Vili INTRODUCTION. 
same genus we may see great variation in the size, length and number 
of flowers borne by a spikelet. Thus, in the genus Arundinaria, the spikelets 
of 4. callosa may be 2 to 3 inches long with 6 to 12 flowers, while in 
А. densifolia they reach barely half an inch in length with only one flower. Of 
all the parts of the flower, the best characters for classification purposes are given 
by the paleas, which are usually boat-shaped, rounded or pointed or cleft at the 
apex, 2-k eeled or not, with or without cilie on the keels, and variously veined 
between the keels and on either side. The lodicules often give good characters ; 
when fresh they are often fleshy, when dry thin and membranous, and they may be 
variously pointed, ciliate, and veined. 
The квшт of bamboos is а caryopsis, which usually resembles those of other 
sections of grasses, but which sometimes has interesting and peculiar characters 
of its own. In the Arundinariee and Eubambusee the pericarp is thin and adnate 
to the seed, and the caryopsis is small, more or less resembling a grain of wheat or 
barley. In the Dendrocalamee and Melocannee the seed is surrounded by a 
separable pericarp, which is crustaceous in some genera, thick and tough in 
Melocalamus (in which genus Ше fruit is large, reaching a diameter of 1 to 15 inches), 
and large and fleshy in Melocanna and Ochlandra. In Melocanna bambusoides 
a fruit is large and pear-shaped, often reaching 3 to 5 inches in length and 
2 to 3 inches in breadth; while іп Ochlandra travancorica it is often 4 inches 
ios (including the stiff conical beak). 
It is only in a few species of bamboo (e.g., Arundinaria Wightiana, Bambusa 
lineata and Ochlandra stridula) that flowering takes place annually; in most cases 
flowering seasons come only at long intervals, and then Ше whole of the clumps of 
one species in a given locality flower gregariously and die down after flowering and 
giving seed. Even in those kinds which may be found occasionally in flower 
sporadically (e.g., Dendrocalamus strictus and D. Hamiltonii) general flowerings 
also take place, and at these the seed produced is usually good, while that given 
in the sporadic flowering is often poor and of small quantity. АП the information 
which it has been possible to collect has been given under the various species 
concerned; but it may here be noted that the information is still incomplete, and 
many more observations will have to be made and recorded before we can begin to 
predict the flowering times of most of the species. It is owing to the long period 
which elapses between flowerings that our knowledge of the flowers of bamboos is 
still so imperfect, and that there are still so many species of which the flowers and 
fruit, and consequently the real position in the systematic arrangement, are unknown. 
The distribution of bamboos in India naturally follows the distribution of the 
rainfall. In the following table is recorded the list of the bamboos herein described, 
with their а according to the seven principal regions, viz. 
(1) North-Western India—including Bihar, Ше North-Western Provinces, 
Oudh, the PN = and Ше C from Nepal 
westwards, | 
