268 ANKALS OF THE BOYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CAXCÜTTA. [C. ralumensis.
infundibuliform, membranous, looselj sheathing, unarmed, or sprinkled with very
small tuberculiform prickles, exsuccous in their upper part, obliquely truncate at the
mouth and prolonged at one side into a broad triangular acute point; tertiary spathes
like the secondary ones but usually not decayed near the mouth; apikolets flexuous,
brittle (when di-y), slender, the largest 5-6 cm. long, with 20-22 flowers on each
side; spathels broadly asymmetrically infundibuliform, truncate at the mouth, acute
at one side, very finely striately veined; involucre dimidiately cupular or like a
swallow's nest, obliquely truncate, acutely bidentate, two-koeled and with the margin
deeply excavate on the side nest to the axis. Male Jlowcrs ovate (when young),
their calyx finely and sharply striately veined. Female spadix very elongate,
flagelliform, terminating m a rather long filiform fla^ellum * this rather
densely armed with scattered or more or less aggregate claws; primary spathes
tubular, elongate, closely sheathiug, greenish (when dry), longitudinally striately
veined, lacerate-fibrous at the mouth ; the lowest slightly flattened, unarmed :
the intermediate ones cylindraceous, more or less aculoolate on the back of their upper
p a r t : the upper ones more densely aculoolate, often split on the ventral side; partial
inflorescences few and rather remote, arising erect from inside their spathe and
terminating in a very small {about 1 cm. long) caudiculura ; the lowest, the largest,
30-40 cm. long, with 8-9 spikelets on each side; secondary spathes tubular-infundibuliform,
closely sheathing, entire and truncate at the mouth, prolonged at one side
into a broad triangular point, more or loss armed on the back with very small scattered
iubtubcrculiform prickles; spikelets elongate, vermicular, inserted above the mouth of
their own spsthe with a distinct axillary callus and a transversal rima, very patent,
horizontal or arched-subdeflexed : the largest, the lowest, up to 15 em. long, with about
20 flowers on each side; those near the summit one-half or two-thirds shorter; spathels
subcylindi'aceous-infundibuliform, truncate horizontally at the mouth, apiculate at one
side, finely striately veined; involucrophorum attached to the base of the spathel above
its own, irregularly cupular, more or less acutely bidentate on the side next to the axisinvolucre
more regularly cupular than the involucrophorum and enclosed in this, with
unequal margin; areola of the neuter flower distinctly lunate. Female flowers conic,
3-3-5 mm. long ; the calyx callous at the base, strongly veined, with 3 short acute
connivent teeth; the corolla as long as the calyx, with ovate-lanceolate concave acute
segments. Fruiting perianth very shortly pedicelliform. Friiit sphaeric (when ripe), about
1 cm. in diam. (ovoid when immature), minutely apiculate; scales in 15 aeries
strongly convex and faintly channel led along the middle, of one colour, lighc-yellow
with very narrow scarious margin and rather obtuse tip. Seed globular, 5-6 mm. in
diam., coarsely tubercled and irregularly grooved ; chalazal fovea in the centre of the
raphal side, shallow and indistinct; albumen equable; embryo basal.
HABITAT.—German New-Guinea, where it seems common. I have seen specimens
from Kaiser Wilhelmsland, Gogol River, Lauterbach No. 905, Î plant, and No. 866, g
plant in Herb. Berol.; Bismarck-Ebene, in the forest at 150 m. above the sea, Lauterbach
No. 281i in Herb. Berol. ; Ramu River, Tappenheck No. 65 in Herb. Berol.; Bismarck
Archipelago, Lauterbach No. 242, Warburg, Dahl, in Herb. Berol.
OBSERVATIONS.—C. ralumensis is closely related to C. vestitus Becc., from which
It differs in the different armature of the leaf-sheaths and in the ocrea, which ia
G. macrochlamys.l BECCAEI. MONOG-SAPH OF THE GEKUS CALAMUS, 259
chartaceous and not reduced to filaments, and in the larger leaflets. It is also allied
to C. macrochlamt/s, but this has lanceolate and distinctly grouped leaflets.
I t is a somewhat variable plant. Number 242 of Lauterbach has the upper and
very young part of the sheathed stem 14 cm. in diam., furfuraceous and armed
•with a few small spines; its flagella have the first spathe almost unarmed ; the ocrea
is 13 cm. long and is furnished with some very slender spiculae, which perhaps disappear
with age. Another specimen of a leaf from a sterile and probably young plant,
collected by Dahl at Ralum (Herb. Berol.) which I consider also as belonging to
C. ralumensis, has a portion of a sheath armed more than usual with short scattered
horizontal spines and the leaves with a petiole which is 45 cm. long, roundish,
slightly channelled above, and rather strongly armed with short spines, and the leaflets
Bubequidistant; another specimen of the same gathering has also some short spines on
the sheaths, and the leaf with a petiole 15 cm. long, flattish above and round beneath,
where armed only along the middle with light-coloured claws ; the leaflets are more
or less distinctly grouped, with vacant spaces 6-7 cm. in length, but otherwise not
differing from those described above. C. longipinna seems to me nothing more than
t h e male plant of C. ralumensis.
PIATE 89.—Calamus ralumensis Warh. An entire partial male inflorescence with
very young flowers from the lower portion of the spadix; the eunimit of a leaf
from underueath; an intermediate portion of the same leaf from above.—From tha
type-specimen of C. longipinna, Laut. and K. Sch. in Herb. Berol.
PLATE 90.—Calamus ralumensis Warb, Terminal portion of a plant with an entire
ocrea and the base of a leaf, intermediate portion of a female spadix in flower,
from Lauterbach No. 242, Ralum in New Pommerania in Herb. Berol.; intermediate
portion of a leaf from underneath and terminal portion of a female spadix with
young flowers, from a specimen of Warburg in Herb. Berol.
74. CALAMUS MACSOCHLAMYS Becc.
C. Eollrungii (not of Becc.) K. Schum. & Laut. Fl. Deutschen Schutzg, in^
der Siidsee, p. 203.
DESCRIPTION.—Apparently scandent and of moderate size. Sheathed stem about-
2 cm. in diam. Leaf-sheaths (ia the small portion seen by me) unarmed, strongly
gibbous above. Ocrea extraordinarily large, auriculiform, recalling the cars of the ass,
up to 35 cm. long, enfolding the younger part of the stem, covered with fuscousfurfuraceous
scurf, chartaceous, exsuccous, rigid, later split longitudinally on the outer
side, not dissolving into fibres, furnished mainly near its margins with very small
confluent spinules (which are disposed in oblique lines) or with small raised approximate
very finely spinuliferous crests. Leaf-sheath flagella almost unamed and somewhat
flattened in their lower portion. Leaves rather short (about 90 cm. long), not cirriferous;
petiole rather short (11-12 cm. long), almost biconvex, unarmed and with
rather obtuse margins; rachis smooth and acutely bifaced above from its base, very
densely armed beneath with numerous solitary not large dark-tipped claws; leaflets
not numerous, very conspicuously approximate into 4 opposite bundles of from two to
foui- pairs each, with vacant spaces 12-20 cm. in length between each bundle; the
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