sbeaths glabrous or nearly bo.
Culm- and leaf-sheaths not friaged 6. D. ITamiUonii.
Culm- and leai-sheaths long-fringed 7. D. paUllaris.
Spikelets few, in small heads, many sterile—Sectiok III.
Spikelets long, ovate-acute.
Culm-sheaths bi-oad, nearly glabrous, ligule long, palea bifid . . . 8. D. gigmitcus.
Culm-sheaths hirsute, ligule short, palea acute 9. D. calostachym.
Spikelets short, blunt; culm-sheaths elongate, thin 10. i). longispathus.
Spikelets short, ovate.
Heads moderately large, many-flowered 11. i). Brandisii.
Heads small, few-flowered.
Leaves v.-itho-ut fringed auricles 12. D. flagellifer.
Leaves with long-fringed auricles 13. J), longifimbriatus.
Leaves unknown.
Spikelets small, in soft, rather Urge, heads . . .
Spiielets large, white, and in soft, loose heads . .
. 14. D. Paris/ni.
. 15. D. CoUdtianm.
SECTION I.
1, DesdSOCALAMOS STRici'US, Nees in Linncea is. 476.
A deciduous, densely-tufted bamboo, yáúi strong culms which are solid, or with
only a small cavity. Culms variable in size according to climate, 20 to 50 ft. high, 1 to
3 in. in diameter, glaucous-green when young, dull green or yellowish when old ;
nodes somewhat swollen and in open situations bearing leafy, often deflexed, branches
even from the base, lower nodes oftea rooting; internodes short, 13 to 18 in.
l o ú g ; upper branches curved, drooping; walls thick. Culm-sheaths variable, lower
one°s' shorter, 3 to 13 in. long, covered on the back with golden brown stiff
hairs, sometimes glabrous in dry localities, striate, rounded at the top, ciliate at the
edges, very slightly auricled ; imperfect blade triangular, subulate, hairy on both sides,
especially within; ligule narrow. Leaves linear-lanceolate, varying from 1 to 2 in. long in
dry localities, up to 10 in. in moist ones, and -2 to 1-3 in. broad; rounded suddenly at
the base into a short petiole ; gradually narrowed upwards into a sharply acuminate,
twisted point; rough and often hairy above, softly hairy beneath, scabrous on the edges;
main vein prominent, secondary veins 3 to 6 pairs, intermediate 6 to 8, no transverse
veins, but frequent pellucid dots between the veinlets ; leaf-sheaths striate, hairy, ending
in a prominent callus and short auricle with a few wavy, deciduous ciliar; Uffule
narrow, serrate. I^Jlor^scmce a largo branching panicle of large, dense, globular heads,
1-5 to 2 in. a p a r t ; rachis rounded, smooth. SpiMels spinescent, usually hairy, the
fertile intermixed with many sterile smaller ones, -3 to -5 ia. long and -1 to -2
in. broad, with 2 to 3 fertile flowers; empti/ glumes 2 or more, ovate, spincscent,
many-nei-ved; flmerina glumes ovate, endmg in a sharp spine surrom.ded by ciliate
t u f t s of hair ; pakcc ovate or obovate, emargmate, lower ones 2-keolcd, cihate on the
INDIAN BAMBUSEiE; GAMBLE.
keels and 2-nerved between them, uftpermost not keeled, often nearly glabrous, 6 to
8-nerved. Slamms long-exserted, filaments fine; anthers yellow, shortly apiculate. Ovar//
turbinate, stalked, hairy above and surmounted by a long si^k ending in a purple
feathery stgima, Carj/opsis brown, shining, ovoid to sub-globose, '3 in. long, hairy above,
beaked with the persistent base of the style, pericarp coriaceous. Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii.
421; Mmro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 147; Biddome Fl. Stjlv. ccxxxv. i. cccxxv;
Brandis For. Flora 569, t. 70; Kurz For. Fl. Burma ii. 558, Ind. Forester i. ^iQ-, Voigt
Eort. Sub. Cale. 718. Bambos s t r i c t a , Iloxb. Coram. PI. i. 58, t. 80. Bambusa s t e i c t a,
Roxb. Eort. Beng. 25, Fl. Ind. ii. 193 ; Kmth in Joiirn. de Phys. (1822) 148, Emm. 431 ;
^ehitltis Sijst. Veg. -v-ii. 1339 ; Ruprecht Bamb. 56, tab. xii, fig. 56 ; Sleudel S>jn. 330 ; Dalz.
and Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 299. Bambusa v e k t i c i l l a t a , Bottler (according to Munro). Bambusa
PUBESCENS, Lodd. in Lindi. Penny Cr/cl. iii. 357 (1835). Bajibusa tanosa, Buch.-Ilam. in
Wnll. Cat. 5038A.
Dry hOls throughout India and Bui-ma. It is found to the north in the Punjab
Salt Range, and extends down along the base of the Himalaya and in the Siwalik
Range to Nepal, but does not occur in Silckim or in the Assam Valley. It is common
throughout the hills of the Eastern and "Westem Ghats and of Central and South India,
ascending to 3,000 ft., and is found iu the E n g and drier upper mixed forests throughout
Burma, but is absent from Ceylon. Southwards, it is said to extend to Singapore and
Java (Biise and Munro). In the valleys of Burma and South India it reaches a large
size with hollow culms, longer leaves and culm sheaths ; but in the dry Dcecan hills
and in the Siwaliks it is small and has nearly solid culms, small leaves and sheaths.
I t has been found in an interesting, nearly glabrous-flowered, variety, in the Gx'eat Cocos
Islands by Dr. D. Prain (Voyage of the ' Investigator').
This is the most common and most widely spread and most universally used of
the Indian bamboos, and is commonly known as the ' male bamboo.' lis culms
are employed by the natives for all purposes of building and furniture, for mats,
baskets, sticks and other purposes. It furnishes, when solid culms arc procurable,
the best material for lance shafts. In Burma, when large culms are obtainable,
they are much in request for masts for native boats. It flowers gregariously over
large areas, as it did in the Central Provinces in 1865 ; in • Garhwal in 1879 ;
in Gudh iu 1880; in Kuraool in 1887; in the Golgonda Hills in 1890, and in
North Arcot in 1891; but it may be found flowering sporadically, a few clumps at a
time, almost every year, in any locality, and such clumps then usually die off. These
flowerings, however, do not produce as much good seed as when the gregarious flowering
takes place. The flowers appear in the cold season between November and April, the
seed ripening in June. The leaves fall in February or March, and the young new
ones appear in April. The young culms are rather late, usually beginning to appear
in July some time after the rains begin. It is locally known in North India as Ba7is
and Bans kaban; it is Karail (Bengali), Salia bans (Uriya), the Telugu Sadanapa Vedru
or kanka ; the Burmese Myimva. Dalzell and Gibson give the Bombay names ^ Bans''
and ' Oodha,^ but a series of specimens received from Bombay from Messrs. Wroughton
Millett, Osmaston, Fisher, Betham, show Oodha to be Bambusa Ritcheyi {Oxyienanthera
monostigma), and that this species is called Més (Poona), Manwel, b&ndhi (Thana), Kama
icd'i (Panch Mahals). In size of culm and in the size and characters of the culmsheaths,
leaves and spikelet heads it is most variable. On dry hill slopes in the
Siwaliks, on the rocky hills of Central India (e.g., Mount Abu) and the Deccan it