INDIAN BAMBUSE.E ; GAMBLE. 119 
thin ring only; internodes smooth, 12 to 20 in. long; walls thin, *2 to 3 in. Culm- 
sheaths yellowish-green when young, yellow when old, brittle, striate, covered with whitish 
appressed hairs, 5 to 6 in. long; 6 in. to 1 ft. broad at base, straight for about 
two-thirds of the way up, then once or twice waved, then cut off straight ог 
concavely below the imperfect blade, the edges produced upwards into rounded, often 
long-fringed auricles; imperfect blade very long, often 1 ft., 1 inch broad at base, 
recurved, subulate, acuminate, the base decurrent in a narrow strip along the top 
of the sheath; Jule very narrow, serrate. eaves from branchlets fascicled at the 
upper nodes of the culm, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, with a long scabrous, penicillate, 
hairy, twisted point; the base rounded and decurrent into a ‘2 to 5 in. 
petiole; 6 to 14 in. long, 1 to 15 and even 3 іп, broad, glabrous above, 
glaucescent beneath, and hairy when young, both edges finely ciliate, but one edgo 
scabrous, not only on the edge, but on the 2 or 3 adjoining nerves; main vein prominent, 
secondary veins 8 to 12, intermediate 5 to 6, inconspicuous, no regular transverse 
veinlets, but regular, rather distant, pellucid glands with bars between veinlets; leaf- 
sheaths glabrous, smooth, ending in a pointed auricle with 10 to 12 or more conspicuous, 
whitish, stiff, deciduous bristles, 4 to “б in. long, margins ciliate; ligule very short. 
Inflorescence & large compound panicle of one-sided, drooping, spicate branches bearing 
clusters of 3 to 4 spikelets in the axils of short, blunt, glabrous bracts. Spikelets 
about “5 in. long, glabrous, spinous; empty glumes 2 to 4, sometimes with abortive | 
buds, striate, lanceolate, shortly mucronate; flowering glume similar, but thinner; 
palea glabrous, convolute, mucronate, acuminate, not keeled. Lodicules 2, narrow, 
linear-oblong, obtuse and erose-fimbriate at the tip, 3- to 5-nerved. Stamens free at 
the base or irregularly joined, filaments flat; anthers yellow, notched at the apex. 
Ovary ovoid, narrowed upwards into an elongated style which is divided into 2 
to 4 hairy, recurved stigmas. Caryopsis very large, often 3 to 5 in. long and 2 to 
3 in, broad, obliquely ovoid, fleshy, the beak curved; pericarp thick, fleshy. Spreng. 
Syst. ii. 113 (1895) (ezeluding syn. Arundo maxima, Lour.); Rupr. Ватб, 65; Steud. 
Syn. 331; Mig. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 423; Munro in Trans. Linn. бос. xxvi, 182; Kurz 
For. Fl. Burma ii. 569. BAMBUSA BACCIFERA, Roxb, Hort. Deng. 25 (1814); богот. РІ. 
ii. 38, & 213 (1819); Fi. ind. ii. 197. BrrsHa RHEEDH, Kunth Not. sur genre 
Bambusa in Journ. de Phys. (1822); Rev. Gram. 1; 141; Enum. 434 (ех. syn) BEEsHA 
BACCIFERA, Sch. Syst. Veg. 1336. NasrUS ВАССІРЕВА, Rasp. in Ann. Se. Nat. L v. 449, 
Throughout Eastern Bengal and Burma from the Garo and Khasia Hills to 
Chittagong and Аттасап, and again in Tenasserim. | 
In parts ofthe above region, and certainly in Chittagong, this is the most common 
species, and the one most universally employed íor building purposes, Owing to its 
habit of sending out long underground rhizomes which give out culms at inter- 
vals, it spreads very rapidly and is extremely difficult to get rid of for cultivation. 
Ruprecht gives it as growing en “dry sandy slopes on the hills of Coromandel,' 
but so far it has not yet been collected on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal. 
This interesting and handsome species is one of the most valuable and important 
of the Indian bamboos. From the Chittagong forests large numbers are yearly export- 
ed to Lower Bengal and, according to forest returns, about 16 millions are thus 
yearly required for building purposes іп the Gangetic Delta. Although thin-walled, it 
is strong and durable, and it has the great advantage of being straight and having 
only very slight knots. It is recorded to have flowered and sceded in 1863 to 1866 
