GRAMINEAE 75 
BAMBUSA Schreber(*) 
Bambus pungens Blanco FI. Filip. (1837) 270 (sp. nov.) =Bambus arundo 
Blanco op. cit. ed. 2 (1845) 188; ed. 3, 1 (1877) 835, t. 100, non Nees, 
nec Wight=BAMBUSA SPINOSA Roxb. (Bambusa blumeana Schultes 
fi).. 
This species is found throughout the Philippines at low and 
and medium altitudes in cultivation or in abandoned cultiva- 
tion, rarely spontaneous. It is the most valuable and most 
universally used bamboo in the Philippines and is almost cer- 
tainly not a native of the Archipelago, but of prehistoric intro- 
duction from Malaya. It grows in large clumps, reaching a 
height of 15 to 20 meters, and is characterized by the dense 
thicket of spreading, interlaced, very spiny branches surround- 
ing the base of the culms. The Tagalog name cauayan is used 
for this species, but also in a generic sense for bamboo; cauayan 
totoo, frequently applied to this species meaning ‘‘true bamboo ;” 
see Merrill, E. D., An interpretation of Rumphius’s Herbarium 
Amboinense (1917) 97. 
Illustrative specimen from Rizal Province, Luzon, July, 1914 
(Merrill: Species Blancoanae No. 148). 
Bambus monogyna Blanco FI. Filip. (1837) 268 (sp. nov.) ; ed. 2 (1845) 187, 
ed. 3, 1 (1877) 88383=BAMBUSA VULGARIS Schrad. in Wendl. Coll. 
Pl. 2 (1808) 26, t. 47. 
Bambus mitis Blanco op. cit. 271 (sp. nov.); 188; 336—=BAMBUSA VUL- 
GARIS Schrad. 
There is no doubt as to the specific identity of the two species 
Blanco described, and equally no doubt of the correctness of 
the reference of both to Bambusa vulgaris Schrad. Fernandez- 
Villar reduced the first to Dendrocalamus strictus Nees, and 
the second to D. sericeus Munro, but neither of these species 
is known from the Philippines. In describing Bambusa mitis, 
of which Blanco saw neither flowers nor fruits, he states: ‘““Algu- 
nos dicen que esta especie es lo mismo que la Monogyna.” I 
have a number of specimens, some sterile, others in flower, re- 
ceived under the Tagalog name cauayan quiling, cited by Blanco 
under Bambusa monogyna, and others received under the Taga- 
log name tiauanac, cited by Blanco under B. mitis, and I cannot 
detect any specific differences between them. Bambusa vulgaris 
is widely distributed in the Philippines in the settled areas at 
low and medium altitudes and has undoubtedly been purposely 
introduced into the Archipelago; it does not grow in the primeval 
_ forest. Bambusa blancoi Steud. is a synonym. 
*See Merrill, E. D. On the identity of Blanco’s species of Bambusa. 
Am. Journ. Bot. 3 (1916) 58-64. . 
