198 HEXANDRiA MoNOGYNiA. Bambusa. 



or more flowered. The inferior scales (Calyx,) thereof 

 abortive, or with male flowers. Corol of two unequal, 

 long, taper, acute-pointed, smooth valves. Stamina six, 

 about as long as the pistil. Germ ovate. Style single. 

 Stigmas \\\xte, filiform, woolly. Pericarp. In this singu- 

 lar species, it is a very large, hard, fleshy, conical, smooth 

 taper, curved, pointed frait, with a single, large, oval seed 

 in each. 



6. B. spinosa. R. 



Subarboreous, dreadfully armed with simple, and com- 

 pound spines. Spikelets from three to five-flowered; 

 florets trigonous. Nectary three-leaved. 



Beng. Behor Bans, 



Arundarbor spinosa. Rumph. Amh. 4. 14. t. 2. 



This beautiful, middling sized, very elegant species, I 

 have only found in the vicinity of Calcutta, where now 

 and then some of the oldest are found to blossom about 

 the beginning of the rains, in June. 



Stems scarcely fistulous, jointed, &c. as in the other spe- 

 cies ; in this many grow so close together, as to appear 

 a single trunk at some distance, and by the help of their 

 bifariously alternate, triple branches, and spines, so 

 completely bound together, that it is a most arduous 

 task to cut down an old clump of them ;jom<s from six 

 to twelve inches asunder. The plants, or shoots of the 

 clump, which come into flower, I have observed to be 

 those of the centre, and they are taller, straighter, and 

 with a much longer cavity, and longer joints than the 

 rest, which are shorter, droop more, and wave elegant- 

 ly with the motion of the wind, notwithstanding they are 

 nearly solid, for it is only the larger stems that have a 

 small cavity, the branches being generally solid ; whole 

 height from thirty to fifty feet. Spines at the joints, and 

 very generally present, through the whole plant triple; this 

 is evidently the habit, though frequently incomplete ; the 



