658 POACE^. 



Fr. Berl. Mag. 2 : 320 (1808). Macronax Rafin. Med. Repos. 

 N. Y. 5 : 352 (1808). Triglossum Fisch. Cat. Jard. Gorenk. 

 (1812). Thamnocalarmis Munro, Trans, Linn. Soc. 26 : 33 

 (1868). 



Spikelets many-flowered, often long, compressed, racemose or 

 paniculate, rachilla at length articulate below the flowers, which 

 are perfect or the upper imperfect, rarely the lower male. Empty 

 glumes 1-2, unequal, the lower sometimes absent ; floral glume 

 longer, membranaceo-herbaceous, convex on the back, not keeled, 

 many-nerved, acute, acuminate, or bristle-pointed ; palea a little 

 shorter than its glume, or equal to it, strongly 2-keeled. Lodicules 

 3. Stamens 3. Ovary often hairy above ; styles 2-3, joined for 

 a little way at the base; stigmas clothed with long feathery 

 branches. Grain oval or narrowly oblong, grooved, included by 

 the glume and palea, but not adliereut. 



Tall woody grasses, with clustered branches, broad, flat, persist- 

 ent blades, often with short-jointed petioles, transverse nerves 

 obscure or conspicuous. Inflorescence usually terminal, simple and 

 close, or loosely panicled. Spikelets large, green or colored, the 

 long glumes finally spreading. 



Species 24, belonging to the warmer or tropical parts of Asia 

 and America. 



The Bamboos have been admirably monographed by General 

 Munro in the twenty-sixth volume of the Transactions of the Lin- 

 nasan Society. 



1. A. macrosperma Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1:74 (1803). Caxe. 

 A. hambu-nana Triu. Fund. Agrost. 97 (1812). A. gigantea 

 Chapm. Fl. S. States, 561 (1860). 



Culms erect, hard, woody, 3-12 m. high, 0.5-7 cm. diam., 

 jointed every 20-30 cm. for half its length, simple the first year, 

 branching the second, fruiting after (?) years, and then dying to the 

 ground. Ligule cut-fringed; blades lanceolate, acuminate, nearly 

 smooth, 2-5 cm. wide. Panicles lateral, racemed. Spikelets 

 purple, erect, elliptical -lanceolate, 4-5 cm. long, 7-12-flowered, 

 first empty glume 5 mm. long, ovate-obtuse, 7-nerved, second 10 

 mm. long, clasping, ovate-acute, 11-nerved; floral glume ovate. 



