NOTES ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 273 



The name of this species has ah-eady been published, without 

 description, in W. Ferguson's 'Grasses of Ceylon,' in Journ. Roy. 

 Asiatic Soc. (Ceylon Branch) for 1880, p. 38. M. Hackel agrees in 

 considering it a distinct species. 



Teinostachyum P maculatum Trim. — Densely tufted ; 

 rhizome much and intricately branched, the short curved branches 

 clothed with thin yellow or brown scales ; culms closely placed, 

 attaining about 25 ft. in height, slender, the largest seen about 

 f in. in diameter and many not half that size, stiff but not very 

 strong, surrounded at base by a few papery sheaths ; joints 15-20 in. 

 long, smooth, polished and shining in the loAver part, the upper 

 part of each harsh with minute closely-adpressed silvery scurf-like 

 hairs, greyish green, elegantly mottled with irregular rings, bands, 

 lores, and blotches of dark purplish claret- col our, subpersistent ; 

 leaf sheaths ("spathes") 4 or 5 in. long, very closely adpressed to 

 the stem, truncate, smooth, yellow ; rudimentary leaf-blade linear, 

 acuminate, deflexed ; branchlets densely tufted ; leaves lanceolate- 

 oblong, 6-8 in. long by 1-1:|- in. wide, very shortly petiolate, 

 suddenly rounded at the base, unequal-sided, tapering into a long 

 filiform apex, the margins rough with minute forward-pointing 

 prickles, smooth on both surfaces, closely veined, with no cross- 

 veinlets, bright apple-green above, purplish glaucous beneath ; 

 sheaths lax, striate, smooth, auricled at top, the auricles angular 

 and provided with a few long filiform deciduous appendages ; 

 flowers not seen. 



Hab. Forming jungle in several places in the districts of 

 Ambagamua, Ruanwelle, and regions to the south-west of Adam's 

 Peak. The specimens described were collected on Galbodde Tea 

 Estate, Ambagamua, Dec. 1883, by Mr. C. J. Ferguson. A gre- 

 garious bamboo, the slender stems rising erect for 8 or 10 ft. and 

 then commencing to di'oop, the straggling upper branches requiring 

 support and becoming subscandent, as is the case with many other 

 small bamboos, e.g., Anindinaria debilis and Teinostaclujum attenu- 

 atum. In the absence of flowers and fruit it is of course impossible 

 to refer this with good reasons to any established geims. The 

 native name is "Rama Batali," the latter word being the name of 

 the very common Ochlanclra stridula, the small bamboo which 

 covers hundreds of square miles of country in the south and west 

 of Ceylon. 



The history of the detection of this very pretty species here is 

 rather curious. It resulted from the exhibition, at a show held by 

 the Agri-horticultural Society of Colombo, in August, 1883, of some 

 light furniture, boxes, &c., cased with the mottled stems split and 

 varnished. I at once recognised these as distinct from any recorded 

 species in Ceylon, and on enquiring of the native gentleman, Mr. 

 P. de Saram, exhibiting them, was inform d of its Sinhalese name, 

 and that it was not uncommon on the southern slopes of the 

 Adam's Peak Mountains. Mr. W. Ferguson afterwards learnt that 

 it also grew near Ruanwelle, and on a visit thither in November 

 was able to confirm the report. It has since been collected in 

 other places ui the same climatic district of Ceylon, and plants are 

 Journal of iioiANY. — Vol. 23. [JSkpt., lb8o.j 



