128 Bulletin VII. 1. 



Tribe XIII. BAMBUSE^. 



Spikelets two- to many-flowered, (rarely only one-flowered) in 

 racemes or panicles. Empty glumes at the base of the spikelet 

 two to several; flowering- glumes many-nerved, awnless or very 

 rarely short-awned. Culms woody, at least near the base, and 

 perennial; leaf-blade usually with a short petiole, articulated with 

 the sheaths from which it finally separates. 



A comparatively small tribe of twenty-three genera and about 

 one hundred and eighty-five species. The species are confined 

 chiefly to the regions within the tropics. Many of them are of very 

 great importance to the natives of the countries where they grow, 

 and manufactured articles of bamboo, either for use or for orna- 

 ment, are now a part of the commerce of the world. The bamboos 

 are remarkable for their woody stems and often arborescent or 

 tree-like habit, some of the species being seventy-five to ninety feet 

 high. In parts of India they form extensive forests. One species 

 in this tribe has leaves four to fifteen feet long, by three to nine 

 inches wide; another, a Cuban species, has leaves two to three 

 inches long and as fine as a horse-hair. Fleshy and edible apple- 

 like fruits are found in this tribe. 



65. ARUNDINARIA Michx. Flor. Bor. Amer. i: 73 (1803). 



Spikelets two- to many-flowered, large, laterally compressed, in 

 racemes or panicles; the rachilla articulated above the empty 

 glumes and between the florets; flowers hermaphrodite or the 

 upper imperfect. Lower empty glumes unequal, the first some- 

 times wanting; flowering glumes longer than the empty ones, 

 keeled, many-nerved, acute or mucronate-pointed. Paleas as long 

 as the glumes, prominently two-keeled. Lodicules three. Sta- 

 mens three. Styles two or three; stigmas plumose. Grain oval 

 or narrowly oblong, furrowed. 



Tree-like or shrubby grasses, with perennial, simple or branched 

 culms and flat leaves, which are shortly petiolate and articulated 

 with the sheath. 



Species about twenty, natives of Asia and America, two in the 

 southern United States. Several eastern species have been intro- 

 duced into gardens and cultivated for ornament. 



I. Arundinariagigantea Chapm. {A. 7nacrosperi?ia Michx.) Cane. 



Plate XL VII. Figure 186. 



Culms perennial, fifteen to thirty-five feet high, with hirsute 

 nodes, and numerous, usually fasciculate, flower-bearing branches. 

 Sheaths shorter than the internodes, striate; ligule one to three 

 lines long, lacerate-fimbriate; leaf-blades lanceolate, one to two 

 inches wide, surfaces scabrous or pubescent beneath, margins ser- 

 rulate. Panicles lateral, composed of a few simple racemes. Spike- 



