DESCRIPTIONS OF TRIBES AND GENERA. 193 



TRIBE XII. BAMBTTSE.E.* 



Spikelets 2-8-, rarely only one-flowered, in panicles or 

 racemes, mostly arranged in tufts or false whorls at the 

 nodes of the branches of the panicle. Empty glumes 

 two to several, increasing in size upwards, shorter than 

 the succeeding flowering glumes ; buds developing into 

 spikelets sometimes appear in axils of the lowest empty 

 glumes ; flowering glumes many-nerved, awnless, or rarely 

 with short, straight, terminal awns ; palea two- to many- 

 nerved, rarely nerveless ; scales or lodicules usually 

 three, remarkably large, rarely fewer or wanting ; 

 stamens 3-6 to many ; styles 2-3, often grown together 

 at the base ; fruit free ; leaves usually articulated with 

 the sheath. 



[Large, often tree-like, perennial grasses with woody, 

 rarely herbaceous, culms. The largest species are 30 

 cm. in diameter and 40 m. high. The rhizome lasts 

 many years, and in most species consists of numerous 

 short, entwined branches which send up numerous 

 densely-crowded culms forming clumps. Bamboo for- 

 ests of these species consist of such giant bushes inter- 

 mingled with trees. Other species (Bambusa villosida 

 Kurz., Mdocanna bairibusoides Trin., etc.) do not form 

 clumps, but the culms, standing 30-60 cm. apart, often 

 cover extended areas with a thick forest-like growth. 

 In yet other species, for example those of PhyUostqchys, 

 the rhizome, which bears larger or smaller clumps, sends 

 out long creeping branches that here and there produce 

 solitary culms ; these are upright, the outer ones in 

 each clump bending or hanging over. Some species 

 are climbers. Branches numerous, usually forming a 

 crowded half-whorl at the nodes ; sometimes all the 

 nodes bear branches, sometimes the lower part of the culm 

 is naked, in the upper portions the branches are often 

 single, and in many species two-ranked; the culms and 



* The portions here enclosed in brackets were written especially for 

 the original by Dr. Brandis, author of ' ' Forest-Flora of Northwest and 

 Central India." 



