1382 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



(Gond) ; Mulkas, kanka, bonga, veduru, bonga-veduru, pente- 

 veduru (Mad. Tel.); Bidungulu (Kan.). 



Habitat: — Throughout the plains and low hills of India, 

 wild and cultivated. 



Stems many, tufted on a stout rootstock, branching from 

 the base, upto 80-100ft. high by 6-7in. diam., graceful curving 

 nodes^prominent, lowest rooting, lower emitting, horizontal 

 almost "naked shoots armed at the notes with 2-3 stout recurved 

 spines, sometimes an inch and more long, internodes upto 18in., 

 walls l-2in., thick stem, sheaths coriaceous, variable in shapes 

 upto 12-15 by 9-12in., striate, tip-rounded, margins plaited 

 young, orange-yellow streaked on the green or red and thickly 

 ciliate with golden hairs, blade upto 4in., triangular, acumi- 

 nate glabrous without densely heriate within, margins decurrent 

 thickly ciliate, ligule narrow, entire or fringed with pale hairs ; 

 leaves upto 7-8 by lin , linear or linear lanceolate, tip stiff, glab- 

 rous or puberulous beneath one or both margins scabrous, base 

 rounded ciliate mid-rib narrow, veins 4-6 with 7-9 intermediate 

 and a few transverse pellucid glands ; leaf sheath ending in a 

 thick callus, and short briskly auricle, ligule short ; inflores- 

 cence an enormous panicle often occupying the whole stem, 

 branchlets bearing loose clusters of pales, suberect J-l by Jin. 

 lanceolate acute, glabrous spikelets glumes J-Jin. long, ovate 

 lanceolate acute or mucronate many veined empty 2 or ; 

 flowering 3-7, uppermost 1-3 ; male or neuter, paled sub-acute ; 

 keels 2 ciliate, lodicules ovate or obovate hyaline ciliate 1-3 

 veined ; filaments slender, anthers obtuse yellow ; ovary oval- 

 oblong tip, hairy, style short grain |-^in. oblong beaked by the 

 style base-smooth, grooved in one face. (Trimen.) 



Flowers at about 30 years of age, (Brandis.) 30-40, says 

 Kanjilal. 



Uses : — In addition to the many important uses to which the 

 bamboo is applied in tropical life, it forms by no means an 

 insignificant article of the Indian Materia Medica. Its supposed 

 virtues are set forth at length in the Taleef Shereef (art. Bans, 



