19 



3, longer than the style, plumose. Oaryopsis oblong, often shallowly sulcate 

 iu front, shortly exser ted from the glume and palea, free. 



Shrubby. Rhizome hypogaeous, long-creeping, rooting, with many nodes. 

 Culm erect or ascending, terminating the rhizome or branching from it, slender, 

 sheating at first, smooth, fistulose,- with many nodes, branched ; branches one 

 to a node. Leaves broad, often large, sharply pointed, palmately arranged 

 towards the summit of branchlets, persistent, coriaceous or chartaceous, with 

 a short petiole which is articulated with the sheath ; midrib prominent beneath ; 

 veins many ; venules very finely tessellate. Inflorescence loosely racemoso- 

 paniculate ; peduncle lateral, 1 to several or sometimes many to a culm 

 usually exceeding the leaves, erect, sheathing, leafless (but rarely leafy in 

 abnormity). Spicule pedicellate, often tinged with purple. 



We shall now proceed to show how our attempt may be justified. 



External Forms. 



When we compare carefully the floral characters of the above named 

 species with those of Bambusa, as given in Bentham and Hooker's 

 Genera Plantarum Vol. III. or Gamble's Bambusea3 Indicas, we shall soon 

 find differences of no small importance. These species are distinguished 

 from genuine Bambusa especially by the long pedunclcd small inflorescence 

 which is usually loosely pedicellate and recemose or panicled (Fig. 7), and 

 also by the entirely glabrous ovary. The stigmatic lobes are always 3 (Figs. 

 6 and 11). In these points they agree rather with Ai 'undinaria, but differ 

 sharply from it in the number of stamens. Also in the habitus of culms 

 and leaves, these shrubby bamboos deviate considerably from Bambusa, so 

 that the authors who have examined only sterile specimens have referred 

 them frequently to Arundinaria, as may be seen from the list of synonyms 

 given below. Moreover the rhizomes of genuine Bambtcsa-s^ecies have very 

 short thronged internodes and run never horizontally, but often bending 

 themselves upwards. Consequently their aerial shoots form very thick stocks, 

 so that they were called by Riviere " Bambous a touffe cespi tense." But 

 all the indigenous ' Bambusa '-species are provided with very long creeping 

 rhizomes with considerably elongated internodes (Fig. 1), closely resembling 

 those of Arundinaria and Phyllostachys, i.e. " Bambous a touffe tres 



1) A. et C. Riviere, Les Bambous. Vegetation, culture et multi plication. 1878, p, 62, 

 p. 183. 



