Melocanna.) GRAMINE#. 1237 
1124. Melocanna Trin. 
Trees, unarmed; stems solitary, distant on the branches of the 
rootstock; stem-sheaths short, brittle, shortly auricled; blade 
very long; leaves broad, petioled, smooth. Spikelets 2-3, fascicled 
in bracts in the axils of 1-seriate spikes, arranged in a large, com- 
pound panicle, acuminate, with 1 fertile and 1 or more sterile 
flowers. Empty glumes indefinite, acuminate, mucronate, striate; 
Jlowerin ng glumes eRe re si ike its glume, convolute, not 
keeled; lodicules on stamens 5-7, free or irregularly 
connate ; ovary a ; gh elongate; stigmas 2-4, shortly 
hairy, Fruit very large, pyriform, long beake a bie a very thick 
pericarp ; seed with large embryo and no oe 
2741. Mrnocanna BAMBUSOIDES Trin. ; pike ea 8 a Vil, 417 5 Had, 
M, 425. Bambusa baecifera F. I. ii. 197. 
a 
eve bamboo; stems discrete, solitary on 
haus “ok ‘he Fotalock., 50-70 feet high. Beng. Muli 
metunga, bish. 
B—CRYPTOGAMIA. 
VIL—FILICES. 
Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees; stock short or long, erect or 
creeping, often scaly; fronds simple or variously, often much, 
lobed or cut ; in bud usually se very rarely erect. Sporangia 
I-celled, usually membranous and dorsal, rarely marginal, sur- 
rounded by a complete or incomplete jointed elastic ring, some- 
times with the ring confined to the apex of the capsule so as to 
form a longitu dinally striated crown, opening vertically; rarely 
the ring obsolete or absent; the sporangia clustered in sori of 
defined but varied form with or without a covering indusium ; 
occasionally the ARES spicate or paniculate, rarely lax! 
Scattered ; sometimes the sporangia sunk in a many-celled, fleshy 
or corky receptacle of variable form, opening by pores or clefts on 
— upper surface. Spores minute, variable in form, all of one 
ind. 
