Arundinaria.] LXXVIII. GRAMINE^E. 563 



with solid or nearly solid culms and narrow leaves, the other, growing between 

 8000 and 12,000 ft., with shorter, thicker, and hollow culms and broader leaves, 

 the foliage more feathery. Vern. Garu girch (Powell, Panjab Products, 518, 

 567). It is a matter for inquiry whether one of these is not Thamnocalamus 

 spathiflorus, or another species of Arundinaria. The solid kind is said to be 

 the tougher of the two, and is used, when dry, a year after cutting, to support 

 the earth-roofs of the hill-cottages. It is also made into mats and basket-work. 

 The hollow kind is made into shepherds' pipes, fishing-rods, and is exported to 

 the plains for Hooka-tubes ; it is also employed for basket-work. 



The small Bamboo of the Nilgiris is A. Wightiana, Nees ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. 

 Anal. Gen. t. 28; annual stem 6-12 ft. high ; flowers in terminal slender-branched 

 panicles at the end of leaf-bearing culms, spikelets 2-5-flowered, - in. long, 

 single, on long filiform peduncles, leaves with indistinct transverse veins, 

 sheaths persistent, coriaceous, adpressed to branchlets. 



2. THAMNOCALAMUS, Falconer. 



Characters of Arundinaria, excepting the bracts subtending the main 

 branches of the inflorescence, which are lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, en- 

 closing the racemes of spikelets in bud, and exceeding half their length 

 when fully developed. 



Leaves with prominent transverse nerves j sheathing bracts 3 



in. long 1. T. spathiflorus. 



Leaves without transverse nerves ; sheathing bracts less than 



1 in. long 2. T. Falconeri. 



1. T. spathiflorus, Munro 1. c. 34. Vern. Ringall, Deoban range. 



Stems caespitose, J in. diam., internodes 4-8 in. long, brown, shining, 

 branches 12-18 in. long, in fascicles or in half-whorls; the sheaths on 

 young shoots glabrous, with numerous prominent nerves, fimbriate at the 

 mouth and edges, narrowed somewhat abruptly into a distinct, subulate 

 apex 2 in. long. Leaves 3-5 in. long, J-J in. broad, distinctly petiolate, 

 3 prominent secondary nerves on either side of midrib, transverse nerves 

 conspicuous; sheath 2 in. long, striated with raised longitudinal lines, 

 fimbriate at the mouth, with a long ligula, persistent after the leaves 

 fall, forming an acute angle with branches. Flowers in large panicles, 

 with slender drooping branches. Eacemes of 2 or 3 spikelets in the 

 axils of large amplexicaul oblong multinerved bracts 3 in. long. Spike- 

 lets linear-lanceolate, 1-1 J in. long, of 6-8 hairy distinct flowers. Empty 

 glumes 2, white, membranous, glabrous, linear-lanceolate. Articulation 

 of rachis between two flowers j-J the length of flowering glume. Flower- 

 ing glume J-f in. long, long-acuminate, 7-9-nerved, roughly hirsute, with 

 long hairs at the base. Palea much shorter than flowering glume, 2-ribbed, 

 with 2 nerves between the ribs, and 2 on each side. Scales 3, lanceolate. 

 Stamens 3. Style 3-fid. 



Upper part of Hattu (8400 ft.), T. Thomson, Aug. 1847. Deoban (8000 ft.) 

 D.B., May 1863. Dudatoli in Garhwal (8500 ft.), Strachey and Winterbottom. 

 In Kamaon, Nepal, and in Sikkim on Mount Singalelah at 11,000 ft. Hooker. 



2. T. Falconeri, Hook, fil ; Munro 1. c. 34. 



