••/'^seiSgWsp'g'^^ •
Sí ANNALS OP THE BOYAL BOTANIC GAKDEN, CALCUrTA.
apparent -when dry ; ko/sheailis striate, liaiiy below, glabrous and brown sliiniug above,
truncate or somewhat produced at the mouth, which is sometimes furnished m t h a
f ew stiff long bristles, callus large ; Ufftde conspicuous, truncate or produced, glabrous.
Inflorescence a large compound panicle bearing at intervals of 3 to 3 in. dense
globular heads of spikelets, 1 in. in diameter; interoodcs dull grey-green, striate, somewhat
hirsute. Spikeleis -3 to in. long by "l in. broad, ovate, acute, minutely
pubescent ; empti/ glumes 3, ovate, blunt ; fertile flowers 2 to 3 ; flotvering glumes
ovate, acute, the uppermost mueronate, with many veins and frequent transverse
veinlets ; palea of lo\ver flowers 2-keüled, acute, ciHate on the keels, hardly veined
between, that of Tipper flower not at all, or only slightly, keeled, ciliate at tip. Slamens
little esserted ; anthers long, ending in a penicillate point. Ouary narrowly ovoid,
acuminate, hairy, siirmounted by a hairy style and ending in a twisted plumose sHgma.
Caryopsh not known. Brandis For. Flora 5?0.
Ivhasia and Jaintea Hills in Assam, 2,000 to 5,000 feet, extending to the Bhamo
District in Upper Burma. In the Khasia Hills it has been collected by Hooker aud
Thomson, and by G. Mann.
In Assam, this species is locally known as Seiat, tisscn, sejsai, sijong, denga, tdcotang
G. U&im says it is cultivated in villages and used for building and basket-workpurposes.
Specimens in flower were also coUected by E. E. Fernandez near Naini
Tai in Kumaun, in cultivated clumps, the seed of which was said to have come
f r om Nepaul. This was in 1881, while Hooker's. flowering specimens from the Khasia
Hills were obtained in 1850. The Bhamo specimens, named Kawa tile (Kachin), were
sent by J. W. Oliver, Conservator of Forests. It was also collected by J . L. Lister
m 1875 in the Dikrung Valley, Daphla Hills, at 2,000 to 3,000 feet, who says that it is
t h e large one of the country and used for ' chungas' or water-buckets. It is also
cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, (No. 38). I also identify with this
species the Sikkim bamboo known as Patu (Lepcha), Tili l>a7is (Nepalese) collected
by myself and Mr. G. A. Gammie, and this identification is also supported by Muuro's
note on spechnens of Fatu collected by T. Anderson. Tliis species is difficult to
distinguish from D. Jlamiltonii when in leaf, but its more hairy sheaths and shorter
leaf ligules separate it from that species. These, on the other hand, resemble those of
D. sil-kbnensis, though the leaves and flowers are quite distinct. It is chiefly recognizable
by the very hairy sheath and narrow acute spikelets.
PLATE No. n.—Dtmdrocalamus Bookeri, Munro. 1, leaf-branch ; 3, part of flowering,
p a n i c l e - o / ««iwrai size-, 3, sheath from lower part oE s t e m ; 4, sheath from upper part
—reduced; 5, spikelet; 6, palea of lower flowers ; 7, palea of upper flower ; 8, anther ;
9. ovary and ?.ty\<i—enlarged. (Nos. 1 to 3 from Hooker's Khasia Hüls specimens ; No. 4
from Mann's ; Nos. 5 to 9 from Fernandez's specimens.)
7 , DENDKOCALAMUS HAMILTONII, Necs and Arn.
A laro-e bamboo with caispitose culms; sometimes growing tall and erect, but
ore often sending out its stems at an angle or curved downwards. Cidms large, 40
to 60 and even up to 80 ft. high, usually naked below, much-branched above;
4 to 7 in in diameter, greyish-white when young, Tvith dense appressed pubescence,
dull green when old; nodes marked with root-scars; internodes 13 to 20 in. long, walls
INDIAN BAMBTJSEiE; GAMBLE.
•5 in. thick; culm-slicaths long and stiff, variable in size, ihose of lower part of large
stems 16 to 18 in. long, about 8 in. broad, glabrous, shining within, rough and either
glabrous or with scanty patches of bro-wn stiff appressed hairs without, truncate at top,
and furnished on either side with a small glabrous triangular point; imperfeci blade about
f as broad at the base as the top of the sheath, often 12 in. long, narrow, ovate-lanceolate,
sides incurved, glabrous without, but with many thick black sharp hairs at the ])ase
within; ligule '2 in. broad, smooth, entii-e. Leaves variable, small on side branches, but
on new shoots reaching 15 in. long and 2-5 in. broad, usually unequal-sided, rounded
at the base into a short thick petiole, above broadly lanceolate and cuspidate, acuminate
at the tip which is scabrous and twisted, smooth above, rough beneath, finely serrate at
the edges; main vein narrow, raised, secondary veins 6 to 17 pairs, fairly prominent,
number on either side sometimes unequal, intermediate 5 to 7, having pellucid dots
between which form cross bars resembling transverse veinlets when dry; leaf-sheaths
glabrous above, furnished below with white appressed stiff hairs, somewhat keeled below
the shining callus, produced at the mouth to meet the ligule, which is broad and usually
elongate and obliquely truncate or jagged. Inflorescence a huge, much-branched panicle
with many whorls of branchlets, bearing half-verticellate semi-globular heads of purple
flowers, supported by rounded scarious bracts; rachis-joints 1 in. or less long, thick,
fistular, scabrous and white-pruiuose, especially below the swoollen nodes, f u n w e d on
one side; heads variable, from -5 in. up to 1-5 in. in diameter, .«pikelets cliiefly fertile.
Spikelets purple, oval, depressed, -4 in. long, glabrous; empty glumes usually two, short,
rounded, nerved; flowers 2 to 4, usually all f e r t i l e ; flowering glume broad, orbicular,
somewhat recurved, ciliate on the edges; palea of lower flowers as long as flowering
glumes, 2-keeled, ciliate on the keels and bifid at the acute apex, 2-nen'ed on the back,
that of last flower not keeled, hairy at the acute apex only, many-nerved. Stamens
long, exserted, pendulous; anthers purple, the connective produced into a long, black,
hairy, twisted point. Ovary sub-orbicular, hairy, with a long hairy style and trifid
plumose stigma. Caryopsis broadly ovoid, rounded at the base, beaked with the indurated
style, hairy or glabrous above, glabrous below, embryo visible. Munro in Trans. Linn.
Soe. xxvi. 151; Brandis For. Flora 570. BAMBUSA MONOGYNA, Ctriffith Notulce, p. 63, Icon. 2,
BAMBUSA MAXIMA, Buch.-Ham. in Wall. Cat. 5039. BAMBUSA FALCONERI, Mmro in Trans.
Linn. Soc. xxvi. 95 (part).
North-East Himalaya, Assam Valley, Khasia Hills, Sylhet, extending eastwards to
Upper Burma, and westwards to the Sutlej, though doubtfully indigenous beyond
Nepal.
This is the common bamboo of the Darjeeling Hills and Terai, of the Duars and
the Assam Valley, and is in universal employment for building and basket and mat
work, though as a building bamboo its comparative softness aud thin walls make it
inferior to such species as Bamhisa Tulda and Balcooa. It is largely grown in Dehra
Dun, and is met with here and there in the hills of Gai-hwal and Jaunsar, but always
near villages and never in forest, so it can hardly be indigenous. J. W. Oliver says
that it is ' common along banks of streams in evergreen and moist f o r e s t ' in Katha
aud Bhamo, where it is locally known as ^ Waho-myefsangy<i^ (Jiurm.) Abdul Huk,
collector, has sent it fiom the Euby Mines. In the Dehra Diin and Lower North-
West Himalaya it is called Chye. lu Darjeeling it is known by the names of Tama
(Nop.) and Fao (Lepcha); in Assam as Kokwa and Fecha (Bengali), Fonay (Mikii-), and
Wanolce (Garo). The young shoots are eaten as a vegetable. The inner layer of the