£44 ANNALS OF THE BORAL BOTANIC GAEDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. luridus»
hairy-penicillate at its apex; male and female spikelets the same, attached just at
•the mouth of their own spathe, alightly callous at the axilla, spreading, arched
rathec slender; tho largest simple spikelets, the lowest, 5-7 cm. long -with 12-15
Sowers on each side, tho upper ones shorter; tho branchlcfcs 8—10 cm. long with
2—4 spikelets on each side and a larger terminal one; spathels short, very broadly
infundibuliform, much narrowed to the base, strongly striately veined, sprinkled with
very small deciduous silvery scales, sometimes . subscabrid, truncate and entire at the
mouth, prolonged at one side iuto a triangular, acute, patent or deflexed point; iiivolucrophoruni
propped by its owa spathel and attached at the base of that above its
own, slightly concave, irregular, scale-like, lobate; involucre also slightly concave,
irregular and more or less lobate, strongly veined areola of the neuter flower
rather large, spongy, callous in the centre with acute and irregular borders. Jiale
Jloivcrs oblong, obtuse, 4'5 mm. long; the calyx with a short and broad tube,
•callous at the base, very strongly striately veined; its teeth acute, short and
broad; corolla twice as long as the calyx. Female flowers broadly ovoid, with an
almost flat and callous base and a conic point; the calyx as in the male flowers;
the corolla slightly longer than the calyx. Fruiting perianth shortly pedicelliform.
Fruit broadly obovoid, very suddenly and distinctly beaked, 11 ram. long, 8 mm.
broad when not quite mature; scales in 15—16 series, light greenish brown,
faintly channelled along the middle, with pale scarious erosely toothed margin.
Seed with equable albumen.
HABITAT.—The Malayan Peninsula, in the district of Perak, Scortechini; at
L&rut, Eing'& collector, Nos. 2647, 628i, 6400; on the summit of Gunong Malakka,
Herb. C'alc. No. 7203. A very incomplete specimen collected by Bidley in the wild
part of the Botanic Garden of Singapore apparently belongs to C. luridus.
OBSERVATIONS,—The flowering spadix which I have described is one of Seortechini's
from Perak, and this is more robust than those of other collectors; it is
fiupradecompound and bears male flowers on the terminal spikelets and on some of
those of the branchlets; otherwise, the greatest number of its flowers are female.
Perhaps in more delicate specimens the female spadix is not always supradecompound,
but even in the partial inflorescence with fruit represented in our plate the
lowest spikelets appear branched near their base. I have not seen spadicea with
male flowers only.
C. luridus seems allied to C. Reinwardtii from which it is distinguished by its
not very numerous,' rather remote, equidistant, ensiform, distinctly and acutely
tricoBtate leaflets, the cost® being almost of the same strength, bristly-spinulous above
•and smooth beneath. I am unable to establish if the supradecompound and
monoecious spadices are a constant charactor of this species.
PLATE 80.—Calamus Imidus Becc. Summit of a leaf (upper surfacej and leaf-sheath
with the base of a spadix and of a leaf, from No. 2647 in Herb. Calc.; partial
inflorescence with almost ripe fruit, from No. 6284 in Herb. Calc.; portion of a
monoecious spadix in flower and an intermediate portion of a leaf (lower surface),
from Scortechini's specimen in Herb. Becc.
C. sabensis.'] BECCARI. MONOGEAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. 245
65. CALAMUS SABENSIS Becc. sp. n.
DESCRIPTION.—Slender, scandent. Sheathed siem about 15 mm. in diam. Leafthtathi
gibbous above, armed (in the small portion seen by me) with scattered horizontal
spines. Leaves apparently about 60 cm. long (not seen entire by roe), petiole very
short (about 2 cm. long in one specimen), with short prickles all round; rachis armed
beneath in its flrsc 2)ortion with very small black-tipped scattered claws; leaflets very
few, remote, inequidistant, lanceolate, almost equally gradually narrowed to both ends,
acute at the base, acuminate at the summit, 30-32 cm. long, 28-34 mm. broad,
rather firmly papyraceous, concolorous, glabrous, spineless and without bristles on both
surfaces, distinctly 3- and near the base 5-costulate; transverse veinlets much interrupted
and numerous, rather sharp on the npper surface; margins minutely and
appressedly spiuulous. Male spadiz Female spadix simply decompound,
slender, very elongate, flagelliform, with very remote partial inflorescences; upper
primary spathes cylindraceous, very elongate, very densely armed in their upper part
with very small scattered deflexed prickles, truncate at the mouth, where prolonged
at ono side into a short triangular point, slightly and gradually narrowed to the
base into a flat and slender, dorsally prickly axial part; partial infloroscences
inserted nt the mouth of their respective apathes with a distinct axillary callus and
rima, very elongate and slender, 85 cm. long in one specimen, with 17 (in all)
remotely alternate spikelets; secondary spathes 4-5 cm, long, narrowly tubular,
Bubclavate or very slightly enlarged above, narrowed to the baso where flat with acute
margin on tlie inner side, truncate and ciliate at the mouth, very shortly prolonged
at one side into a broadly triangular point, with very few and very small hooked
prickles here and thei-e, but especially near the summit; spikelets spreading, inserted
at the mouth of their respective spathes with a distinct axillary callus; the lower ones
the largest, 5-5'5 cm. long with 15-16 flatly bifarious flowers on each side, the
upper ones not much shorter; spathels very shortly and broadly unilaterally infundibuliform
or concave, subcymbiform, prolonged at one side into a triangular acute
tip, finely veined, sometimes subscabrid; involucrophoruin almost exsert from its own
spathel and laterally attached to the base of tho one above; involucre cupular, almost
entire or bidentate on the side of the neuter flower, of which the areola is very
conspicuous, subcircular, often concave, with very acute borders. Female flowers small,
about 3 mm. long; tho calyx divided down to about the middle into 3 triangular
acute teeth; r,he segments of the corolla narrower than the teeth of the calyx and
slightly longer. Iruiting perianth distinctly pedicelliform. Fruit ovoid-elliptic, 12 mm.
long, including the perianth and tho beak, 8 mm. broad; scales in 18 longitudinal
series, not channelled along the middle, brownish, rather dull with a narrow very
dark shining marginal line; this broader towards the slightly prolonged and rather
acute point. Seed oblong, coarsely and deeply pitted ; albumen with a superficial
intrusion of the integument; embryo basal.—The leaves acquire a tobacco-brown
colour in herbariinn specimens.
HABITAT.-North Borneo or Saba: Bongaya River in Labuk bay, Ridlei/ December
1897, No. 9038 in Herb. Kew.
ÜB8ESVATIOK8.—It resembles C. scalridulus a good deal and, following the natural
•affinities, it ought to be placed next to it, but the secondary spathes are not scabrid.