GENERA ANJ) SI'K< II 



bai 







mil 







BAMBOOS: 



OXYTENANTHERA 

 NIOROCILIATA 



'lie elnef European uses for thin bamhoo in the manufacture of lance- European 

 ! > thin purpose solid stems of uniform thickness are essential. Hut Demand. 

 ntlv tlie\ are only here and there completely -olid Thus the supply in 

 unequal tii the demand. Split up and again united they are mad.- into fishing- KUliing-roda. 

 For liamlioo furniture the hollow stems are now la>.'.-lv utilised. In Furniture, 

 i fetches from 8 annas to Rs. 1-8 per hundred in the forests, but the Price. 

 rt i liaises to the coast are the chief items of experme. Gamble estimates 

 il annual production at possibly 100 million culms, [('f. For. Admin. Rept. rro-luctloo. 

 c. l'r,,i-.. IS'.i-J [\, 13-4; Lisboa, Bomb. Grasses, 1896, 141-4; Lovegrove, Ind. 

 1900, xxvi., 433-42; Smythies, Ind. For., 1901, xxvii.. 126; Kanjilal, For. 

 i ,,<>l Circ. U. Prov., 1901, 369 ; Church, Food-Grains of Ind., suppl., 1901, 7 ; 



Aaite, Ind. For., 1902, xxviii., 233 ; Muriel, Ind. For., xxix., 507-8.] 

 GIgantochloa macrostachya, Kurz. The tekserah, modi, madaywa, wanet, 

 mi/, etc. An evergreen bamboo with striped culms from 30 to 50 

 t long and 2J to 4 inches thick. Native of Assam, Chittagong and Burma. 

 *.-. rri-f ii-iiin tn is the beautiful striped species often cultivated in India but 

 introduced from the Malay. Gamble suspects G. anriruinta, Kurz. the kalia of 



i! and talaguuxt of Burma, may have to be placed under o.ri/f-*infif-/. 

 Melocalamus compactiflorus, Benth., Hook., f. This arborescent, tufted and 

 undent evergreen occurs in Eastern Bengal and Burma, viz. from Sylhet 

 d Chittagong down to Martaban, but is frequent only between alt. 4,000 

 ,d 6,000 feet. It is in Burma known as wa-nwe, in the Kachin country as 

 inwa, in Chittagong as lota, and in Sylhet as daral. The culms are 

 ily used for basket-work, and when split in the green state may be reduced 

 1 1 fine and pliable strands that they may be woven. It is the material 

 employed in the construction of the shoes worn by the Kachin, Shan and Chinese 

 traders seen in Bhamo, and in the characteristic lacquered ware of Upper Burma. 

 The seed is large, edible and mealy, somewhat resembling the chestnut. [Cf. 

 IwL For., 1902, xxviii., 432 ; Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903, 223.] 



Melocanna bambusoides, />/. This is sometimes called the berry-bearing 

 bamboo and is known by the following vernacular names muli, metunga, 

 to, taria, wati, artem, turiah, watrai, kuyaungwa, pagu-tulla, kayinwa, etc. 

 often called the Terai bamboo. An arborescent evergreen, with distant 

 culms, arising from the ramifications of an underground rhizome. Met with 

 throughout Eastern Bengal and Burma. In Chittagong it is perhaps the most 

 prevalent species, and is universally employed for building purposes and mat- 

 making. It is very largely exported to Lower Bengal, and according to the Purposes, 

 forest returns about 16 million culms are yearly required in the Gangetic Delta. Mat-making. 

 It is. in fact, from the Indian standpoint, one of the most valuable of bamboos. Trade. 

 Though thin-walled is strong and durable and has the great advantage of 

 being straight and of possessing only very slight knots. It is doubtless the 

 paia and aworja bamboo referred to by Lewin, who observes that white-ants 

 will not attack it. Gregson says the young shoots are often killed by a beetle proof. 

 fyi-tott-ni-ttcitiM lonyipfM (Ind. For., xxv., 420). The fruit is large, edible 

 and occasionally germinates and makes as much as 6 inches growth before it 

 drops from the stem (Stapf, Trans. Linn. Soc., 1901-5, vi., 409-23). Tabdshir Tabdshir. 

 is often very abundant in the stems (Roxb, Fl. Ind., ii., 197). 



Ochlandra travancorica, Benth., ex Gamble ; irakaUi (Brandis), Ufa, irul, 

 (Bourdillon). A shrubby gregarious reed or bamboo, met with on the moun- 

 tains and plains of South India (in Tinnevelly and Travancore districts), up 

 to alt. 3,000 to 5,000 feet. It has exceptionally large flowers and fruits and 

 as many as 120 stamens in one spikelet, united more or less into a tube. The 

 culms attain a height of 20 feet, and the internodes are sometimes 5 feet in length. Bamboo. 

 T. F. Bourdillon, Conservator of Forests, Travancore State, has furnished much 

 useful information regarding this species. It flowers, he says, gregariously 

 every 30 to 40 years, then dies down. The shoots when 6 to 9 months old 

 constitute a splendid paper material. For some five years or so a paper-mill Paper 

 was run in Travancore which used this material almost exclusively. The fibre 

 has been pronounced superior to esparto but the expense of chemicals killed 

 the industry, as it seems a larger quantity was required than with other paper 

 materials. [Cf. Ind. For., 1899, xxv., 152.] 



Oxytenanthera nigrociliata, Munro : podah (And.) ivashut (Garo), bolangi 

 IKIHH (Oris,sa). A tufted evergreen species found in Orissa, Chittagong, Burma, 

 the Andaman Islands and Malay Peninsula. Used in house-building and 

 for basket-work. 



D.E.P., 

 Hi., 498. 

 Striped 

 Bamboo. 

 Eastern Bengal 



D.E.P.. 

 i., 372. 

 Scandent 

 Bamboo. 



Eastern Bengal 

 and Burma. 



Large Edible 

 Seed. 



D jj.P. 

 v 225. 

 _,' 



T> am i, oo 

 Building 



Most Valuable 

 Bambo - 



white-ant- 



^ 372 

 g' O uth' 



D.E.P., 

 v., 675. 

 Eastern 

 Peninsula 

 Species. 



103 



