88 ANNALS OF THE RQYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
the base decurrent into glabrous, stiff, brown, wavy auricles which do not reach the 
edge of the sheath, narrowed upwards into a sharp point; ligule stiff, black, '3 to “6 
in. broad, serrate on the edge, 2 to 5 in. long. Leaves variable in size, іп young 
shoots they may reach 20 in. long by 4 in. broad, oblong, suddenly acuminate, 
unequal-sided, glabrous above, hairy beneath when young, edges scabrous, point sharp 
twisted; main vein prominent, secondary veins 12 to 16 pairs, furnished with pellucid 
dots, bars having the appearance of transverse veinlets apparent in dry specimens; 
leaf-sheaths striate, glabrous, ending in a callus which is sometimes shining and conspi- 
cuous, mouth produced upwards to meet the ligule; ligule broad, fimbriate, sometimes 
cleft in the middle. Inflorescence a huge panicle with long slender curved branchlets, 
bearing lax heads of few spikelets, sometimes only flower-bearing, sometimes leafy at 
top; heads up to 1 in. in diameter, rachis joints “5 to 1 in. or more, slender, hairy below, 
white-scurfy above, often curved, furrowed оп one side. Spikelets '5 to “б in. long by 
"З in. broad, minutely pubescent, somewhat flattened, ovate, acute, spiny, many-flowered ; 
етріу glumes 1 to 2, ovate, mucronate, striate; flowers 3 to 6, all fertile except the 
last, which consists of an involute, elongate, mucronate glume; flowering glumes thin, 
papery, striate, many-nerved, mucronate, minutely hairy; palee of lower flowers blunt, 
of upper ones acute, bifid at the apex, those of the lower flowers 2-keeled, ciliate 
on the keels, 2- to 3-veined between them, that of the last fertile flower not usually 
keeled, glabrous. Stamens with long filaments; anthers “3 to 4 in. long, acuminate at 
the tip. Ovary ovoid, hairy, style long, hairy, ending in a feathery purple s//gma. 
Caryopsis oblong, about :3 in. long, obtuse, hairy above. Kurz in Ind. Forester i. 346. 
BAMBUSA GIGANTEA, Wall. Cat. Bot. Gard. Cale. p. 79; Voigt Hort. Sub. Calc. 719. 
Malay Peninsula in Penang and northwards to Tenasserim, according to Munro, 
though Kurz doubts it; much cultivated in Burma and in the gardens of Calcutta, 
Madras, Peradeniya in Ceylón, and elsewhere; also in the Palm-house at Kew.  Speci- 
mens were gathered by D. Brandis at Maküm in Assam in 1879 from cultivated plants. 
It was also collected at St. Helena by Mr. D. D. Morris. 
This species is probably the giant of the bamboo tribe, and is at once recognized 
by its size, its characteristic sheaths, and the long whip-like spikes of the panicle, with 
long spikelets, acuminate anthers, and bifid palea. Good pictures of а magnificent speci- 
men in the Royal Botanie Gardens at Peradeniya, Ceylon, with its young shoots 
appeared in the Gardeners Chronicle for 10th September 1892. In Burma it is known 
as ‘ Wabo’ (the * Wa-ya’ referred to this by Munro is, Brandis informs me, D. longispathus, 
Kurz) An aecount of the plantations at Myanoung on the lrawadi is given in Ind. 
Forester ii. 311, where it is said that the plantations have 15 to 20 clumps per acre 
and that good culms fetch Rs. 1-4 each, The Assam паше is Worra. It flowered in 
the Caleutta Botanie Garden in 1860-61 and again in 1888; in Burma in 1892, whence 
it was sent by W. T. McHarg from Tenasserim and by Abdul Нод from the Shan 
Hill; also in 1893 by H. Jackson from the Myelat in the Southern Shan States. 
Ррате No. 76.—Dendrocalamus giganteus, Munro. 1, leaf-branch; 2, leaf from end 
 branchlet or shoots; 3, part of flowering panicle—of natural size ; 4, culm-sheath—reduced ; 
9, spikelet; 6, palea of lower flowers and anthers; 7, palea of upper flower; 8, anther; 
9, ovary and style; 10, caryopsis—enlarged. (Nos. 1 to 4 from а drawing in the 
Herbarium of the late S. Kurz; rest from specimens collected in the Calcutta Royal 
Botanic Garden, 1888.) u 
