2 



MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



[VOL. 10 



Arthrostylidium schomburgkii (Bennett) Munro. 



Arundinaria schomburgkii Bennett in E. H. Schomburgk, Trans. Linn. Soc. 18: 562. 1841. 



Weak-stemmed clump bamboo; mature culms 40-50 feet long, first internode commonly 

 10-15 feet long, usually 5-8 culms per clump ; locally abundant in cloud forest on upper talus, 

 northeast face of Cerro Marahuaea, alt. 1500-1800 m., 3 May 1949, Amazonas, Venezuela, 

 Bassett Maguire 4' Bassett Maguire, Jr. 29162. 



It appears, from the records at present available (Jour. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 50: 

 164. 1949), that the Magnires were the first to collect flowering material of this 

 interesting bamboo since the discovery and collection of the plant by Robert H. 

 Schomburgk on his last expedition to Guiana, 120 years ago. 



The formal Latin description by which Bennett (1. c.) established the name 

 of the plant is extremely short, but it is preceded by a very full enumeration of 

 technical characteristics recorded by Schomburgk (Trans. Linn. Soc. 18: 559, 

 560. 1841) which served, in part at least, as the basis of the Latin diagnosis with 

 which Munro (Trans. Linn. Soc. 26: 41. 42. 1868) accompanied his transfer of 

 the specific name of the plant from Arundinaria to Arthrostylidium. The follow- 

 ing details in Schomburgk 's account, omitted from Munro 's treatment, are 

 deemed worthy of repetition here: "The Maiongcong and Guinau Indians, 

 whom the Spaniards called Maquiritares, conducted us to that part of Mara- 

 wacca (a high mountain which terminates in an almost perpendicular wall of 

 sandstone) where the plant grows. It is a day's journey from a Maiongcong 

 settlement on the river Cuyaca, from whence the hospitable and good-natured 

 savages showed us the beaten track. After having ascended Mount Marawaeca, 

 to about 3500 feet above the Indian village, the traveller follows a small 

 mountain-stream, on the banks of which the Cur as or Cur at as, as the Indians 

 call these reeds, grow in dense tufts. They form generally clusters of from 

 fifty to one hundred," which are pushed forth, as in many other species of 

 that tribe, by a strong, jointed subterranean rootstock." 



The disproportionate elongation of the first internode of the culms, gen- 

 erally assumed to be peculiar to this bamboo, occurs also in a number of other 

 species of this and other Western Hemisphere bamboo genera. Another notable 

 feature of this plant, shown by both the herbarium specimens and examples of 

 the blowguns brought back by the Magnires, is the occurrence, immediately 

 above the long first internode, of two nodes without an intervening internode, 

 the consecutive sheath scars being only about 10 mm distant from each other. 

 The formation of culm sheaths and of branch complements at such congested 

 nodes is distichous, and normal in other respects as well. The congestion of nodes 

 (suppression of internodes) in conjunction with elongated internodes occurs 

 also in a number of other species of diverse bamboo genera of the Western 

 Hemisphere, but apparently it has not hitherto been referred to in published 

 accounts pertaining to this group of plants. 



3 Collector's note: This passage quoted from Schomburgk 's writings casts some doubt that 

 the report is from first-hand observation. Bather the remarks suggest (as does a water color 

 sketch on deposit at the British' Museum) that Schomburgk actually did not see Arthrosty- 

 lidium [Arundinaria] schomburgkii growing, but that he wrote from hearsay evidence. Ac- 

 tually, this interesting bamboo grows as a weak undercover plant, requiring the support of 

 upper story trees, on precipitous talus at the base of the Marahuaea escarpment (alt. 5500 

 feet), exhibiting a striking habit in a most restricted and restrictive habitat. Seldom do 

 clumps, even in largest plants, comprise as many as ten culms. Most frequently the number 

 of stems is from five to eight. B. M. 



