22 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



203. Uniola mcjcronata, Linn. Sp, Plant. 104. Triti- 

 cum repens, Thwaites En. p. 376, C. P. 924, but not of Linneus. 

 In a letter from the late Gen. Sir William Munro, he told me 

 that the above C. P. No. was not Triticum repens L. The 

 specimens of this grass were found by the late Dr. Gardner ia 

 the north of the Island. 



The following introduced Bamboos, and other grasses, are* 

 given from a list sent to me by Mr. D. Mokris and from 

 his Catalogue of Plants growing in the Royal Botanical 

 Gardens, Peradeniya, pp. 38-9. 



204. Bambusa blumeana, R. and S. Dawson's prickly 

 bamboo. Native of Java, Munro, Mon. 101. 



205. Bambusa arundinacea, Retz. This is called the 

 Calcutta bamboo in Mr, Morris's list. " The largest and most 

 important of our bamboos is found throughout the Madras 

 Presidency, and grows to 80 feet high, with its culms up to six 

 or even eight inches in diameter. It is a most valuable product, 

 and yields a very considerable revenue to the Forest Depart- 

 ment, being in universal use for building purposes, timber 

 rafts, scaffoldings, fencing, trellis-work, furniture, fishing- 

 rods, ladders, mats, baskets, window-blinds, and many other 

 purposes ; and when it seeds the bamboo-rice (as the natives 

 call the seed) feeds thousands of poor people ; the leaves are 

 good fodder, and the young shoots are made into preserves and 

 pickles, and are the most favourite food of elephants. This 

 species is absent from Ceylon, where its place is taken by B. 

 vulgaris."— Beddome's Foresters' Manual, p. 229. Flora Sylva- 

 tica, t. 321. 



" The hard, polished, yellowish, smooth, spinous branches 

 of the panicle, best distinguished this from B. orientalis. I 



