86 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANiC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
culm-sheath is used for covering Burmese cigarettes. This bamboo flowers usually sporadi- 
cally, so that clumps in flower may almost always be found; and consequently it has 
been largely and often collected: at the same time, like other species, it sometimes 
flowers gregariously as it is doing this year (1894) both in Sikkim and in Пеша 
Dún. Of its straggling habit, so noticeable in the forests of Bengal and Burma, but 
curiously much less so in the Dün, J. W. Oliver remarks, * When they have no trees to 
support them, the main stems bend over, forming impenetrable thickets, and the lateral 
branches ascend vertically, often forming shoots nearly as long as the main stems." 
This species is very easily identified by its panicles of bright purple-red flowers; 
and when out of flower the grey stems, long nearly glabrous stem sheaths and straggling 
habit cause it to be easily recognized. Тһе long hairy points to the anthers are also 
remarkable. 
Ртлте No. 74.—Dendrocalamus Hamiltonii, Nees. and Arn. 1, leaf-braneh ; 2, part 
of flowering panicle—of natural size; 3, stem-sheath— reduced ; 4, spikelet; 5, flowering 
glume; 6, palea of lower flowers; 7, palea of uppermost flower; 8, anther; 9, ovary 
and style with trifid stigma; 10, the same, older; 11, caryopsis; 12, leaf-sheath—u 
enlarged, No. 4 many times. (АП from my own Sikkim specimens.) 
Var. 8. edulis, Munro, is a well-marked variety distinguished by the larger, 
more fistular internodes to the panicle, much larger and more con- 
gested, often  long-bracteate heads, spikelets with more numerous 
flowers and bigger and broader leaves. It is common in the Dar- 
jeeling Hills, and is distinguished from the type by the natives, 
who call it Yim-yot-pao (Lepcha). Тһе Lepcha Ragvet is also pro- 
bably this variety ; it has shorter ligules to its leaves than the type. 
7. DENDROCALAMUS PATELLARIS, n. sp. Gamble. 
A rather soft, evergreen, czespitose bamboo. Culms 20 to 30 ft. high, 1 to 1:5 im. 
in diameter, dull green, striate; nodes marked by a projecting, softly hairy ring often 
8 in. deep and 2 in. thick; internodes 12 to 18 in. long, whitish beneath the nodes, 
walls thin, fistular. Culm-sheaths long persistent, 10 to 12 іп. long, 3 in. broad at 
base, prominently striate, sparsely covered with appressed brown stiff hairs outside, 
glabrous within; attenuate in the upper third only to a truncate top, ‘7 % 1 in. broad, 
the top and the margin for 1 to 2 in. down furnished with a membranous, fimbriate, 
pale fringe which is *3 to 4 in. broad; imperfect blade lanceolate, 6 in. long, 1 in. 
broad, usually recurved; ligule conspicuous, fringed like the sheath. Leaves soft, variable, 
8 to 16 in. long, 1 to 4 in. broad, unequally narrowed at the base into a "2 in. petiole, 
ending above in a twisted scabrous point; smooth above, slightly rough below, minutely 
scabrous on the edges; main vein thick prominent, secondary veins 8 to 10, inter- 
mediate 7; leaf-sheaths striate, keeled at back, truncate or produced at top into a narrow 
callus, fringed or ciliate at the edges; ligule very long and broad, deeply long- 
fimbriately fringed. Inflorescence a huge compound panicle with spicate branches bearing 
distant distichous heads, the heads 5 to 1 in. in diameter, supported by hard, shining 
bracts and containing many spikelets; rachis dull greenish-brown, rough, fistular, joints 
flattened on one side. Spikelets dark brown, depressed, blunt, *4 in. long by as much 
