128 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
lower part, assumes an olive green colour darker than the 
rest of the stem. The branches are very long in proportion 
to the internode, and the third branchlet, which in the other 
species of the Phyllostachys group is so generally wanting, 
or, if present, disappears, is more apt to be persistent. 
The groove left by the pressure of the branches appears 
to be often almost flat, but the double channel is well 
defined. 
The ligule of the culm sheath when fully developed and 
ready to drop off is worthy of careful examination, for it 
shows a character which is one of the chief aids in dis- 
tinguishing the species from PHYLLOSTACHYS FLEXUOSA, 
which it so much resembles as to have at one time deceived 
the very elect. In P. VIRIDI-GLAUCESCENS the ligule of the 
sheath is continued on either side of the limbus in two little 
fringed ears, which are not found in P. FLExUOSA. Other 
distinguishing features are to be found in the bud scales 
which in the latter species are tipped with pink, whereas in . 
the former they are of a pale green, and in the colour of 
the nodes of the culm which are far less dark in P. FLEXUOSA, 
and hardly show the violet colour which is so conspicuous in 
P. VIRIDI-GLAUCESCENS. In the former, moreover, the third 
branchlet is very rare. 
As will have been gathered from what I have said above, 
the frondage is rather loose, and the branches somewhat 
scantily clothed when compared with some other Bamboos. 
The leaves are lanceolate, ending in a fine point, tapering to 
a well-defined petiole at the base, serrated all along one edge 
and partially towards the point on the other. On either side 
of the midrib are about five secondary nerves. The length is 
