114 ANNALS OF THK EOYAL BOTANIC GAKDEN, CALCUTTA,
13. Schizostachyum, Nees.
Ai-boresceut or shrubby bamboos, usually erect, sometimes climbing. Culms smooth,
usually slender, walls thin. Cubn-sheaths shorter than iuternodes, cylindrical, furnished
•with small am-icles and bearing a triangular or subulate imperfect blade. Leaves moderately
broad to broad, petioled, smooth, without proper transverse veinlefcs. Inflorosuencc
a terminal panicle of spicate branches, bearing heads of spikelets, often reduced to a
spike of heads, which are sometimes very few ; rachis slender. Spikelets slender, fasciculate
in heads, usually pelunculate, or 2 or 3 together, often long, cylindi-ical,
sometimes short. Empty glumes 1 to 3, narrow, separated by rachillie from each other
and from the flowei-ing glume, usually mucroaate. Flowering glumes 1 or 2, articulate
below, much imbricate, convolute. Falea similar to flowering glume, not keeled, bat
often furrowed, sometimes bi-mucroaate, closely convolute, bearing a terminal rudimentary
riower on a long i-ac-hilla. ZodiaUes 0 to 4, usually 3, naiTOw, lanceolate, faintly ciliate.
Stamens 6, esserted; anthers narrow, obtuse or apiculate or penicillate, filaments free.
Ovary nan-ow, enclosed in a crustaceous pericarp which lengthens into a beak enclosing
the style, which divides at the top into 3, short, plumose síigmas. Canjopsis (where
known) ovoid, beaked, the beak bent to one side, enclosed in a crustaceous separate
pericarp, seed rounded, embryo distinct.
Distrih.—Besides the five species herein described, there are about eleven others.
One—5". parmfolium, Munro—occurs m Madagascar; another—S. dimetorum, Munro—in
China; another —-5. glaudfoUun, Munro—in the Pacific Islands; another—aoutifloruni,
Munro—in the Philippine Islandá ; and seven more, viz.—elegantissimum, Kurz,
S. Zollingeri, Kurz, S. hrachycladum, Kurz, S. Irratun, Steud., S. longispiculatum, Kurz,
serpentimm, Kurz, and S. Ilasakarlianum, Kurz—in Java and the neighbouring islands.
Some of these may possibly be indigenous in the Indo-Malayan region, but I hesitate
to include them without more information as to their true geographical distribution.
Analgsis of t
Spikelets in heads in tenninal simple spikes.
Heads tery few, 1 to 3 1. 5. tenuc.
Heads usually more than 3 2. S. chilianthum.
Spikelets in heads in paniculate spikes.
Spikelets short, -under '7 in. long 3. S. Blumci.
Spikelets long, usually over 1 in. long.
Glumes glabrous 4. S. latifoUmn.
Glumes hairy 5. S. ackulare.
1. SCHIZOBTACHVUM TENUE, n. Gumhle.
A graceful, small, climbing bamboo. Culms reed-liko, thin. Culm-sheaths not known.
Leaves linear-lanceolate, long-acuminatc, 4 to 6 in. long, -3 to '6 in. broad; narrowed
at the base into a rather long -3 in. petiole; ending in a long setaccous tvristcd
point; smooth and glabrous on both sides; edges very faintly scabrous, somewhat
cartilaginous; main vein prominent, shining, secondary veins 3 to o pairs, intermediate
INDIAN BAMBUSE.iE, GAMBLE. ^^^
5 to 7, very distant transverse vcinlets causcd by pellucid glands; leaf-sheaths smooth,
striate,' tmncate at the mouth with a broad callus; Ugtde very narrow. Lnfloreseenee
a terminal spike of 1 to 3 heads bearing few spikelets; rachis slender, curved; heads
bracteate, with yellowish, mucronate, chaiSy bracts. Spikelets narrow acuminate, about
•b in. long, with 1 to 2 empty glumes, one fertile fl.owor and a terminal small hairy
imperfect flower; . emphj glumes ovate acute, mucronate, o- to 7-veined; flowering glume
similar but longer; palca longer than flowering glume, 2-kcclcd, the keels close
together, glabrous, bi-mucronate. Lodkuhs 3, '2 in. long, ovate-acute, thickened below,
3—5-nervcd, somewhat haii-y within.. Stamens exserted; anthers Hnear, romided at the
top. Ovanj narrowly oblong, surmounted by a long beak, enclosing, but rather longer
than, the stijU\ stigmas 3, purple plumose. Caryopsix not known.
Malaya: collected by II. N. Ridley in 1891, at Kwala Berar Pahang (Xo. 5-596)
and Bukit Toongul, Malacca (No.- 5601). His specimen from Kota Tiuggi, Johore, is
also tliis probably, but has rather larger and longer leaves, reacliing 9 in. in length
and -8 in. in breadth.
I caiinot help tliinking that tliis may be the plant described as Schiiostachgum elegantissimum,
Kurz in Ind. Forester i. 348 = ^ « » j J t i s a elegantissima, Hassk. PL J a v . r a r . 42 =
Beesh'i elegantissima, Kurz, JIum-o in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 146; but the si)ecimens
in the Calcutta Herbarium do not agree very well,, and I have therefore preferred
to describe it afresh. It is near S. chilianthum, but is much more slender and has
fewer heads,- often reduced to 1 only.
P l a t e No. 100.—Schizostachyim tenue, Gamble. I, leaf and flower branch
of natural size; 2, spikelet; 3, empty glume; 4, flowering glume; 5, palca; 6, lodicules;
7, anther; 8, ovary and beak with stigmas —all enlarged (from Ridley's Pahang
specimens).
2. SciilzosTACBYUJi ciiiLiANTUUM, Kiirz in Lid. Forester i. 348.
A small, graceful, shrubby bamboo. Culms 6 to 8 ft. liigh, '6 to -8 in. in diameter,
smooth, glossy; nodes not prominent; intemodcs fistuiar, glabrous, with the flower- and
leaf-bearing branchlets semi-verticillate together at the nodes with many small bract'
like sheaths, branchlets curvcd, slender, smooth. Cuhn-sheai/is glabrous, smooth, ciHate on
the edges, ending in a truncate mouth; imperfect hlade erect, nai-rowly lanceolate, rounded
at the base, hauy witliin and decurrent ou the sheath in a long-fringed band endinoin
naiTow auricles a]so long-fringed ; ligule narrow, long-fimbriate. Leaves 6 to 10 in
long, -7 to 1 in. broad, hnear-lanceolate, long-acuoiinate ; rounded or attenuate at the
base into a -2 in. long petiole; ending in a setaceous, twisted, scabrous point,
sometimes even 1-5 in. long; somewhat rough above, palo and haiiy on the midrib
beneath, scabrous on the edges ; main vein not prominent, secondary veins 4 to 6
intermediate a to 7, transverse vcinlets formed by pellucid glands, few but conspicuous ;
leaf-sheathe striate, glabrous, ciliate at the edges, truncate at the mouth, with a narro\v
callus and short. aui-icles, the mouth bearing long white (about 10) stiff deciduous
bristles; ligule very short. Inflorescence a terminal spike of distant heads of spikelets
heads about -5 in. broad, few, rarely more than o to 6 ; raeUs very slender, somewhat
angled^ grooved, glabrous. Bpikelets "4 to -6 in. long, very, n a n w , acuminate, with
1 fertile flower and s0meti3fl.es a, gemmiferous glume below and a terminal minut
Ans. Eoy. Bot. Gabd. C . u c u i t a , T o l . VII.