2 7 0 ANNALS OP THE HOYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [(J. ROFANG.
horizontal or slightly ascendent, scattered, solitary spines which have a light base (this,
being tumescent abore and hollowed beneath) and a blackish point; some of the
spines are 10-15 mm. long, whereas others are very small and tuberculiform, sometimes
a few near the mouth are erect and longer than the others. Leaf-sheath flagella
very slender, with their lowest spathe flattened, acutely two-edged and usually
smooth, irregularly clawed upwards. Ocrea short, truncate, brown, eisuccous, brittle,
glabrous, unar.med or spiuulous. Leaves not cirriferous, 40-80 cm. long; petiole very
short or almost obsolete; rachis glabrous even in young leaves, in its first
portion flat and smooth above, and channelled at the sides, where are inserted the
leaflets, trigonous upward where acutely bifaced and smooth above, armed beneath
along the middle and oocasionally also at the sides with rather approximate always
solitary black-tipped claws; leaflets very numerous, equidistant, alternate or subopposite,
but sometimes witli vacant spaces wiiich are slightly longer than uaual^
narrowly or sublinear-Ianceolate, somewhat attenuate at the base, very gradually
acuminate at the apex, green and shining above, paler beneath, papyraceous, unicostate,
but with many rather distinct secondary nerves; the costa usually but not
always sprinkled above with a few rigid subspiny bristles of -vvliich in most eases
1-2 (oituated near the base) are changed into rather robust spinules; the sidenerves
always smooth; beneath, the bristles are also confined to the mid-costa; frans-
Terse veinlets short and interrupted, fine and distinct on tlie upper surface to which
they give a tessellate appearance; margins ciliate, sometimes conspicuously, with spreading
spinulea; the largest leaflets, those a little above the base, 15-30 cm, long
and 12-20 mm. wide; the upper ones gradually shorter, the two of the terminal pair
the smallest and quite free at the base. Male spadix 0 6 -1 m, long, slender, flagelliform,
more or less ultradecompound or sometimes simply decompound, bearing up
to the very summit rather many (even 7-8) partial inflorescences; these lO-iO
cm. apart and gradually decreasing in size and number of spikelets from the base
of the spadix upward; lowest primary spathe tubular, flattened, acutely two-edged,
smooth or armed at the side with straight spines; the other primary spathescylindraceous,
very slightly enlarged above, closely sheathing, truncate at the mouth
where extended at one side into a very short point, attenuate at the base, where
flat on the inner si<!e and armed on the back witli claws which are stronger than
in the upper part; partial inflorescences loosely panicied-pyramidate, arising erect from
inside their own spathe, then spreading and arched downwards; the largest, the
lower ones, 15-17 cm. long, with 3-3 arched branchlots at the base and 5-6
simple spikelets upwards on each side and terminating in a spikelet longer than
the side ones and with the flowers more distant than in these; secondary spathes
very narrowly tubular-infundibuliform, glabrous, very finely striateJy veined,
smooth or furnished with one or two straggling spinules, obliquely truncate at the
mouth, apiculate at one side; spikelets inserted above the mouth of their own spathe
with a distinct axillary callua, spreading or somewhat deflexcd, arched or subscorpioid '
the larger ones, the lowest, 12-25 mm. long, with 5-12 flowers on each side; the
upper ones shorter and with fewer flowers; spathels with a very short narrow
cylindraceous base and very suddenly expanded into a broadly infundibuliform striately
veined truncate limb, this ciliolate at the margins, and shortly apiculate at one sideinvolucre
cupular, not or sligiitly exceeding the spathel, truncate, entire, obsoletely
trigonooB or aub-three-toothed. Male Jlomrs distichous, inserted at an angle of 45®
C. Rotang.] BECCAILL. MONOGEAPH OF THE GENÜS CALAMUS.
approximate, subtrigonous-ovate, acute, 3-5 mm. long; the calyx cylindraceous, smooth
and callous at the base, very finely striately veined, divided down not quite to tlie
middle into 3 triangular acute lobes; corolla twice as long as the calyx, divided to
a little above the base into 3 ovate-lauceolate apiculate finely striate segments ;
stamens with the filaments connate by their bases to the tubular portion of the corolla,
then free and subulate with the apices inflected when in the bud ; anthers elongatesagittate;
rudimentary ovary formed by 3 subulate bodies, which reach a little
above the bases of the anthers. Fmale spadiz flagelliform, simply decompound,
terminating in a more or less elongate aculeolate flagellum; primary aud secondary
spathes like those in the male spadix; partial inflorescences arising erect from inside
their own spathe, then arched, short, the larger ones usually 15-20 cm. long with 5-8
spikelets on each side and a terminal one; spikelets alternately distichous, slender,
15-20 mm. apart on each side, strongly arched or subscorpioid, attached just at
the mouth of their own spathe with a distinct axillary callus; the larger ones 3-5
cm. long with 5-7 rather remote flowers on each side, the upper ones somewhat
shorter; spathels tubular-cylindraceous at the base, more or less infundibuliform in
their upper part, truncate, finely striately veined, apiculate at one side; involucrophorum
sub-cupular, sessile, almost completely essert from its own spathel and laterally
attached to the base of the one above; involucre shallowly cupular with a somewhat
irregular and obsoletely toothed margin; areola of the neuter flower depressedly
lunate. Female flowers small, conic-ovoid, 2'5-3 mm. long; the calyx callous and
smooth at the base, strongly striately veined on the tube, shortly 3-toothed; the
corolla scarcely longer than the calyx, its segments ovate-acute; the stamens with
the filaments united by their bases and with rather large sterile anthers; these deeply
sagittate at the base, obtuse at the summit. Neuter flower conspicuous, divaricate, only
slightly smaller than the fertile ones. Fruiting perianth shortly but distinctly pedicellitei
m. Fruit globose or slightly longer than broad, 12-13 mm. broad, 13-15
mm. long, shoi-tly and minutely apiculate; scales in 21 series, rhomboid, almost as
l<mg as wide, of a light straw colour, shining, faintly or very faintly channelled alonff
the middle, with a rather short and obtuse reddish-brown point; the margins finely
erosely toothed, pale or with a not very distinct darker intramarginal line. Seed
with the integument fleshy when fresh, very thinly crustaceous when dry, orbicular»
compressed, somewhat convex, irregularly pitted and tubercled on the back, radiately
grooved from a central rather large cii-cular chalazal fovea on the raphal side;
albumen equable; embryo basal.
HABITAT.—Common in the hottest parts of the Island of Ceylon, Thwaiies C. P
No. 3388; aud in the southern districts of the Indian peninsula, from whence I have
seen specimens collected on the Coromandel coast at Madras, Wight in Herb. Kew;
in the districts of Nell ore, Cliingleput and Kurnool, Gamble, and at Courtallum,
Wight No. 2757 in H. Kew. Roxburgh assigns also the locality Bengal, but from
there I have seen no specimens. The common Rattan. Vernacular names : " B e t"
and "Chachi Bet" Beng. Ind.; "Pepa" and " Prabba," Central Provinces (Gamble).
OBSERVATIOKS.—Tbe name of C. Roiang has been given by Linn^us to a Calamus
collected by Burmann in Ceylon, of which I have seen some instructive fragments
in the Herbarium Delessert at Geneva. Therefore though C. Roiang be common