NOTES ON GRASESS GROWING IN CEYLON. 



21 



" Roxburgh's drawing in the ' Plants of the Coast of Coro- 

 mandel' was undoubtedly taken from a plant of this species ; 

 but the description, with which the drawing does not agree, 

 was probably written at a later date, and is very nearly in the 

 same words as those used in the 4 Flora Indica,' ii. 193, for 

 the real Dendrocaiamus strictus. I have been unwilling to 

 change Thwaites's specific name for this plant ; but as the 

 whole genus have monadelphous stamens, it was no longer a 

 distinctive one, and I have therefore named it after the 

 excellent Botanist who first described the plant correctly." — 

 Munro. 1. c. 130. I found this bamboo in abundant flower 

 many years ago in the jungle above Maussakelle, in the 

 Kelebokka district. This and the Male Bamboo have a great 

 resemblance to each other when in flower. 



202. Beesha strldula, Munro, 1. c. 145. Ochlandra stri- 

 dula, Thwaites 1. c. 376 ; C. P. 241. Bambusa stridula, Moon, 

 Cat. 26 (1824.) 



This is one of the most abundant and most useful plants 

 in very large tracts of the Western and Southern Provinces of 

 Ceylon, from the coast up to a considerable elevation. It is 

 the well-known Bata-lee of the Sinhalese, and any one having 

 occasion to walk through jungles of it will soon understand the 

 meaning of Moon's specific name ; the prostrate culms on 

 which travellers or elephants tread, split with a peculiar 

 " crackling " sound, and it is most difficult to get through it 

 without thus warning game of the hunter's approach. Its 

 culms are from 6 to 18 feet high, and are used very extensively 

 for making fences, &c, split up for tats, and for the roofs 

 of temporary huts, the leaves being used extensively for thatch- 

 ing the same. Vast jungles of this small bamboo extend 

 from Colombo in the direction of Hanvvella, Avisawella, and 

 Rat napura, and inland from Kalutara. It is now in flower,— 

 March, 1880. 



