NOTES ON GRASSES GROWING IN CEYLON. 



23 



presume that this is the species referred to at p. 4, as having 

 in 1864 furnished, during one of its periodical flowerings, 

 food to upwards of 50,000 persons in Canara." — Munro, Mon. 

 p. 104. This bamboo is well known to die down when it 

 flowers. Its seeds are in size and appearance very like grains 

 -of oats. I have several plants of this bamboo growing in the 

 Circular Walk, Colombo, from seed introduced by Mr. A. M. 

 Ferguson from Southern India. He also freely distributed 

 seed to various parts of the interior, where it seems to grow 

 well. 



206. Bambdsa orientalis, Wees. Sub-solid bamboo, 

 Found at Quilon and on the Nilgiris. 



207. Bambusa Rtjmphiana, Kurz. Large-leaved bam- 

 boo. Java. I have seen no description of this bamboo. 



208. Dendrocalamus strictus, Nees. Bambusa stricta, 

 Rox. Fl. Ind. 2, 193. " This is the male bamboo, with nearly 

 solid stems, and much in use for spear-shafts, building pur- 

 poses, and many other uses ; it is very general throughout the 

 Madras Presidency on the dry slopes of the mountains up to 

 3,000 feet elevation, and is common in Bombay, Bengal, and 

 Burmah, but absent from Ceylon (except in a cultivated state), 

 and it extends to Singapore and Java. It flowers frequently, 

 I believe every year, and does not die down after flowering. "r— 

 Bedd. 1. c. p. 235, Fl. Syl. t. 325. The plants in the Circular 

 Walk, raised from seed received from Mr. Robert Dawson, as 

 those of the " male bamboo" grow in very dense entangled 

 masses, with spreading, somewhat drooping, graceful branches, 

 which are decidedly thorny, and otherwise do not agree with the 

 description given, by Beddome— viz., " Culms unarmed, ar- 

 boreous up to 40-50 feet high." 



209. Dendrocalamus giganteus, Munro, Mon. p, 150. 

 Giant bamboo. Native of Pulo Penang and Tenasserim. A 

 few plants of this bamboo grow in Colombo and elsewhere in 



