?06 AiîNiilS OP THE EOYAL BOTANIC GABDEN, CALCUTTA. {0. myrianthus
easily distinguished amongst the species of the group by its few, remote, rather
large, long and broad mauy-costate subconcolorous leaflets and by the very slender
male spadix with open flat laminar spathes which are as long as the inflorescences,
and by the very narrow cylindraceous flowers with a long corolla. The Calcutta
specimen from Taroy beard a small portion of the stem with a male spadix and a
portion of a leaf, which corresponds in its general characters with Wallich's specimens,
but the leaflets are somewhat shorter (15-16 cm. long) and are whitish-mealy
beneath.
PLATE 117.—Calamus
I the Herbarium at Kew
Mart. The entire Wallichian specimen No. 8610
96. CalaììDs myeunthus Becc. in Hook. f.
Ree. Bot. Suif. lad. ii, 207.
Fl. Brit. Ind.
DEBCBIPTJON,—Probably scandent and of moderate size. Stem Leaftheaih
Leaveg (not seen entire) ; petiole ; rachis in its
intermediate portion acutely biiaced above, slightly convex beaeath, where armed
along the middle with long straight spines and at the sides with small claws;
leaflets large, rather remote (probably inequidistant), alternate or subopposite, elongatelanceoUte
or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, equally attenuate to both ends, acute at the
base. Inserted at an acute angle, acuminate at the summit into a somewhat bristly
apex, 40-Î2 cm. long and i-5 cm. wide, thinly papyraceous plicate longitudinally
closely and superficially, with 8-10 slender almost equal, costae, which are usually
naked or more rarely furnished with a few spinules above, and are less prominent
beneath where sprinkled, chiefly towards the summit, with small spinules, otherwise
-the upper surface of the leaflets ia opaque except for one or two longitudinal
shining bands, of which one is usually along the lower margin ; the undersurface is
Bubmealy or covered with an ashy-grey or whitish very thin indumentum ; the
margins very minutely and appressedly spinulous. Male spadix very delicate, elongate,
filiform, flagelliform, ultradecompound ; the slender axial portions between two partial
inflorescences armed with scattered solitary or coafluont claws, with many 15-25 cm.
apart partial inflorescences ; primary spathes not seen entire by me, but apparently
very narrow, lacerate and longer than the inflorescences ; partial inflorescences
panicled, elongate-pyramidate, 15-20 cm. long, with a very slender but rigid
straight axis and with 7-10 distichous subunilateral branchlets on each side, which
are spreading or horizontal dui-ing the anthesis; the largest branchlets, the lower
ones, 4-6 cm. long, with 8-10 spikelets on each side, these inserted like the
spikelets with a distinct axillary callus ; secondary spathes glabrous, unarmed, very
narrowly tubular and closely sheathing, suddenly expanded near the summit into a
short broadly infundibuliform membranous limb ; this entire, obliquely truncate at
-the mouth and extended at one side into a triangular acute or acuminate spreading
point ; spikelets very delicate and small with a slender zig-zag sinuous axis, the
largest, the lower ones 12-15 mm. long with 8-10 flowers on each side ; the upper
ones shorter and with fewer flowers; spatheis shortly tubular at the base, suddenly
expanded upwards into a broad bracteiform acute or acuminate patent point ;
involurre almost horizontally subtended by its own spathel and attached at the base
C. hypoleucus.'] BECCAEI. MONOGEAPH OF THE GEKUS CALAMUS. 307
of the one above, calyculiform, rather shallow and apparently formed by two
triangular acute bracts united by their bases. Male jlowers very small, 2 mm. long.,
trigonous-pyramidate, acuminate ; the calyx strongly striately veined, divided down
about to the middle into 3 broadly triangular acute teeth, which have a scarioua
margin ; the corolla about twice as long as the calyx, almost entirely divided into 3
lanceolate-acuminate subpolished segments; stamens sub-biseriate, 3 of tliem longer
than the others, the filaments united by their bases, subulate with inflected apex in
the bud, anthers elongate-sagittate acute; rudimentary ovary formed by 3 concrescent
elongate bodies, which reach about halfway up the filaments. Fmale spadix and
fniit unknown.
HABITAT.—Tenasserim; in the Province of Mergui, Uelfer No. 6397 in Herb.
Kew., St. Petorsb, and Berlin.
OBSERVATIONS.—The specimeos upon which this species is based consist only of
some portions of a male spadix and a few detached leaflets, but nevertheless it seems
to me a well-characterised species, though related to C. Guruba and C. ramosissimus,
and distinguished in the group by its large elongate elliptic-lanceolate many-costate
leaflets, which are green above and whitish beneath; the elongate slender spadices
with many partial rather remote inflorescences: and the very minute trigonous
acuminate male flowers. The spathes have been torn in the specimens seen by me,
but by their vestiges they seem longer than their respective inflorescences, thin and
filamentous in texture, and soon destroyed.
Pi-ATE 118.—Calamus myrianthus Becc. An intermediate portion of a leaf, with
two leaflets and portions of a male spadix. From Heifer's No. 6397 in Herb. Berol.
97. CALAMUS HYPOLEUCUS Kurz, For, Fl. Brit. Burma, ii, 523 (excl. descr. male
spadix); H. Wendl. in Kerch. Les Palm. 2 3 6 ; Hook, f, Fl. Brit. Ind.
vi, 451; Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind, ii, 207.
Daemnorops hypoletieu$ Kurz in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xliii, II (1874)
208 (partly as to descr.) and pi. xviii (excl. pi. xix).
DESCRIPTION.—Slender and apparently scandent. Sheaihed stem 7—8 mm. in diam.
Leaf-shealhs (not flagelliferous) slightly gibbous above, bruwn when dry (like the other
parts of the plant cxcept the lower surface of the leaflets) with vestiges of furfuraceous
patches and thence probably mottled, armed with small (5-7 mm. long) flat
broad-based elongate-triangular spines; these intermingled with other spines of the
same shape but much smaller; a few spines at the mouth of the sheath and at the
base of the petiole are longer than the others. Ocrea membranous, truncate, then brittle
and deciduous. Leaves short, not cirriferous, in one specimen -lo cm. long; petiole
short (4 cm. long), subshining and yellowish-brown like the rachis, deeply channelled
above, rounded beneath ; the margins acute, smooth or scantily spinulous, rachis in its
upper surface flat in the first portion and bifaced upwards, rounded and armed
beneath along the middle, and sparsely also at the sides, with solitary rather strong
black-tipped claws; these more numerous in its terminal portion; leaflets few (in one
leaf 17 in all) very distinctly grouped, with vacant spaces 8-10 cm. in length
usually disposed in opposite pairs, papyraceous, sHghtly concavo-convex, elliptic-lanceolate
Akn. Roy. Bot. Gard. Oatcutta Vol. XI.