636 
CXIIl. GRAMINEiE 
joints near the base, occasionally solid or with only a small cavity : 
joints swollen, bearing stiff, shining, papery, very deciduous, stem- 
sheaths, 3-12 in. long, narrowed upwards to a rounded top, blade 
triangular, ligule short, narrow ; branches clustered, horizontal or 
curving downwards. Leaves not net-veined, narrowly lanceolate, 
1-2 in. in dry localities, up to 10 in. in moist, \-2 in. broad, finely 
pointed, abruptly constricted at the base ; upper surface rough, 
lower softly hairy ; sheaths hairy, mouth bristly. Ligule narrow, 
toothed. Spikelets spinous, J-| in. (fertile and smaller sterile 
ones intermixed), 2-3-flowered, crowded in large, globose, sessile 
heads disposed at intervals along the branches of a panicle. 
Glumes boat-shaped, hairy near the tip. Empty glumes 2, some- 
times more, acute. Flowering glumes spine -tipped. Stamens 6, 
far-protruding. Style single or branching near the feathery tip, 
thread-like, very long. Grain free within the persistent glumes, 
ovoid, hairy, beaked with the persistent style-base. 
Sutlej valley, &c. — Throughout India, on dry hills, ascending to 3500 ft. 
Usually known as the Male Bamboo. Flowers gregariously at intervals of 
several years, but a clump may here and there be found in flower during the 
cold season of almost any year. Native name Bans or Bans hdban. Highly 
valued for building purposes, lance -shafts, sticks, mat and basket manufacture. 
D. Hamiltonii, Nees & Am. ; FI. Br. Ind. vii. 405. — A common bamboo 
in the E. Himalaya and Assam and sometimes cultivated near villages in the 
lower hills. It has broader leaves than I), strictus, and the globose heads of 
purple spikelets are not spinous. 
