310 ANNALS OF THE EOYAL BOTANIC GAUDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. TRAUAFTCORICUS.
prickly like the petiole; ita axis rigid, 4 mm. thick, subterete or obsoletely angular
armed externally with solitary or more or lesa aggregate claws and with rather distant
partial inflorescences; primary spathes very elongate, longer than the ioflorescencea
shortly tubular at tho base, flat, open, laminar, broadly linear (14-16 mm. in width)
upwards, where they are, besides, almost shining, very finely longitudinally striate and
of an umber-brown colour inside, and paler outside; the lowest spathe iibout 40 cm.
long, acutely two-keeled in its lower portion, spinous on the keels, unarmed above >
partial inflorescences narrow, densely flowered, strict, erect, paniculate-cupressiform;
the two lowest 20 cm. long (the upper ones not seen by me^, their axis straight,
rigid, with many also erect strict cuprcssiforni branchlets, of which the lower ones
4 - 5 cm. long with 8-10 very slender spikeleta on each side; secondary spathea
small unarmed, tubular, cylindjaceoua at their base, extended upwards into an erect
subscarious exsuccous broadly triangular and acuminate limb; spikelets very small, with
a filiform rigid zig-zag sinuous axis, inserted at the mouth of their own spathe, not
callous in the axilla, the largest, tke lower ones, 10-12 mm. long with 6-7 flowers
on each side; spathels very small, infundibuliform, attenuate and angular at tho base,
enlarged above into a patent concave triangular acute limb; involucre subtended by ita
own spathel and attached at the base of the one above, concave, calyculiform, eubtrilobate,
the lobes acute. Male Jloteers ascendent, inserted at a very acuto anglo, small,
3 mm. long, narrowly ovate, obsoletely trigonous, acute or subacuminate; the calyx
stiiately veined, divided down almost to the middle iuto 3 broad semiovate acute
lobes, which have broad translucent margins; the corolla twice as long as the calyx,
its segments acuminate, polished outside.—Otüer parts unknown.
HABITAT.—Bui-ma; Yoonzuleen, lat. N., Sir D. Brandis, March
(H. Becc.).
OBSERVATloNa.—I have seen of this only a portion of the sheathed stem, with
the base of a male spadix and portions of a leaf. To this .species belongs Kurz's
plate xix 1. c. of C. hypoleucus, as that figure has been drawn ironi the same
specimen of which Sir D. Brandis has kindly given me a portion.
C. leueoiei is very closely related to C. mi/rianlhua, but it is a much more robust
plant, with the leaflets distinctly covered by a thin chalky-wbite coating on their
lower surface; more rigid male spadix; erect strict cujiressiform partial inflorescences
with their branchlets and spikelets not callous at their insertion and with large
flowers.
PLATE 120.—Calamus leucotes Becc. Portion of the stem with base of a leaf
and lower portion of a male sp«dix; summit of a leaf; detached leaflets seen from
the lower surface (right-hand side of the plate); a leaflet from the upper surface.—
From Sir D. Brandis's authentic specimen ID Herb. Beccari.
99. CALAMUS TRAVANCOHICUS Bedd, MS, in Herb. Kew.; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind.
vi, 453 ; Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 207 ;
C. gracilit (not of Eoxb.) Griff. Palms Biit. Ind. 64. (as to Rheede'a
plate only}.
C.trauancoricus.'] BECCAKI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS.
Tijeru isjurel, Rheede, Hort. Mai. xii (1603), 121, pi. LXIV.
DESCRIPTION.—Slender scatident. Sheathed stem 7-8 or at most 10 mm. in diam.
lica/shialhs not or slightly gibbous above, sometimes flagelliferous, more or loss densely
armed with straight, slender, rather long horizontal spines, which are dark-coloured with
a light base and scaly-fringed at the margina and are intermingled with smaller ones
or with short rigid bristles or even with spinescent tubercles; near the mouth the
spines are crowded, more slender and sometimes changed into bristlea or into more
or less distinctly seriate asperities. Ocrea short, membranous, very obliquely truncate
Lea/sheath fiagella. very slender, filiform, feebly armed with small claws. Leaves short,
40-50 cm. long, not cirriferous; petiole short (5-7 cm. long) flattish or slightly
channelled above, rounded beneath, where sparingly prickly or even transversely
scabrid, the margins acuto and with a few straight spines especially near its base;
rachis acutely bifaced and smooth above, somewhat irregularly and weakly clawed
beneath ; leaflets not very numerous, 20-30 in all, distinctly grouped into 3-4
fascicles; these 3-10 cm. apart, each composed of 3-5 very approximate leafJets on
each side, all on one plane, viz,, not pointing in different directions (the groups of
one side opposed to those of the other side), thin in texture, suhherbaceous, green
even when dry, barely paler beneath, very narrowly oblanceolate, long and gradually
attenuate to the baso, subulately acuminate from their upper third part into a
filamentous tip (this .shortly bristly at the margins), with 3 very slender costae, which
are often accompanied by two otliers more delicate (one on each side) ; (he 3 main
coBtae and sometimes also the other two more or lesa spinulous above, on the under
surface all nerves slender and only the mid-costa occasionally spinulous near the
summit ; margins very minutely closely and appressedly spinulous ; transverse veinlets
very fine, smuous, much interrupted ; all leaflets of about the same shape and size,
those of the lowest group slightly the largest, 15-18 cm. long, 10-15 mm. broadthe
two of terminal pair quite free at tho base. Male spadix ultradecompound^
very slender, about 1-2 m. in length, including a tejminal slender filiform finely
aculeolate flagellum (this 00 cm. long) witli 6-7 partial inflorescences ; primary
spathes elongate, 12-15 cm. long, tubular and slightly ventricose or subtorulose in the
middle when enclosing tho inflorescences than which they are considerably longer, later
more or less partially bursting longitudinally and expanded, at least in their central
portion where 10-12 mm, bruad, membranous, exsuccous, glabrous, yellowish-brown
darker inside; the lowest primary spathe flattened and acutely two-edged in its basa!
portion; the edges spinulous, with two superficial almost unarmed and evanescent
cariuae in its upper part; partial inflorescences small, panicled, rather dense, ovate,
spreading, 7 - 8 cm. long at most, with 3-4 subdistichous branchlets on each 'side of
the very slender and very sinuous axis, the lower braachelets, the largest, with 5-6
distichous spikelets on each side ; secondary spathes elongate-infundibuliform, smooth
closely sheathing, truncate and naked at the mouth, acute or acuminate at one sidespikelets
small, slightly arched, very spreading, horizontal or even deflexed, the largest'
the lower ones, 7-8 mm. long with 4-5 distichous flowers on each side ; the axis
very slender zig-zag sinuous; upper spikelets smaller, very few-flowered; the
inflorescences, branchlets and spikelets have a very conspicuous callus at their insertion ;
spathels infundibuliform above, truncate and entire at the mouth, -where acute at one
side, narrow at the base; involucre subhorizontally subtended by its own spathel and