66 INDIAN FOREST MEMOIRS. 



these plants belong to the same species. Saccharum arundinaceum is a native of the 

 Evergreen Zone of India characterised by a rainfall exceeding 70 in., but it is not infre- 

 quently cultivated in gardens throughout India. The type of Retzius was probably a culti- 

 vated plant and he notes (I.e.) that it is " colitur juxta sepes et ad stagnorum margines prope 

 Tranquebar." It is indigenous in Bengal, Assam, and Burma, and extends to China. As 

 regards the specific value of Saccharum arundinaceum and Saccharum Munja respectively, 

 and as indicating that these plants are not cecological forms of the same species which owe 

 their peculiarities to variations in the available water supply, it is interesting to note that 

 the rainfall of Dehra Dun is 80 in., that Saccharum arundinaceum grows well there in 

 gardens not liberally supplied with water but is not found wild in the locality, that on the 

 other hand Saccharum Munja is indigenous and very common in the locality but that 

 although the latter has been found in habitats with great differences in the available mois- 

 ture supply and on soil varying from practically waterless sand to moist loam (which 

 results in a variation of the leaf-width of this plant from 0-13 in. to 1-0 in.) no indication 

 has been found of a tendency in Saccharum Munja to assume the characteristics of Sac- 

 charum arundinaceum. 



As regards Saccharum ciliare Anderss. there is no doubt that this includes the plants 

 described by Roxburgh as Saccharum Sara and Saccharum Munja. 1 



Roxburgh's drawing of Saccharum Sara at Calcutta represents a plant with an un- 

 usually dense, compact fruiting panicle. The density of the panicle however in this genus 

 is in itself not a character of specific importance and has been found to vary in one and the 

 same undoubted species. It depends largely on the age of the panicle and the way in which 

 it has dried or matured. There is moreover no authentic specimen of this plant named by 

 Roxburgh. There is a sheet from Roxburgh's collection in the British Museum which has 

 been named Saccharum Sara in pencil, probably by Solander, and this is typical Saccharum 

 Munja Roxb. On the other hand the name Saccharum Munja is supported not only by the 

 description in Flora Indica and by an excellent drawing, but also by a specimen in the 

 British Museum named by Roxburgh. Hackel (I.e., p. 119) gives Andersson's name pre- 

 cedence over the Saccharum Munja of Roxburgh on the ground that the description of the 

 latter plant as having a " two-valved corol " necessarily implies the absence of the pale. 



It has however been shown on p. 53 above that this inference is not justified. The 

 type also has been examined by the writer and there is no doubt that the pale is present both 

 in the sessile and pedicelled spikelets. Hence the name Saccharum Munja Roxb. must 

 stand and it is believed that Indian botanists will appreciate the restoration of this well- 

 known and appropriate name. In his Saccharum ciliare Hackel includes a plant which he 

 describes as variety Grijfithii and which is characterised by having glume II of the sessile 

 spikelet dorsally villous and not glabrous as in Saccharum Munja proper. In the Flora of 

 British India (p. 122) a new species is established under the name of Erianthus Griffithii 



1 Flora Indica, Ed. Carey, 1832, pp. 244, 46. 



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