398 CLXXiii. GRAMiNE^. (SamhusecB, Gamble.) {Thyrsostachys. 



4-5 in., margins recurved ; ligule narrow, glabrous, ciliate. ieoues 3-6 by 4-i in., 

 glabrous or young pnberulous, tips short twisted, costs narrow, nerves 3-5 pairs ; 

 sheath white pubescent and ciliate, truncate, callus glabrous ; ligule short, ciliate. 

 Panicle graceful, pale ; branchlets many, thin, bearing bracteate clusters of few- 

 fertile spikelets mixed with sterile j bracts cymbiform, glabrous, tip truncate ; rachis 

 fine, wiry, curved, smooth, clavate. Spikelets whitish. Palea of upper fl. gl. 

 longer than the gl., not keeled, concave, striate, glabrous, 2-mucronate, narrowed 

 into a beak. Lodicules 0. Ovary at first ovoid, then depressed, flattened ; style 

 glabrous. 



136. GXGANTOCHZiOA, Rurz. 



Arborescent or scandent. Stems unbranched below. Sfem-sheafhs 

 usually stiff, bairy above, auricled. Leaves long. Panicle oompocnd, 

 branches long spiciform, bearing heads of few usually fertile and sterile 

 spikelets. Empty gU. 2-3; fl. gls. similar. Palea of all the fl. 2-keeled, 

 keels ciliate. Lodicules 1-3 or 0. Stamens 6, filaments connate into a 

 abort thick at length elongate membranous tube. Ooary hairy, stigmas 

 1-3 hairy. Orain usually oblong or linear and furrowed, pericarp 

 membranous. Species about H, chiefly Malayan. 



* Spikelets oblong or ovoid, rounded, or flattened in Q. Scorteehinii. 



1. G. verticillata, Munro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. (1868) 124 ; 

 spikelets 2-4-fld. xo~t% ^^- ovate subacute glabrous, empty gls. 2-3 

 broadly ovate ciliolate, flg. gls. 3-4 similar many-nerved mucronate. 

 Oamhle Bamh. Brit. Ind. 61, t. 52. Gr. maxima, Kurz in Tidschr. Ned. 

 Ind. xxvii. (1864) 226, Ind. Forester, i. 343. Bambusa verticillata, Willd. 

 Sp. PI. ii. 245. B. paeudarundinacea, Steud. Syn. Gram,. 330. 



Malay Peninstjia, wild and cultivated. — Distbib. Malay Archipelago. 



Stems tufted, 80-100 ft., 4-5 in. diain., young striped yellow, mealy and with 

 appressed brown deciduous bristles ; old gray-green ; nodes hairy, not prominent ; 

 internodes 18 in., walls rather thin. 8tem-sheaihs 12 in. long, as broad or broader, 

 rounded to the month with rounded ciliate auricles, clothed without with golden 

 brown hairs, glabrous and shining within ; blade short, recurved, ovate, acuminate, 

 narrowly decurrent ; ligule narrow. Leaves 10-15 by 1^-2J, base narrowed, top 

 setaceous twisted scabrid, young hairy beneath, nerves 8-12 ; sheath truncate, young 

 hairy, callus narrow, auricle short glabrous; ligule minute. Sachis and branch- 

 lets glabrous, smooth, slender. Palea of flg. gl. shorter than the gl. sometimes 

 2-mucronate, B-5-nerved, ciliate on and between the keels. Lodicules variable. 

 Anthers yellow. Ovary suborbicular, very hairy ; style pubescent, stigmas 2-3. 



2. Cr. Scorteehinii, Gamble Bamh. Brit. Ind. 62, t. 53 ; spikelets 

 trimorphous larger fertile, medium rigid, small sterile, fertile spikelet 

 ■^-Yo i'^' 0'^3'te acute flattened densely clothed with silvery grey hairs, 

 empty gls. 2-3 ovate mucronate, fl. gls. longer. 



Malax PENiNStrLA, Scortechim, &c., alt. 400-600 ft. 



Gregarious, forming forests. Stems 40-80 ft., 4-6 in. diam. Leaves lineir- 

 lanceolate, 12-16 by l-lj in., often unequal sided, base narrowed, tip acuminate 

 twisted scabrid, softly hairy beneath, tessellate by pellucid glands ; sheath densely 

 pubescent, callus pubescent; auricle small, rounded, fringed with bristles; ligule 

 short, hairy. Panicle compound, of curved spiciform branchlets bearing whorls of 

 distichous heads 1-2 in. apart. Spikelets 2-5 fertile in each head mixed with sterile, 

 rachia pubescent j uppermost flg. gl. convolute ; palea shorter than the gl., 6-nerved 



