314 Graminecz. \Bambusa. 



ov. oval-oblong, tip hairy, style short; grain ■§—§■ in., oblong, 

 beaked by the style-base, smooth, grooved on one face. 



Warmer parts of the Island; common on river banks. Flowers at 

 about thirty years of age (Brandis in 'Indian Forester,' January 1899). 



Plains and lower hills of India and Burma, indigenous or cultivated. 

 Cult, in most tropical countries. 



One of the most useful Bamboos for constructive purposes. The 

 seeds are eaten by the Sinhalese. 



2. B. vulgaris, Schrad. in Wendl. Collect. PL ii. 26. Una, S. 



Trim. Syst. Cat. no. R. Thouarsii, Kunth ; Thw. Enum. 375. 

 B. arundinacea, Moon, Cat. 26. Gamble, Bamb. Brit. Ind. 43. C. P. 

 3252. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 391. Wendl. I.e. t. 47. Gamble, 1. c. t. 39. 



Stems rather distant, 20-50 ft. by 2-4 in. diam., polished, 

 green or striped with yellow, early branching, nodes hardly 

 raised, girt with a ring of hairs, intern odes 10-18 in., walls 

 rather thin, stem-sheaths 6-10 by 7-9 in., top rounded, retuse, 

 thickly appressed- hairy, margins ciliate, often streaked like 

 the stem, blade 2-6 by 3-4 in., subtriangular, acute, appressed- 

 hairy on both surfaces, base decurrent, ending in 2 rounded 

 falcate auricles fringed with flexuous bristles, margins revo- 

 lute, ligule \-\ in. broad, toothed or fimbriate; 1. 6-10 by 

 f-if in., linear-lanceolate, tip slender, twisted, scabrid, 

 glabrous or young hairy beneath, pale green, base rounded 

 or narrowed, margin and adjacent veins scabrid, midrib 

 narrow, pale, veins 6-8 with 8-9 intermediates connected 

 by pellucid gland, 1. -sheaths striate, laxly hairy, ending in a 

 smooth ciliate callus and rounded auricle with a few bristles, 

 ligule short, ciliolate; infl. a leafy compound panicle bearing 

 numerous slender rhachides with bracteate clusters of 3-10 

 suberect spikelets, rhachis terete or sub-furrowed, scurfy, tip 

 hairy ; spikelets to~t^ in - l° n g> oblong, acute, compressed, bifid, 

 6-10-fld., and a terminal imperfect, rhachilla cuneate, glabrous ; 

 empty glumes 1 or 2, ovate, acute, tip ciliate, many-veined, 

 fig. glumes larger, palea obtusely acute, faintly 3-veined, 

 keels 2, white, ciliate; lodicules 3, ciliate, two ovate-oblong, 

 elongate, 3-veined, one longer, acute; stam. exserted, anth. 

 narrow, obtuse, purple, apiculate, tip hairy ; ov. narrowly 

 oblong, hairy, narrowed into the long slender hairy style, 

 stigmas 3, short, plumose ; grain unknown. 



Southern and Central Provinces, up to 2000 ft. elevation (Thwaites). 

 Fl. rarely produced. 



Most warm countries, cultivated or naturalised. 



Thwaites treats B. vulgaris as a native of Ceylon, and Kurz regarded 

 it as indigenous in Java ; but Gamble, the highest authority, describes it 

 as not indigenous in India (including Ceylon) or elsewhere, so far as is 

 known. The stems are extensively used for constructive purposes. 



