COLONEL MUNRO'S MONOGRAPH OF THE BAMBUSACE^E. 



careful examination, and give much trouble from the time they take to moisten 

 thoroughly. Several spiculoe should be examined, as they often vary much in structure 

 in the same panicle. Sometimes squamula? will be found in the lower flower, and not 

 in the upper, and sometimes this will be reversed. As a rule, the penultimate herma- 

 phrodite flower is the most perfect, and often, in many -flowered spicubr, the only one 

 that produces seed. Abnormal flowers are by no means uncommon occurrences; I have 

 sometimes seen two or three pistils instead of one, and very often I find the points 

 of the anthers becoming gradually prolonged into imperfect styles. 



The spathes or large sheaths which cover the nodes of the lower portions of all Ham- 

 boos, vary much in size and appearance, and will, I think, afford good characters when 

 they are more studied and better known. Dr. Brandis has paid considerable attention to 

 this subject; but these sheaths do not appear, in general, to have attracted the notice of 

 collectors. In the Palm-house at Kew the spathes of Bambusa vulgaris, and of Dendro- 

 calamus giganteus, are in great perfection, and will show at once how greatly these por- 

 tions of the plants differ in various species. Another and very curious, almost unique, 

 feature in several species of Bamboo, principally found in Java and the adjoining islands, 

 may be mentioned. I allude to the fibres which hang down from the lower nodes of 

 the older stems. The lowest of these sometimes enter the ground and become rooted, 

 whilst others become two inches and more in circumference, and are frequently converted 

 into spines, bending downwards, which seem well to deserve the name of " horrid." This 

 is stated to occur most conspicuously in Bambusa maxima, Poir., the flowers of which, 

 unfortunately, are unknown. 



In the description of species I have used the word " rhachilla" to signify the small 

 rhachis or axis of the individual spicula. I will only add that, in every instance where 

 I have had access to a specimen, I have described the species from actual examination 

 by myself; and to all these I have added V. S. When I have not seen a specimen, 

 I have added S. V. (specimen visum) by the author from whom I have taken the 



description. 



The geographical distribution of the Bamboo is very interesting. One species only, 

 under the several names of Bambusa vulgaris, B. Thouarsii, B. surinamensis, and 

 B. Sieberi, is found in both hemispheres ; and I am in considerable doubt as to which it 

 is a native of. I have seen it collected by Wallich in Silhet, by Hooker in Chittagong, 

 but marked by both as cultivated; from Ceylon, apparently wild ; from the Mauritius, I 

 think, cultivated; abundantly from the West Indies naturalized; and, cultivated, from 

 several parts of South America. This is the only thoroughly cosmopolitan species, and 

 is to be seen in great perfection near the centre staircase in the /Palm-house at Kew. 

 The whole of many of the genera of the subtribe Triglosste, namely Arthrostylidium, 

 Merostachys, Aulonemia, Blatonia, and Chusquea, in all containing nearly 50 species, 

 are confined to the Western hemisphere, some of the Chusque<r attaining an elevation 

 of 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea. Phyllostachys and Thamnocalamus are found 

 only in the East ; and the remaining genus Amu din aria is found in both hemispheres, 

 some of the species attaining to great elevations in the Himalayan and adjoining 

 mountains. Arundinaria spathi flora and A. racemosa have been found by Hooker and 



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