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side of the midrib, 3 to 3 1/2 inches long, one-third to one-half inch 
wide, glossy and shiny on the upper side, grayish or glaucous beneath; 
petiole short, base rounded, apex gradually tapering, often sharply 
acuminate; leaf sheaths dry, coriaceous, persistent, smooth, brownish, 
and frequently covered with faint smoky dark spots; mouth of leaf sheath 
not hairy; rhizomes slender, many jointed, pale yellow and extensively 
creeping. 
Young culm sheaths on emerging from the ground are of a beautiful 
purplish color. At first the shoots are completely covered by the pur- 
plish, many-striped, culm sheaths. These clasp the culm firmly and are 
smooth except along the edges where they are clothed with very fine 
glistening hairs. The culm sheath is tipped with a long narrow tapering 
purplish appendix or pseudophyll, at the base of which are two winglike 
attachments, the auricles, tipped with several long tentacle-like purple 
hairs. The purplish ligule firmly clasps the sheath above it and is short 
with a wavy margin. When the culms get about 2 1/2 feet high the sheaths 
are no longer present so that the joints below as they emerge from the 
ground are smooth, green and shiny. 
The bamboo we have carried in our records as No. 23234 differs from the 
last in several ways. It does not agree with any descriptions available but 
as it has not flowered here it seems inadvisable to give it a specific status. 
We have therefore called it Phyllostaehys Rom. and append the following description: 
23234. PHYLLOSTACHYS SP. 
From eastern China. Received through Frank N. Meyer, Agricultural 
Explorer , June , 1908 . 
Culms straight, firm and tough, moderately thick walled, 8 to 15 feet 
high, greenish yellow, often marked with dark smoky blotches; nodes promi- 
nent, slightly fistulous, differing in this respect from Phyllostaehys nevinii, 
surrounded by a narrow, grayish black band; internodes short, 4 to 6 
inches long, flattened on alternate sides with a ridge running through 
the flattened portion; branches numerous, clothing the culms from top to 
bottom, proceeding from the nodes in pairs, nearly of the same length, 
therein again differing from P. nevinii, which has one branch smaller than • 
its twin; branches rigid and tough, flattened between the joints; branch- 
lets slender, wiry, usually a single one from each joint; leaves usually 
in threes, sometimes in fours, narrow, 3 to 4 inches long; midrib promi- 
nent, usually with 5 or 6 pairs of secondary nerves which show prominent- 
ly on both upper and lower surfaces, dark green with little difference 
in color between upper and lower surfaces; leaf sheaths persistent, green- 
ish, smooth, mouth covered with downy hairs; ligule downy, firmly clasp- 
ing the sheath, upper margin wavy; auricles small; culm sheaths greenish' 
yellow sometimes tinged with pink, thin, firmly clasping the culm, smooth, 
faintly veined, tipped with a narrow pseudophyll varying in length from 
1 to 4 inches; throat of sheath smooth, ligules short, blunt, smooth. 
The young culms with their clasping sheaths are quite different from 
