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INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
now available for the study of Calami, it will be realized that, very often, oven
the most essential characters of a species have been dei-ived from small portions
of a single plant, which have accordingly had to he described with ^reat precision
because we cannot predict which of those characters are oor-siant and wliich are
variable. The fiagmentary state of herbarium specimens of Calaimts is, moreover,
often a great hindrance iu the grouping of species according to their natural
afSnities, and this task has more tlian once to be accomplished by the author as
the result of a jnental reconstruction of the entire plant from the few fragments that
are available to him for study.
The incompleteness of the specimens of Calami, the difference between the
male and female S2)adices, or between the flowers and the fruit, and in particular
the not infrequent fact that the spadices in herbaria are not from the same plant
as the aesociated leaves, have led even the most experienced botanists to propose a
few non-existent species: nor am I certain that the present work is entirely free
from the same blemish.
Il.—Spinosity.
The nature of the spinosity on the diSerent organs of the Calami is of great
diagnostic importance. We kQOw of no quite spineless Calamus and even
C. Meymianut, which usually has unarmed leaf-sheaths and leaves, now and then
bears a few prickles on the spadices.
In every case the spinosity of Cahmiis is due to an hypertrophic growth of
the peripheral tissues of the plant. I know of only one exception to this rule, in
C. javenais vab. acicularis (Pl4TE 4]), which bears on the petiolar part of the leaf
a few spioescent organs analogous to the long hooks that occur on the prolongation
of the leaf rachis in the African palms of the genera Ancistjophyllum and
Eremospatha and in the American genus Desmoncus. The spinescent books which,
provide the Palms of the genera mentioned with the means of cliaibing are
obviously quite different as regards origin from the hooked thorns of a Calamus,
and are no more than transformed and abortive leaflets; of this nature also I
take the spines at the base of the petiole of C. jivensis var. acicularis to be.
Tlie spines of Calamus are to be differentiated into those that serve for
defence and those that help the plant to climb. Spiucs of the former category are
long and straight, and it is to indicate these that in the descriptions of species I
have restricted the proper name of "spines." They are essentially organs of defence,
to be found especially on the leaf-sheaths, at the bases of the petioles, and
sometimes also on the leaf-rachis 'and on the primary spathes. When these true
straiglit spines are shorter and broad-based they are more particularly termed
"prickles" Spines of rery small size, or "spinules," are besides produced on the
main nerves or "costa?" of the leaflets and on their margins; from these we pass
gradually to rigid or criniform "hairs" and to "bristles."
The spines which subserve the function of fixing the plant to adjacent trees,
and BO enabling it to chmb, are short with a broad base, and have a cuiTed very
sharp tip so chat they resemble the hooked nails of a cat; these in the descriptive
portion are especially termed "claws." There are, however, numerous transitions
between the two principal sorts of spines. In the non-seandent species true claws
are very scarce, very imperfect, or wholly absent.
Calamus Oxleyamis is the only species known to me which is provided with a
long and powerfully clawed cirrus at the extremity of the leaf, but nevertheless
appears to be a non-scandent Palm. With this solitary exception, which (see observations
on C. OxUyanus) is perhaps not absolute, the non-scandent species of Calamus are
almost exclusively armed with straight spines. 0. erectus, for example, is densely beset
with long laminar spines on the leaf-sheaths, on the petiole and leaf-rachis and
spathes, and only bears some small rudimentary claws on the tail-like appendix at
the summit of the spadices.
The spines which defend the leaf-sheaths are usually laminar, flat, elastic, more
or less elongated, very sharp, often smooth and shining, light-coloured, brown or
almost black or of the colour of the surface of the sheaths, solitary or scattered,
or more or less confluent by their bases and seriate, or even disposed in annular
horizontal or oblique rings or whorls; the spines near the mouth of the sheaths are
often longer and more slender than the others.
Frequently with the larger spines are intermingled smaller ones or even snmU
wart-like pungent tubercles. In some species [C. platyacanthui, C. ornatus, C. palustris,
etc.), the spines have a very broad base which is concave beneath and swollen above,
where it is sharply sepai-ated by a definite line or nai-row furrow from the laminar
acuminate point. Sometimes in place of spines the sheaths bear brittle rigid
criniform bristles, as iu C. Muellerii, or small rigid hairs seated on a bulbous base,
as in the species of the group of C. ciliaris\ in these the hairs are usually deciduous
with age or at a ccrtain time separate from their bulbous permaneat bases; these
latter render scabrid the surface of the parts on which they are situated. In one
variety of C. tenuis the bases of the spines are unusually extended laterally, while
the points remain atrophied; and, as a few of these spines are aligned close together,
their bases remain in contact right and left so as to form continuous, slightly raised,
mere or less oblique submembranous ridges across the sheaths. ID C. corrugatus the
surface of tlie sheaths is rendered uneven by the presence of merely annular raised
wrinkles. Some spines when young have their margins fringed with a furfuraceous
scurf.
Very rarely the spines of sheaths are curved or hooked, and I recollect only C.
javcnsis vae. teniiissimtis as a form in which they have a tendency to become so.
The spines on the petioles, especially those near their base or along their margins,
as well as those that sometimes occur on the first or basilar spathe or on the rachis
o£ certain leaves are usually less laminar, thicker and stronger than those of the leafehcaths.
Very peculiar are the spines of C. tomentosiis, which consist of small black points
rising from the centre of small mamillate swellings or tuberclcs. Very curious too
are the si^ines of the leaf-sheaths of G. radulosus and C. spathulatusy which instead
of being, as is usually the case with the spines of leaf-sheaths, horizontal or
deflexcd, are ascending, semiconic, short, thick, fiat beneath and have a distinct
.axillary swelling at the base in their upper part.