3 1 8 ANNAiS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. CALCUTTA. gracilis
A Tery handsome species related only to C. Huegeliams, from which it differs iu the
Bub-obpyriform fruit with rather deeply channelled scales which have a narrow
very dark marginal line and an adpressed, very finely erosely toothed point. Some other
specimens in the Herbarium at Kew, wliich probably belong to this species, have the
leaf with numerous equidistant leaflets. One male spadix is ultraJecompound recalling
much that of C. acanthospathus, with long, 15 mm. broad, tubular closely sheathing
spathes, armed with broad-based straight horizontal spines; the partial inflorescences
arise erect from inside thoir respective spathes, then are arched with many gradually
diminishing branchlets.
PLATE 123.—Calamus Gamblei Beae. An intermediate portion of a leaf; partial
inflorescence with female flowers after fertilisation ; partial inflorescence with mature
fruit, from Gamble's type-specimen in Herb. Kew. Summit of an inflorescence of
the var. S'phaerocarpm with mature fruit, ono seed entire and one longitudinally cut
through the embryo, from Wight's specimen in Herb. Kew.
CALAMUS GAMBLEI var. SPHAEROCARPUS Becc. 1. c.
Fruit spherical, not tapering to the base, 18 mm. in diam.; seed also almost
spherical.
HABITAT.—Nilghiri Hills, Wight in Herb. Kew; collected also by Gamble in the
same locality.
103. CALAJIUS GRACILII? Roxb. Fl. Ind., iii, 781 (excl. Tsjeru-tsjurel Rheede
Hort. Mai., xii, t. 64); Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 210 (Is!
edit.) and 338; Kunth Enum. Pi. iii, 309 ; Griff, in Calc. Journ
V, 54 and Palma Brit. Ind. 64, t. crcvi; Walp. Ann. iii, 488 and
V, 831 ; Kurz. in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xliii (1874), u 212
t. xxxrv c and Forest Fl. Brit, Burma, ii. 520; Hook. f. Fl Brit
Ind. vi, 453; Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 208. (C. gracilis
Blanco, vede C. Blancoi Kunth. C. gracilis Thw. Enum. PI. 2eyl.
vide C. pachystemonus Thw.)
DESCRIPTION.—Slender, acandent. Sheathed stem 15-20 mm.; naked canes 10-12
mm. in diam. Leaf-shcaths green eveo when dry, more or less densely covered witt
a fugacious and detachable dark furfuraceous scurf, not distinctly gibbous above
obliquely truncate and smooth at the mouth, very sparsely armed with very short
solitary horizontal or slightly ascendent semiconic black-tipped broad-based pricklessometimes
almost smooth. Leaf-sheath flagella elongate, slender, flattened and almost
unarmed in their basal portion. Ocrea indistinct. Leaves not cirriferous, rathor short
(50-60 cm. long); petiole very short (1-3 cm. long), obsoletely trigonous, flat
above, or almost obsolete; rachis acutely bifaced and smooth above, irref^ularlv
armed beneath along the middle in its basal portion and also at tlie' sides" with
solitary claws; leaflets few, all in one plane (not pointing in different directions),
approximate into 3-4 usually opposite groups of 3-5 on each side of the rachis'
each group separated by a long (10-15 cm.) vacant space, thinly chartaceous or
»ubherbaceous, green even when dry, concolorous or barely paler beneath than above
C. graeiHs.'] BECOARt. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. 3 1 9
narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, gradually attenuate to the base and
from or a little above the middle acuminate into a subulate bristly-ciliate tip ; very
finely 3-5 and even 7-eostulate ; the mid-costa scarcely stronger than the two next,
those nearer to the margins more slender, all spirmlous above, on the under-surface
the mid-costa only sparingly spinulous near the summit, the others slender and naked;
transverse veinlets very short, rugulose; margins inconspicuously adpressedly spinulous;
the largest leaflets, those of the intermediate groups, 20-25 cm. long. 20-25 mm.
broad, the lowest somewhat narrower but not shorter, those of the terminal group
(4 or 6) slightly shorter and broader than the intermediate ones ; the two of the
terminal pair more or less united by their bases ; the leaves of young plants have
the petiole longer, the rachis more rusty-furfuraceous, the leaflets longer, narrower
and with only three spinulous costae and the fascicles formed by a greater number
of leaflets, sometimes as many as eight pairs. Male spadix ultradecompound in its
lower portion, simply decompound upwards, slender, 80 cm. tr) 1-2 m. long, ending in
a filiform, feebly clawed flagelluni; primary spathes tubular, closely sheathing, entire,
thinly coriaceous; the lowest shorter than the upper ones (8-10 cm. long), truncate
at the mouth, slightly compressed, faintly two-keeled, sparingly armed with very small
claws; upper primary spathes oyliadraceous, obliquely truncate at the mouth and prolonged
more or less into a triangular acute or acuminate point, quite smooth or
sparingly aculeolate, suddenly narrowed in their lower asial portion, where flat on
the inner side, convex externally and with acute margins ; partial inflorescencis few
(3-6 very distant, arching-patent; the uppermost with 1-3 spikelets only; the
lowest 10-15 cm. long, with few branchlets at the base and a few simple spikelets
in their upper part ; secondary spathes unarm-èd, minutely hairy-furfaraceous, narrow,
tubular-infundibuliforra, obliquely truncate, entire aud acute at one side at the mouth ;
spikelets 3-4 cm. long, slender, inserted ab!>ve the mouth of their own spathe,
spreading or horizontal, with a distinct axillary callus ; spathels suddenly broadly
infundibuHform from a narrow base, with an acute patent or deflexed striately-voined
point; involucre calyculiform, slightly concave, striately veined; acute right and left.
Male flowers relatively large, oblong and acute in bud, 5 mm. long, 2 mm. thick ;
the calyx tubular-campanulatc, striately veined, teeth short, broadly triangular, acute;
corolla twice as long as the calyx or even longer, its segments lanceolate, acute, finely
striate. Female spadix decompound, relatively short, subflagelliform, 60 cm. to 1"2 m.
long, distinctly callous at its insertion, rather rigid, erecto-patent at first, then
nodding, ending iu a slender feeblyclawed flagellum, with 5-9 partial inflorescences;
primary spathes as in the male spadix, the lowest 6-7 mm. thick, the upper often
more densely clawod than the lower ones; partial inflorescences 5-9, rather distant
(8-15 cm apai-t), rather rigid; the lowest, the largest, 10-15 cm. long, with
3-5 gradually diminishing spikelets on eaca side, these inserted at or a little above
t h e mouth of their respective spathes, with a distinct callus and transversal rima at
their axilla ; upper inflorescences shorter, the terminal reduced to a small solitary
spikclet; secondary spathes elongate, tubular-infundibuliform, obsoletely angular, truncate,
ciliolate and acute at one side at the mouth, fugaciously rusty-furfuraceous and
scabridulous ; spikelets 3-5 cm. long, the lower ones, the largest, with 5-7 distichous
flowers on each side; spathels tubular-infundibuliform, more distinctly scabrid than
the secondary spathes, truncate, entire and acute at one side at the mouth; involucrophorum
exsert from its own spathel and laterally attached to the base of the one