96 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
2.keeled. Lodicules large, 3 to 5, persistent. Stamens 6, anthers apiculate. Ovary glabrous, 
style rigid, long, stigmas 2. — Caryopsis glabrous, depressed-globose, supported by the 
persistent glumes, palea and lodicules; pericarp crustaceous, separable from the seed. 
Distrib.— One species. 
‚1. PSEUDOSTACHYUM POLYMORPHUM, Munro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 142, 2, 4. 
А large shrub or semi-arborescent bamboo with culms arising singly from a long, 
creeping, jointed rhizome. Culms tall, branching at the top only, up to 50 ft. in height 
and often supported by adjoining trees, and so appearing scandent; nodes hardly swollen; 
internodes 7 to 12 in., glaucous at first, afterwards green, whitish below the nodes, 
sometimes dark red shading into bright green, smooth below, somewhat scabrous 
above, 1 in. in diameter, walls very thin, hardly :2 in. Culm-sheaths shorter than the 
internodes, loose, triangular-truncate in outline, very shortly auricled with a tuft of stiff 
bristles, covered outside with appressed dark brown hairs; imperfect blade very long- 
acuminate on young shoots, shorter and triangular on older ones, the base equal to the 
horizontally-cut truncate top of the sheath, striate and with tranverse veinlets; ligule 
short, slightly dentate. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, unequal at the base and narrowed into 
a rather long, *3 to 5 in., thick petiole; above ending in a long twisted scabrous point; 
4 to 14 in. long, 1 to 2 in. broad; smooth on both sides, scabrous on one edge; 
main vein pale, conspicuous; secondary veins 7 to 11, conspicuous; intermediate 5 to 6; 
transverse veinlets many, oblique; Jleafsheaths faintly white-pubescent when young, 
afterwards glabrous, striate, the mouth ending in a few stiff deciduous cilie ; ligule short. 
Inflorescence a large leafy panicle, with many branches from the joints, much divided; 
the rachis curved, wiry, angled, spikelets solitary in the axils of narrow bracts. Spikelets 
small, 2 in. long, with 1 fertile flower and a terminal produced rachilla bearing glumes, 
or an incomplete flower; empty glume 1, broad, mucronate, usually 7-nerved; flowering 
glume similar to empty glume, finely ciliate above; palea thin, much convolute, 2-keeled, 
ciliate on the keels; lodicules 3 to 5, usually 4, large, acute, rounded or truncate at the 
apex, ciliate, persistent in the fruit. Stamens free, filaments short, anthers apiculate. Ovary 
narrow, linear-oblong, ending in a long rigid style, with 2 short hairy stigmas. Cary- 
opsis globose-depressed, surmounted by the base of the style and supported by the 
persistent glumes, palea and lodicules; pericarp crustaceous, separable. (The flower-bear- 
ing inflorescence is more often replaced by a large panicle of diseased flowers, in 
which the spikelets are converted into rounded softly hairy masses.) 
Eastern Himalaya, Assam and Upper Burma; ascending in the hills to 5, 000 feet, 
but most common in valleys in moist places under the shade of large trees; from the 
Darjeeling Terai eastwards through the Garo Hills and along the Assam Valley to 
Manipur and on to Bhamo. Collected in Sikkim by Hooker, Thomson, Kurz, Т. Anderson, 
G. King, G. A. Gammie and myself; and in Assam by Masters, Jenkins, Brandis, G. Mann 
and others; ік Manipur by C. B. Clarke, and near Bhamo by W. T. McHarg. The 
only specimens I have seen with perfect flowers are those of Thomson collected in 
1857 and referred to and described by Munro; and of G. A. Gammie, collected in 
1891. All the rest consist of the diseased state of the inflorescence (see fig. 3). 
This very pretty bamboo is easily recognized by its very thin culms, its triangular 
sheaths, and the peculiar and very common diseased inflorescence. It is a valuable kind, 
for in Sikkim it is considered the best sort for making the basket-work used by the 
