6o 
E. D. MERRILL 
authors under other names, some previous to Blanco, and some at a 
more recent date. In every case I am perfectly confident of the 
correctness of my interpretation of Blanco's species, and accordingly 
have not hesitated to accept his specific names where they prove to 
be valid. The eight species described by Blanco reduce to seven, two 
in the genus Bambusa, one in the genus Gigantochloa, and four in the 
genus Schizostachyum. 
Bambusa Schreber 
Bambusa blumeana Schult. in Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 7^: 1343. 
1830 
Bamhus pungens Blanco Fl. Filip. 270. 1837; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 
i: 331. 1854; Munro, Trans. Linn. Soc. 26: 119. 1868. 
Bamhus arundo Blanco, op. cit., ed. 2, 188, ed. 3. i: 335. 1877, non 
Klein. 
Bambusa arundinacea F.-Vill. Novis. App. 323. 1880, non Retz. 
This species is widely distributed in the Philippines, occurring as 
a planted bamboo throughout the settled areas at low altitudes. It 
is certainly not a native of the Philippines, but a purposely introduced 
species and of prehistoric introduction. It is by far the most valuable 
building bamboo found in the Archipelago, and is very extensively 
utilized in all parts of the Philippines. The species originally described 
by Blanco as Bambusa pungens was changed by him in the second 
edition of his Flora de Filipinas to Bambusa arundo. Bambusa 
arundinacea F.-Vill. is merely a misidentification of B. blumeana, as 
B. arundinacea Retz. does not occur in the Philippines. Bambusa 
blumeana is remarkable for the very dense thicket of stiff, wiry, 
interlaced, much branched, very spiny branches that form an im- 
penetrable thicket about the basal portions of the culms extending 
upward usually to a height of about two meters. Arundarbor spinosa 
Rumph. Herb. Amb. 4: 14. pi. 3 is unquestionably identical with 
Bambusa blumeana, hut Arundo agrestis Lour. Fl. Cochinch. 72. 1790 ( = 
Bambusa agrestis Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 7: 708. 1808) is almost cer- 
tainly a synonym of Bambusa arundinacea Retz. Loureiro cites 
Rumphius's Arundarbor spinosa under his Arundo agrestis, but the 
description is based on actual specimens from Cochinchina. Both 
Bambusa blumeana and B. arundinacea occur in Cochinchina, but 
Loureiro's description applies to the latter better than to the former. 
