132 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP. 
acccunt of the flowering of PHYLLOSTACHYS FLEXUOSA, the 
only one of this group of Bamboos upon which it has been 
hitherto found. 
The flowers are borne upon all the branches of the culms, 
taking the place of leaves. They are grouped in a kind of 
panicle, of which each division taken by itself represents a 
spike of from 3 to 4 centimétres in length, composed of 
from eight to ten spikelets (sometimes fewer, sometimes as 
many as fourteen) each bearing one, two, or very rarely three 
flowers. 
On each spike are found abortive flowers, fertile flowers, 
and sterile flowers, the two latter generally together on the 
same spikelet. At the base of the back of the spike and 
attached to the axis which supports it is a minute keel- 
shaped glume or scale, with an obtuse top and slightly downy 
on the outside. From the centre of this persistent organ, 
-hardly a millimctre in height, the spike rises. At the base 
of the latter are six scaly sheaths; the three first are very 
small and short, not more than from 1 to 4 millimétres 
in leneth. Their summit is obtuse and emarginate, or rather 
split from top to bottom. The three other sheaths are larger, 
from 5 to 7 millimétres in length. One of them, the shortest, 
has an obtuse summit, but the other two present different 
characters. They end in a small fringed membrane, very 
slightly developed, a ligule in miniature with a very short 
limbus. On one side, and on part of the other, the sheaths 
are edged with small whitish hairs. Each of these differently 
shaped sheaths is accompanied by a very minute bud, more 
or less developed, often only in a rudimentary condition, and 
which from its position remains in embryo, the scaly sheaths 
