INTRODUCTION. vil 
The Leaves of all bamboos are very similar in general appearance, for, although 
some species have usually large leaves and others quite small leaves, the size 
depends much on the part of the plant from which they are taken. Thus, in 
Dendrocalamus Hamiltonii, the leaves of young shoots and the end leaves of strong 
branches are usually very large, while those of medium branches are moderate in 
size and those of thin shoots from lower nodes are quite small. In respect to deter- 
mination therefore, as Kurz says, “little value can be attached to the size, shape 
and “nervature of bamboo leaves." Bamboo leaves are usually linear, lanceolate or 
oblong-lanceolate in shape; they have usually a short petiole into which the base, 
which is frequently unequally cut, extends; the point is usually long acuminate, often 
scabrous, sometimes shaggy (Bambusa khasiana and В. marginata); the edges 
are often scabrous; the sides glabrous or softly hairy and the veins parallel and 
prominent. I have described these veins as they are usually seen: first a midrib 
or main vein usually thick; secondly a number or pairs of secondary veins easily 
seen with the naked eye; and ¢hirdly a number of intermediate veins, usually 5 to 7, 
for seeing which a lens is required. Then there are fourthly the transverse veinlets, 
and here I wish to note that, so far as my own observation goes, true transverse 
veinlets occur only in the genera Jrundinaria and Phyllostachys; in others, what 
appear to be transverse veinlets are not really such, but are caused by glands 
which in fresh specimens are seen through the leaf as pellucid dots and in dry 
specimens as raised lines, giving the appearance of cross bars between two neighbour- 
ing intermediate veins. At the base of each leaf, below the petiole, come the “ leaf- 
sheaths” and “ligules”; both often giving good characters for the identification of 
species; for the leaf-sheaths are often furnished with ciliæ or bristles and small auricles 
of various shapes, and the ligules may be of different degrees of prominence, those 
of Ochlandra Brandisii and Gigantochloa ligulata being especially long. 
In regard to INFLORESCENCE, there is great variation among bamboos ; sometimes 
the spikelets appear on leafy branches, sometimes in gigantic panicles covering a 
whole culm; sometimes the spikelets are very few and scanty, sometimes they are 
extremely numerous; sometimes they are distant on the branches of the inflorescence, 
sometimes congested into large rounded heads. The inflorescence is made up of 
spikelets with or without bracts. These spikelets vary much in the number and 
arrangement of the flowers, but they all contain (I) empty glumes, usually two, 
sometimes more, sometimes fewer; then a variable number of flowers, of which the 
lowest and the last may often be empty, but consisting of (2) a flowering glume, 
generally similar to the empty glumes; (3) a palea which is usually keeled or 
convolute and embraces (4) the Jodicules which vary in number, being sometimes 
absent, as in most Dendrocalam, sometimes very many, as іп Ochlandra, but usually 
three in number as in most genera: (5) the stamens which are three in number 
(as in most Arundinariee), six (as in Hubambusee, Dendrocalamee and most 
genera of Melocannee), or many (as in most species of Ochlandra, one of which 
may have as many as 120); and (6) the ovary, surmounted by Ше style and 
stigmas. In all these parts there is considerable variation, and indeed in the 
