GIGAKTEUS, THE " GIANT BAMBOO." 127 



12—16 pairs, with pellucid cross bars. Panicle very large, 

 brauchlets slender curved ; heads up to 1 in. diam. ^—1 in. 

 apart. Spikelets sometimes all flowering, rachilla produced 

 with an imperfect gl. (Munro : — Spikelets | in., ovoid acute 

 spinescent puberulous, empty gls. ovate raucronate striate, 

 fl. gls. 3—6 thin puberulous, empty gls. ovate mucronate 

 striate, fl. gls. 3—6 thin mucronate many-nerved, anthers 

 acuminate.) Ovary ovoid and long style hairy, stigma simple. 

 Grain oblong, obtuse, hairy above. 



Extract from the " Ceylon Observer " of 1886. 



The Giant Bamboo in Flower. — Dr. Trimen, Director of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, having seen our notice of 

 some stalks of the " Giant bamboo " having flowered at 

 Abbotsford, asked for specimens, as he had never seen the 

 inflorescence in its fresh state. We accordingly, before 

 returning from a recent visit to the estate, had specimens 

 despatched? We expressed some doubt as to the flowering 

 being quite normal, because only a few stems out of probably 

 one hundred in a dense clump had blossomed. But from 

 Dr. Trimen's report, which we append, it will be seen that the 

 flowers are quite natural : — 



" Peradeniya, February 26, 1886. 



*' The specimens of Giant bamboo reached me yesterday 

 afternoon. There is nothing abnormal about them ; they are 

 the natural flowers, and I have examined them with much 

 interest, as I have never before seen them in a fresh state. 

 Our numerous plants at Peradeniya were all derived by 

 division of one received from the Calcutta Gardens in 1856 and 

 still growing there ; but none have ever shown any disposition 

 to flower. I am told, however, that about five years back a 

 clump at Nawalapitiya produced flowers, but I did not get 

 an opportunity of seeing it. 



" There is some difficulty in ascertaining the native country 

 of this fine bamboo , Dendrocalamus giganteus. Wallich obtained 

 the original plant in the Calcutta Gardens from Penang, 

 and Kurz states that it grows only at ' Malacca and adjacent 



