2 0 6 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GAEDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. UIMINAHS
The male spadix of C. viminalis may be considered simply decompound like the
female one, if we consider the partial inflorescences as bearing simple spikeleta
charged with a glomorule of flowers at each spathel ; but if we consider these
glomerules as true abbreviate spikelets, as sometimes they really are, then the
male spadix must be called ultradecorapound.
CALAMUS VIMINALIS rar. FASCICULATUS Becc. in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 444
and in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 203.
C. fasciculatus Roxb. Fl. lud. iii, 779 (excl. Tsjeru-UjureU Rheede) ; Kunth.
Enum. PI. iii, 208; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 209 ^Ist edit.), 210
(2nd edit.) and 338, pi. 116 I iv; Walp. Ann. iii, 488 and v, 831;
Griff, in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist, v, 52 and Palms Brit. Ind. 62, pi.
cxcA.. II and pi. cxcvB fexcl. pi. cxcvA which belongs to C. Rotang) ;
Miqnel Fl. Ind. Bafc. iii, 127 and De Palmis 27; Teysm. Cat. Hort.
Bogor., 75 ; Kurz in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xliii, II, 1874, 210, pL
xxviiB and For. Fl. Brit. Burma, ii, 517; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb.
423; Drude in Bot. Zeit. 1877, 635, pi. v, f. 1-2 (the ovary only).
C. extensus (not of Roxb.) Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 210 partly, 1st. edit., pL
116, f. iv, 1 (referred by Martiua himself 1. c. p. 210, 2nd edit, to
C. fasciculatus).
C. fsmdo-Rotang Mart. Hist. Nat. Pahn iii, 209 (1st. edit.) pi. 116, f. vi
(see Mart. 1. c. p. 210, 2nd edit.); Griff, in Calc. Journ. v, 42 and
Palms Brit. India, 53; Kunth. Enum. pi. iii, p. 207.
DESCRIPTION.—No special characters distinguish the Javan form of C. viminalis
from the VAR. fascxculatus, which name I have assigned to all extra-Javan forms of
C. viminalis; these forms however never are perfectly like each other when the
specimens come from different and remote localities. In the following notes I have
registered what I have found more worthy of observation regarding them.
Subvar. BENGAL5N8I8. Leasts very distinctly fascicled, usually very narrowly
lanceolate, almost equally attenuate at both ends, very variable in size, some of
them 2 cm, long and To cm. broad, others 12 em. long and 2 cm. broad,
alwavs densely spinulous at the margins and on the mid-costa above, but naked on
the latter beneath, sometimes however not only the mid-costa, hut one nerve on
each side of it is also spinulose underneath. The fascicles are usually composed of
2 - 3 and sometimes of 4-6 leaflets on each side and are often alternate with a
aolitary leaflet interposed; all point different ways. At the apex of tlie leaf very
few leaflets are regularly approximate and in one plane; the lowest primary
spathes are 2-keeled and armed on the margins with straight horizontal spines; the
upper primary spathes tubular-cylindrical, clawed mainly on the back; tho largest
firuiting spikelets of the largest partial inflorescences 10-12 cm. long. Fmii
(mature) globose or slightly turbinate, about 8 mm. in diam., distinctly beaked j
scales in 16-18 series, shining straw-coloured or dirty-yellowish not or slightly and
incompletely bordered with a narrow darker line and not produced into a point,
f a i n t ly channelled along the middle, narrow, margins pale, scarious, finely erose.
Seed about 6 mm. in breadth.—Frequently the ovaries are transformed into emaE
elongate galls.
. BECCABI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GEN0S CALAMUS. 20T:
0. viminalis]
. Subvar. PINANGIANUS.—The specimens from Pulo Penang (Wallicb No. 8611),.
seem to have been gathered from plants more robust than those of Bengal. Thar
largest primary male spikelets attain 20 cm. in length, end bear secondary
ficorpioid spikelets with as many as 8 flowers on each side. LeajleU (largest) 30
cm. by 25-28 mm.; their mid-costa with some almost spinescent bristles near the
base above, and bristly beneath; one nerve on each side of the mid-costa spinulous
on both surfaces.
Subvar. ANDAMANICUS.—Robust (like SUBVAR. pinangianus) ; sheatlied stem 2-5-3 cm.
i n diam. Leaf-sheaths sparingly armed. Leaflets as in SUBVAR. pinangianus, but
sometimes with the secondary nerves more strongly spinulous on the upper surface.
Fruit spheric, 8-5-9 mm. in diam., the scales in 20 series, straw-coloured with
brown tip.-I have also observed this last character in the specimens of Wallich
No. 8608 from Moulmein, described by Martius as C. pseudo-Rotang.
Subvar. coCHts-CHiNENSis.—Lcaf-sheatiis densely armed. Leaves and arrangement of
the leaflets as in SUBVAR. hengalensis. Fruit a little larger in this and more
exactly globose; fruiting spikelets as much as 20 cm. long.—In the specimens from
Cochin-China as in those from Bengal many of the ovaries are transformed into
galls as figured by Kurz (Jor. Fl. Brit. Burma pi. xxviiB), but a little shorter.
HABITAT.—The subvariety lengalensis is common in Bengal near Calcutta in
bamboo jungle and at Cuttack, Griffith; at Dacca, Hooker ^ Thomson in Herb. Kew
and C. B. Clarke in Herb. Becc. ; at Chittagong and Rauipore Hooker ^ Thomson in
Herb. Kew; at Orissa on the banks of Wandrapara, Gamlle; at Dowlutgunje,
Dinapur, Clarice. There does not seem to be any essential difference between the
Bengal specimens and some collected by Gamble in the Province of Madras at
Valmara, Rumpa (650 m. elev.) in the district of Godavari and on the Palkanda
Hills (300 met.). It is also common in Burma from Ava to Tenasserim, Kurz at
Moulmein, Wallich No. 8608 in H. Kew.; at Rangoon, McClelland in H. Kew.;
Tavoy, t^haik Mokim in Herb. Calo.
The subvariety pinangianus occurs at Pulo Penang, Wallich No. 8611.
The subvariety andamanicus occurs in the Andamans. Kurz, Liehig in Herb.
Calc; E. H. Man. in Herb. Beccari.)
The subvariety cochinchinensis seems common in lower Cochin-China, where it has
been collected by Pierre (No. 4848) on the mountains Kuang Repen in the
Province Ipong; at Songlu in the Province Bien-hoa and on the mountains Dày
in the Province Chandoc.
According to Roxburgh the Sanskrit name o£ C. fasciculatus is Umba-vetus and
t h e Hindustani and Bengalese " Bura B e t . " Gamble gives the names of " B a r a Bet" in
the Bengali and of " Kyeiiig Kha " in the Burmese languages.
Pierre (MSS.) gives the following Cochinchinese names:—"May c a t " (Annamite);
« S i n l a t " (Moi); " Padao Kree " (Kmer). The Rotang is much used in India, as it
is in Coehin-China.
OBSERVATIONS.—I have not been able to discover any specific character to distinguish
C. fascieulatus lloxb. from C. viminalis Willd. Roxburgh himself (1. c. p. 779)