INDIAN ВАМВОЗЕЖ; GAMBLE. 123 
palea; 9, lodieules; 10, anther; ll, ovary; 19, caryopsis—en/arged (All from Beddome's 
specimens). 
2. OcHLANDRA sTRIDULA, Thwaites Enum. Plant. Zeyl. 370.: 
А close-growing gregarious shrub. Culms erect, 6 to 18 ft. high, about 5 to 7 
in. in diameter, light green; nodes slightly marked by а ring, geniculate; internodes 12 
to 14 in. long, with persistent sheaths, scabrous.  Culm-«heaths cylindrie, glabrous, purple 
when young, rounded at top and furnished on either side with small falcate auricles 
set with stiff white bristles; imperfect blade subulate, recurved, in small new shoots very 
long ; ligule short. Leaves broad, oblong-lanceolate, 8 to 12 in. long by 15 to 25 im. 
broad; rounded at the base into а short broad petiole; ending above in a long, 
setaceous, scabrous point; smooth above, except near the margins, somewhat rough 
beneath; scabrous on one edge, edges somewhat cartilaginous and reflexed; main 
vein thin, secondary veins 10 to 12 pair, intermediate about 7, transverse veinlets 
none, but many pellucid glands having the appearance of oblique transverse veinlets 
on the under surface; leaf-sheaths striate, smooth when old, hirsute when young, ciliate 
at the edges, ending in a narrow callus and produced beyond the insertion of the 
petiole into round faleate auricles tipped with long, stiff, deciduous bristles; ligule 
narrow, glabrous. Inflorescence а laxly spicate terminal panicle, usually a leaf-bearing 
branchlet, the spikelets verticillate, few fertile, many sterile; rachis long, in joints, 
rough, glaucous above the joints. Spikelets 1 in. long, 2 in. broad, cylindro-conical, 
with few scattered stiff hairs, one fertile flower; empty glumes 9 to 3, 2 to "5 im. 
long by as much broad, convolute, mucronate, ciliate on the edges; Jlowering glume 
similar but larger; palea membranaceous, truncate, not keeled, '8 in. long, many- 
veined p with transverse veinlets.  Lodicules 6 to 12 or more, lanceolate, various 
in breadth and with 1, 3, 5 or more veins (even 13 occur), convolute, appressed to 
the filaments, afterwards persistent around the fruit. S/amens very many, often 80; 
filaments free, flat, wavy in the upper half; anthers finally exserted, “д in. long, 
bifid at the apex and mucronate. Ovary narrow, smooth, the beak of the perigynium 
produced into a trigonous point enclosing the style, which is surmounted by 4 to 5 
short plumose stigmas, at first twisted. Caryopsis ovoid, about 1 in. long, surmounted 
by: а long 1 in. beak, smooth or wrinkled, supported by the persistent glumes, palea 
and lodicules. BEESHA srRIDULA, Munro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi 145; Beddome Flora 
3 lv. 
idt Е very common іп the low country in the south of the island. ; 
This species is said by Dr. H. Trimen to flower annually and regularly, Thwaites 
says it is very abundant in Suffragam district, that: the leaves | nm excellent 
thatch, and that it is called Вайа gass. lt is the C.P. No. 241. Trimen 8 specimens 
are from Deyandera; and in the Journal of Botany, 1885, he gives the name as 
Rana batali, and says that the species “covers hundreds of square miles of country in 
“the south and west of Ceylon.” А 
| Piare No. 109.—Ochlandra stridula, Thwaites. 1, leaf- and flower-branch; 2, 
léaf-branch with sterile spikelets—of natural size ; 3, base of leaf and leaf-sheath—enlarged; 
4, young shoot with culm sheaths—of natural size; 5, apex of culm-sheath (under-surface) ; 
6, spikelet; 7, spikelet and stamens; 8 & 9, empty glumes; 10, уа т Ж, l 
palea; 12, lodicule; 13, ovary; style and stigma with stamens and appressed lodicules; 
Any. Roy. Bor. Garp. Carcurra, Vor. VII. 
