Eragrostis.] 
GRAMINEiE. 
457 
* Briza minor , Linn. ; Kunth, Enum. i. 372, a grass widely-spread 
through the southern half of Europe and now naturalised at the Cape 
and in South America, has been gathered in Mauritius by Bojer 
and Dr. Ayres on hills of the Pouce range near Moka. It is a 
tufted erect annual, a foot bigh, glabrous in all its parts, with linear 
leaves and a very compound panicle 3-4 in. long with slender ascending 
branches, capillary pedicels, deltoid spikelets ± in. broad and long, with 
very obtuse many-nerved deeply boat-shaped flowering glumes much 
imbricated and spreading from the rachis almost horizontally. 
Of the Bamboos none are native within the limits of our flora, but 
three of the tropical Asiatic species are now naturalised in Mauritius 
viz. : — 
* Rambusa arundinacea, Betz. ; Boxb. Cor. PI. t. 79 ; Munro in Trans. 
Linn. Soc. xxvi. 103. Spinose, with stems 20-50 feet high, leaves 
glabrous lanceolate \-l ft. long, panicle with very long distant 
branches, spikelets few together in distant clusters lanceolate J-l in. 
long, acute flowering glumes and a linear-oblong grain. Rambou. 
* Dendrocalamus strictus, Nees ; Munro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 
147, (Bambusa stricta, Boxb. ; Bojer , Sort. Maur. 377). Stems 10-100 
feet high spinose or unarmed, leaves lanceolate rough-pubescent, 
spikelets 50-100 or more in dense globes 1-1£ in. in diam., flowering 
glume spiny at the tip, fruit ovoid baccate beaked ^ in. in diam. 
Rambou gaulette. 
* Melanocanna bambusoides, Trin. ; Munro in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 
132. Stems 50 feet long unarmed branched at the top only, leaves 
lanceolate acuminate glabrous |-1 ft. long, spikelets lanceolate 3-4 
together in close unilateral clusters enveloped each in a large coriaceous 
bract, flowering glume acute but not spine-tipped, fruit fleshy globose 
3-5 in. in diameter. 
24. ROTTBOELLIA, Linn. 
Spikelets arranged in the hollows of a terete jointed simple rachis, 
compressed from the back, in pairs, one abortive, the other consisting 
of one hermaphrodite and one imperfect flower. Empty glumes similar 
in size and shape, but the outer one coriaceous and many-ribbed and 
the inner one membranous. Flowering glume and pale similar to one 
another in shape and both membranous. Hypogynous scales 2. 
Stamens 3. Stigmas plumose, protruded from the side of the spikelet. 
Grain free. — Tall, much-branched erect grasses, with flat rather firm 
leaves and distant simple spikes. Distrib. Tropics of both hemi- 
spheres. Species 20. 
1. R. exaltata, Linn.fil . ; Kunth , Emm. i. 466. An erect annual 
3-4 feet high. Stems stout, with numerous erect branches. Sheaths 
3-5 in. long, loosely hairy on the outside ; blade above a foot long, 
