vi INTRODUCTION. 
while shoots of Bambusa Tulda, according to Roxburgh, rise to their full size of from 
20 to 70 feet in height in about 30 days. Тһе curw-suraTHs, to which we have 
referred as surrounding the young shoots, are very interesting, for they are almost 
always of shapes which are characteristic of the species to which they belong. In 
regard to this, Munro ваув:--“ The spathes or large sheaths which cover the nodes 
“ог lower portions of all bamboos vary much in size and appearance, and will, I 
“think, afford good characters when they are more studied and better known. 
“Dr. Brandis has paid considerable attention to this subject; but these sheaths do 
"not appear in general to have attracted the notice of collectors." Kurz, too, held 
strongly the opinion that these culm-sheaths were very important in classification, 
and his collection of drawings of culm-sheaths, deposited in the Herbarium of 
the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, has proved of great service to me. Thanks 
to the exertions of many friends and to Ше facilities for collection I have myself 
enjoyed, there are not many species herein described of which the sheaths are 
unknown; and a glance at the drawings of them, and, still better, at the Herbarium 
sheets, will show that almost all have some definite characteristic which is sufficient 
in the absence of the flowers to identify the species. Culm-sheaths have three 
principal parts. The first part, the sheath proper, corresponding to the petiole 
of ordinary leaves, appears in bamboos as a broad expansion with its base attached 
at the node of the culm. Sometimes the sheath is very thin and papery, as in 
most Arundinariae; sometimes it is thick and smooth, as in most Dendrocalami 
and Bambuse; and sometimes it is coriaceous in texture, as in Риос Моа and 
Ozytenanthera. Bourdilloni. Yn regard to clothing, some species (6.7., Dendrocalamus 
sikkimensis) have a dense felted mat of brittle stiff hairs all over the outer surface, 
and from this down to the nearly glabrous sheath of Dendrocalamus giganteus 
there is almost every gradation. The second part is the “imperfect blade," corre- 
sponding to: the blade of a leaf, and is inserted on the top of the sheath, where 
it takes many forms and shapes, and frequently is decurrent into “auricles,” which 
often are fringed in various ways with stiff bristles. In most species of Arun- 
dinaria, Phyllostachys, Thyrsostachys, Oxytenanthera, Dendrocalamus, Melocanna, and 
Teinostachyum the imperfect blade is narrow, frequently recurved and long; while in 
Bambusa, Gigantochloa, Dinochloa, and some species of Cephalostachyum it is broad, 
triangular and much decurrent. The blade of Bambusa khasiana is swollen out and 
inflated, while in Ochlandra setigera it is scarcely more than a fine needle-like point. 
The Мита part is the ligule, inserted, as in the leaves of all grasses, on the inner 
surface at the junction of the sheath and blade. There is, of course, in all parts, 
as Kurz has pointed out, a good deal of difference in size and shape, according 
as the sheath is taken from the base, the middle, or the top of a culm, or from 
a side branch; but a little study and experience soon teaches us to recognize the 
general characters, Almost the only cases I know of in which the culm-sheath 
fails to yield a distinguishing character are Bambusa Tulda, В. nutans, B. teres 
and Gigantochloa macrostachya, in which four species the culm-sheaths are very 
similar in appearance 
