ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. ramosissimus'
rather stout, kept horizontal by tlie pressure of a conspicuous axillary callus;
the lowest, the largest, 3-4 cm. long, with 8—10 flowers on eoch side, those of
the summit very short and very few-flowered ; spathes rery closely packed, densely
hairy-furfuraceous, bracteiform, concave, with the point acute and pushed down by
its flower; involucrophorum subtended by its own spathel, and attached at the base
of tlie one above with a conspicuous swollen callus at its axilla, eliallowly
calyculiform, slightly prolonged on the side of the neuter flower; involucre
eaiyculiform, slightly concave, undulate at the margin; areola of the neuter flower
obaoletely lunate with a distinct punctiform scar. Female Jlowers pectinate or perfectly
bifarious. almost horizontally inserted, not in contact with one another, ovateconic,
4 mm. long, stout; the calyx somewhat callous, swollen at the base, obsoletely
veined, with 3 short acute convergent teeth; the corolla with lanceolato acute segments,
very slightly longer than the calyx. Fruil{n(j perianth not pedicelliforni. Fruit (not
seen mature) with mahogany-red scales; seed albumen •
eml^iyf' -The young parts of the spadix, the spathes, spathels and
involucres are rather densely covered with a removable, partly «rreyiah or silvery
and partly rusty scurf. The leaves acquire a brown, and the spathes a reddishciunamoii
colour in herbarium specimens.
HABITAT.—Tiie Malay Peninsula: in the district of Perak, Scorieckini No. 317J •
and Bukit Hitam in the State of Selangore, II. N. Ridley No. 3839 in Herb. Cale.'
and Herb. Becc.
OBSERVATIONS.—Tlie distinctive characters of this species are the leaves with a
long petiole, wliich is armed at the sides with very long horizontal spines, and
t h e numerous equidistant narrowly lanceolate 3-co5tate leaflets ; the straight, not
flagelliferous, spadices with primary spathes tubular at the base, bursting upwards and
more or less expanded into an elongate, lanceolate, acuminate blade." The nearest
ally appears to be C. ramosissimus.
PLATE 108.-Calamus perakensis Becc. Male spadix (on the right hand of the
plate); an entire female spadix; the summit of a leaf (upper surface); an intermediate
portion of a leaf (lower surface). From Scortechini's specimens, No. 3I7i in
Herb. Becc.
91. CiLAMDS EAM0SIS8IMU8 Griff, in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist, v, 78, and Palms
Brit. India, 87, t. ccvii ; Walp. Ann. v, 828; H. Wendl. in Kerch
Les Palm. 237; Hook. f. FJ. Brit. Ind. vi, 450; Becc. in Ree. Bot'
Surv. Ind. ii, 207;
Daimonorops ramosimmus. Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 330- Miq F1
Ind. Bat. iii, 100; Walp. Ann. iii, 479.
DtsCBiPiiON.-Tufted, erect, with Ihe stem short (Scortechini) or from 2 to 5
m. high and 6-7 cm. in diam. with the sheaths oa (King's collector); other
specimens are noted with stem 6-7 m. high and 4 cm. in diam. (King's collector)
and flubscandent by means of the hooked spines of the leaf-rachis, the plant wanting thè
leaf-sheath flagella or any other clawed appendix. Leaf-sheaths not gibbous above
gradually passing into the petiole, thickly coriaceous, densely armed with straight
C. ramosissimus^ BECCABI. MONOGKAPH OP THE GENUS CALAMUS. 393
spines of very variable size, of which some occasionally very short, especially those
on the back below the insertion of the petiole, and others, by far more numerous,
flat, narrow, subulate, elastic, 1-3 cm. long, somewhat broadened and callous at the
base, reddish-brown or spadiceous, spreading, horizontal or slightly dcflexed, usually
solitary or somewhat confluent into approximate oblique scries ; the spines on the
ventral side and especially those near the mouth a good deal longer than the
others, sometimes up to 8-10 cm. in lengtli, erect, very slender and brittle. Ocrea very
long, up to 15 cm., membranous, exsuccous, chestnut-brown, brittle, not fibrous,
ultimately falling to picces, covered wlien young with dark-brown furfuraccous
removable scurf, unarmed or sometimes spinulous near its base. Leaoes large, not
cirrifcrous, 2-3 m. long; petiole stout, usually elongate (10-30 cm.), in the lowest
part of the upper surface slightly channelled, then flattish, strongly and doselj armed
at the sides near the base with short or long, straight, robust spines, which have a
broad and thick base and are transformed upwards into stout claws, these occasionally
accompanied by other small and tuberculiform prickles ; underneath the petiole is
round, smooth, or even densely armed along the middle with straight semiconic
spines, which are transformed upwiti'ds into stoat reddish-brown dark-tipped, solitary
or 2-3-nate claws and extend to the very summit of the rachis ; this in t,bo lowest
portion of the upper surface broadly channelled at the sides and with an obtuse
mesial angle, acutely bifuced upwards ; leaflets large and rather numerous (18-30 on
each side), rather remote (5-8 cm. apart), subequidistant, never fascicled, often
distinctly and somewhat irregularly (mainly towards the summit) opposite; the upper
ones with a conspicuous axillary callus and transverse rima, rigid, papyraceous, more
or less longitudinally plicate, shining above and very slightly paler beneath, where
sometimes (in very young leaves?) covered with a fugacious and easily removable
reddish powder, lanceolate, attenuate and acute at the bnse, gradually but shortly
acuminate at the summit into a bristly-spinulous tip, many-nerved or with a not
strong mid-costa, acute and smooth in the upper surface, where accompanied on each
side by 3-5 rather slender, also quite naked secondary nerves ; beneath, the mid-costa
slender, smooth or slightly bristly towards the summit and the side-nerves naked and
somewhat stronger than on the upper surface; transverse veinlets slender but distinct,
crowded and rather continuous across the blade; margins very acute and naked except
towards the summit, where they are ciliated with a few spreading approximate short
bristles; the largest leaflets, the mesial, 30-40 and, in luxuriant specimens, even 50 cm
in length, 5-6 cm. in width; the upper pairs smaller and more apart; the two of
the terminal pair free at the base, but very often the leaf terminates in 3 leaflets of
which the mesial is somewhat narrower and slightly shorter than the next ones
Mala spadix ultra-decompound, not flagelliform, relatively short, ligid, erect 30-40*
cm. and in vigorous specimens even 1 m. in length, with a short,' flat 'acutely
two-edged peduncle; primary spathes very long, at first very narrowly tubular and
sheathing the inflorescences, the lower ones covering a good portion of thoso
immediately above, very soon bursting longitudiually, and with the exception of a
short basal tubular portion open, flattened into a persistent elongate limb, which is
longer a good deal than their respective inflorescences, broadly linear, 15-20 mm
broad, acuminate, thinly coriaceoue, exsuccous, unarmed, opaque, 'finely striât^
longitudinally and thinly rusty-furfuraceous outside, almost shining and of a cinnamon
colour inside; the lowest, flat, sheathing and acutely two-edged at the base, the edge