Bamhusa. hex anuria monogynia. 191 



1. B. arunduiacea. Corom. pi. 1. N. 79. 



Spikes halt verticelled; calyces about four-flowered, half 

 of wliich are male ; nectaries three-leaved. 



Arundo bambos Linn, sp, pi. 120. 



Ilij, RItecd. Mai. 1. 1. 16. 



Beng. Bans. 



Teling. Mulkas, Vedroo. 



Tam. Mungil, vel Munkil. 



It delights in a rich, moist soil, such as the banks of 

 rivulets, lakes, &c. among the mountains. 



Stems, I fear to call them culms, numerous, from ten 

 to a hundred from the same root, for eighteen or twen- 

 ty feet straight, then bending gently to one side, pip- 

 ed, jointed, undivided, but with innumerable, very ra- 

 mous, alternate, winding, bifarious, spreading branches. 

 Thorns double, or triple, alternate, on the joints of the 

 branches and branchlets ; when double, a branchlet oc- 

 cupies the centre ; when triple the largest thorn stands 

 there ; they are remarkably strong, sharp, and somewhat 

 recurved ; sometimes they are wanting, particularly in 

 rich moist soils. Leaves sheathing, bifarious short-petioled, 

 linear-lanceolate, the upper side and margins backwardly 

 hispid, broad at the base, fine-pointed, from two to six 

 inches long, and half or three quarters of an inch broad ; 

 on the rich moist soil on the banks of the Ganges they 

 are from two to four inches broad, and about a foot lonsr. 

 Sheaths somewhat downy with a few short, bent filaments 

 on each side of the mouth . 



Inflorescence. When in flower the tree is generally des- 

 titute of leaves, and as the extremity of every ramifica- 

 tion is covered with flowers, the whole tree seems one 

 entire, immense panicle, composed of innumerable, some- 

 what verticelled spikes, each verticil is composed of se- 

 veral, distichous, oblong, pointed, sessile, rigid spikelets, 

 such as those of Eleusine, Poa, &)C. 



Common calyx, calycled, from two to six-flowered, 



