Dendrocalamus.] LXXVIII. GEAMINE^. 569 



4. DENDROCALAMUS, Nees. 



Characters those of Bamhusa, several species (Z>. stricius, D. HooTceri) 

 are known to flower annually. Scales none. Ovary hirsute : style long, 

 filiform, undivided, or 2-3-fid at the apex, base persistent. Cairopsis 

 with a thick pericarp, narrowed into the persistent base of the style ; posi- 

 tion of the embryo generally not conspicuous on the surface. 



Spikelets linear-lanceolate, spinescent . . . 1. Z). stridas. 

 Spikelets cuneate, soft-membranous ... 2*. D. Hamiltonii. 



1. D. strictus, ISTees.— Tab. LXX.— Munro 1. c. 147; Bedd. Fl. 

 Sylv. t. 325.— Syn. Bambma striata, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 193, not Cor. PI. 

 t. 80, which is Oxytenanthera Thioaitesii, Munro, a Bamboo of Ceylon, 

 the Nilgiris, and Shevaroy hills— Munro 1. c. 129. Male. Bamboo. Vern. 

 Bans, North India. Myinwa, Burma. Bds, Udha, Bombay. 



A middle-sized, generally deciduous Bamboo, stems with small cavity, 

 or entirely solid, closely packed in dense clumps, the lower part of stem 

 often variously bent, with fasciculate, stiff, horizontal, generally leafless 

 branches, the upper part spreading out in aU directions, often curved 

 downwards, or nearly horizontal, with fasciculate slender flexuose solid 

 branches, the leaves on fasciculate branchlets enclosed in coriaceous 

 shining persistent sheaths ; joints 12-18 in. long, 1-3 in. diam. Sheaths 

 of young shoots shorter than joints, glabrous, shining outside, tapering 

 into a triangular apex. Leaves distichous, hairy beneath, rough ■ and 

 often hairy above, exceedingly variable in size, generally middle-sized, 

 3-9 in. long, :|-1 in. broad, with 6 pairs of secondary nerves, and no 

 transverse veins. Flowers annually, 1 or a few stems of each clump 

 only producing flowers, often mixed with leaf-bearing branches. Spike- 

 lets spinescent, haity, forming, with a number of sterile spikelets, dense 

 globose spiny heads arranged in long interrupted spikes, joints between 

 the flower-heads about 1 in. long. Empty glumes 2-6, flowering glumes 

 2-3, generally 2, spinescent, hairy. Palea of lower flower 2-keeled, keels 

 pilose, of upper flower convex, not keeled, 8-nerved. Ovary stipitate, 

 hairy, style long filiform. Caryopsis brown, shining, ovoid, J in. long, 

 narrowed into the persistent hairy style, pericarp (perigynium, Munro) 

 coriaceous, separable from the seed, narrowed into the hairy persistent 

 base of style. 



Widely spread, and very common throughout India and Burma, up to the 

 borders of the arid tract. On the Aravalli hills, where I found it wild near Tod- 

 garh in Mairwara. In the Panjab only in the sub-Himalayan tract, locally in a 

 few places, and on the east side of the Salt range ; not in Sindh. Not in Ceylon, 

 but in Java. Ascends to 3000 ft. in the Peninsula, and to 3500 ft. in the outer 

 N.W. Himalaya. In the Panjab it is common near the Sutlej, forms two forests 

 of importance on the left hank of the Bias, several smaU tracts on the Chenab, 

 and covers a considerable area west of the Jhelam, north of Eawulpindi. Gene- 

 rally gregarious, forming extensive forests on dry hot stony hills. The young 

 foliage, which appears m May, is bright green, the old leaves get yellow and 

 fall during winter, except on moist ground, where this Bamboo remains green 



