3Qg ANNAia OP THE EOYAL BOTAJSIO ffAEDEN. CALCUTTA- [(?. shmeiisis
rightly identified his G. fasoioulatus with Rumphius' Palmijuncus viminalis (Herb. Amb.
V, t. 55, f. 2, A, B) of which he says that the figure agrees pretty well with
this species but not with his description.
In the Palms of British India are quoted by GrrifBth as representations of
C. fasciculatus Roxb. the plates cxcA, f. 2 and cxcv, A and B. The first of
these three plates doubtless reproduces a fruiting spadis of 0. viminalis, as the plate
cxcvB reproduces one of its characteristic leaves. It seems also to me, notwithstanding
the doubts expressed by Griffith, that the poi-tion of spadix accompanying that
leaf belongs to C. mminalis, but not so the plate cxcvA, which has nothing to do
with C. viminalis. Thia plate is one of those reproduced from Roxburgh's drawings, and
it seems to me to represent C. Rotang Roxb. that is C. RoxhurghU Griff.; see observations
on this species,
As C fasciculatus is one of the commonest Rotangs in Cochinchina, it would seem
i-ather strange that Loureiro has not uientioned this species which, however, I have been
unable to recognize in any of the very imperfect diagnoses of that author. In some
characters it would correspond to C. rudenium, but this is described with the stem "nes
niUdm" i.e. wiih opaque surface, while the canes of C. viminalis are shining or
vitreous.
PLATE 57. C. viminalis fasciculatus var. bengalensis. Terminal portion of fi leaf;
two intermediate leaflets; partial infloresccnce with male flowers (on the left side of
the plate) and apes of a fruit spadix (in the upper part of the plate), from
specimens from Dacca collected by C. B. Clarke ^in Herb. Becc.); a spikelet (at ihe
base of the plate) with full-grown fruit; detached seeds (one longitudinally cut)
from Dinapur, (C. B. Claike in Herb. Becc.).
C viminalis fasciculatus var. cochinchinensis. Leaf-she» ths with the base of a
leaf and of a spadix; an intermediate portion of a leaf, a male spikelet and a
spikelet with mature fruit (all of these figures ou the right hand side); from Pierre's
specimens No. 4848 in Herb. Becc.
PiATE 58. C. viminalis fasciculatus var. andamanicus. Portion of the sheathed stem
with the base of the leaves and the first portion of a fiagellum; an intermediate
poriioii of a leaf (from Man's specimens in Herb. Becc.); partial inflorescence with
female flowers, and another inflorescence with mature fruit, detached fruit and seed
(from specimens of the Calcutta Herbarium).
4 5 . CALAMUS : cc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 203.
DESCRIPTION.—Scandent, of moderate size. Sheatlied siem 17 mm. in diam. Leafsheaths
gibbous above, armed with many pale, subulate, laminar, straight or flexuose,
solitary or confluent or obliquely seriate spines, of which the largest are 2-3 cm.
long, but mixed with numerous much smaller ones. Ocrea about 1 cm. long, dry-membranous,
ultimately brittle and deciduous. Leaves not cirriferous; about 1 m. in
length; petiole very short (2-3 cm. long), flat above, armed at the sides with a
few long, flat, straight, horizontal or deflexed spines, and on the roundish back
with many other similar but shorter spines; rachis acutely bifaced and spinulous
above, armed beneath with straight deflexed spines (as much as 15-20 mm. long)
C. siamensis] BECOABI. MONOGRAPH OP THE GENUS CALAMUS 20^
and hooked prickles, which have often a very long point or arc of the usual kind,
chiefly on the terminal portion of the leaf; furthermore the rachis is armed also at
the sides in its lower portion with variable short or long slender spines; leaflets
Tcry numerous (more than 40 on each side), very closely set in one plane (not crossing^
one over the other or pointing different ways), equidistant, 10-15 mm. apart, narrowly
lanceolatc, uni-costabe, with the side nerves rather weak, attenuate towards the base
and rather suddenly acuminate at the apex, opaque on tho upper surface where the
mid-costa is furnished with a few rather strong and rigid spinules, and the sidenerves
are naked ; lower surface paler than the upper one, almost glaucous, with the
not prominent mid-costa and one nerve on each side of it usually but not always
finely spinulo-us; transverse veinlets much interrupted; margins ciliolate serrate with fine
and rather approximate and spreading spinules; the largest leaflets, the mesial, 15-22
cm. long, 12-17 mm. broad, the others slightly smaller and gradually decreasingtowards
the apex'; the two of the terminal pair shorter and narrower, free at the
base. Male spadix Female spadix simply decompound, very similar to
that of 0. fasciculatm ; primary spathes narrow-tubular, very closely sheathing ; the
lowest acutely 2-edged, densely armed with scattered, variable, often short, patent or
slightly deflexed spines; upper primary spathes cylindric, armed rather densely with
scattered aculei, entire, obliquely truncate and acute on one side at the mouth;
partial inflorescences erecto-rigid, 12-25 cm. long with 5-6 distichous spikelets (2-3
cm. apart) on each side ; secondary spathps unarmed, nan-owly tubular-infundibuliform,
obliquely truncate and apiculatc-bubulate at tho mouth on one side; spikelets at first
erecto-patent, later horizontal or deflexed, slightly arched, inserted just above tho mouth
of their respective spathes, slightly callous at their upper axilla, the lower ones thelargest,
8-9 cm. long, composed of about 30 spathels, the upper ones somewhat shorter.
Female flowers numerous, very closely set and very conspicuously 4-seriate, as two flowers
equally developed and fertile are inserted at each spathcl with a sterile flower
between the two; spathels shortly and broadly infundibuliform, rather thin in texture,,
glabrous, very finely striately veined, truncatc at the mouth, often split, prolonged
at one side into a short triangular point; inrolucrophorum small, entirely hidden in
its own spathel at the base of the one above, submembranous, extended right and
left into a triangular, bracteiform, acutely keeled scale; each of these scales embracing
a distinct concave calyculiform involucre, which is flat and two-keeled on the
side of the surfaces in contact: only one of the involucres, the uppermost, bears a
neuter flower which is inserted a little above the two fertile ones. Female ilowers
(when in bud) small, ovate, 2-5 mm. long ; the calyx divided into 3 ovate lobes,
•very finely striately veined outside and thin in texture ; the segments of the corolla
• acute, as long as and slightly narrower than the lobes of the calyx; filaments of
the stamens highly connate at the base, dentiform, broad and short in the free
portion ; anthers sagittate. Ncutei- flowers smaller and more slender than the female
ones, with the corolla twice as long as the calyx, empty anthers, and a smaU
rudimentary ovary. Fruiting perianth explanate, its calyx split down to the base.
Frmt small, spherical, pisiform (about 8 mm. in diam.), very shortly and minutely»
apiculato ; scales channelled along the middle, in 15 series, light-coloured, shining
•with a whitish scarious marginal line and finely erosely toothed margin, often with
a reddish point. Seed very small, globular, deeply and irregularly grooved on the
dorsal face.
AMN. ROT. BOT. SARD. CALCUTTA VOL, X I .