3 44 AIÎNALS OF THE ROY^IL BOTANIC GARDEN. CALCUTTA. \C. Bous/gonif.
•with small numerous scattered horizontal or slightly deflexeti dark-brown fine subulate
spines which rest on a swollen base and are about 1 cm. long at most and sometimes
almost tuberculiform. Leaf-sheath jlagdla filiform, elongate (1-5 m.), coinprossed
in their lower portion where anuto and aculeolate on the margins, armed upwards
with simple or 3-nate cîawa. Ocrm very short, obliquely truncate. Leaves rclatirely
short, 75-85 cm. long, not cirriferous, with very few f l l - l S in all) leafletspetiole
15-'<i0 cm. long, flattish above, rouuded and clawed boaeath, the margins
armed near the base with straight spines ; rachis bifaced abo\'e in its upper portion
and sparsely clawed below ; leaflets remotely iuequiiiistant, irrpgularlv alternate, subovate
rhomboid, cuueately attenuate, symmetric and acutc at the base, shortly and
suddenly acuminate at the summit into a bristly tip, papyraceous, rather firm, quite
glabrous, opaque, green, and with a few brown polished longitudinal stripes on both
surfaces, sliglitly paler beneath with 5-7 radiately divergent naked (not bristly or
spinulous) costae of which the mid-costa only reaching the summit and the side ones
arched near the margins and evanescent at different levels ; secondary nerves slender ;
transverse veiulets sharp, numerous, approximate, continuous and subparallel ; margins
slightly undulate from the middle upwards, bristly-spiaulous near the summit; some
of the largest leaflets 20 cm. long, 8-5 cm. broad; in one leaf the iutermediata ones
15 cm. long, 6 cm. broad; the upper ones slightly smaller; the two of the terminal
pair quite free at the haw, 9-10 cm. long, 3 cm. broad. Male spadix . . . .
Female spadix flagelliform, not very elongate, straight (not seen entire) and rigid iix
its lower portion with few partial inflorescences; primary spathes tubular,
closely sheathing, obliquely truncate at the mouth strongly and densely spinous, the
spines straight, similai- to those of the sheath or in the upper spathes, somewha'
hooked ; partial inflorescences short (8-10 cm. loog) orecto-patent with few spikelets
secondary spathes tubular, short, truncate, unarmed ; spikelets V5-2 5 cm. long, slightly
arched, spreading, with few (8-10) somewhat irregularly not flatly biseriate flowers
spathels shortly and broadly infundibuliform, 2-3 min. long, narrowed to the base
glabrous, striately veined, entire and truncate at the mouth, acute at one side
involucrophorum sessile, concave, very shallow, laterally attached to the base of the
spathel above its own ; involucre cupular, obsoletely bidentate on the outor
areola of the neuter flower broadly lunate, sharply bordereil. Female flowers i'.
long, the calyx very broadly 3-toothed; the corolla one-third longer than the calyx,
its segments ovate-lanceolate, rather obtuse, almost polished outside or indistinctly
Btriately veined; stamiual urceolum crowned by ti triangular teeth. Fruiting •perianth
shortly pedicelHform. Fruit broadly ovoid, very suddenly beaked, about 18 mm.
long, 14 mm. broad ; scales in 18 series, broader than long, almost flat, very
slightly channelled along the middle, subshining, straw-yellow, narrowly bordered with
chestnut-brown, the point obtuse, the margins erosely toothed. Seed ovoid-oblong,
rounded at both ends, about 1 cm. long, 7-8 mm. broad, covered with a very thin
adherent integument, superficially and coarsely pitted all round ; the chalazal fovea
very shallow and small, above the centre on the raphal side ; albumen
boay^
superficially ruminated; embryo basal.
HABITAT.—Lower Cochin-China; at Baria in the Muxoai mountains, Fierre No.
4836, August 1866.
C. heteracanthus.'] BECCARI. MONOGKAPH OF THE GENTJS CALAMUS. 345
OBSEEVATIUKS.—This bears a great resemblance to C. spectabilia and to the smaller
forms of C. tomentosus in the size and shape of the leaflets, but the petiole is
elongate and flat above in C. Bousigonii while it is roundish in C. tomentosus and
almost wanting in 0. spectabilis. The leaf-sheaths arc also very differently armed
in the 3 species mentioned. Probably noteworthy differences also exist in the reproductive
organs were these completely known in all the species of this group which
is very characteristic by its leaflets resembling those of some species of Kortluxlsia
and by the radiate disposition of their numerous primary nerves of which only one
attains the summit and the others become evanescent on the margins at different
levels.
PLATE 139.—Calamus Bousigonii Pierre. Summit of the plant with an entire leafthe
base of a fruit-spadix and a flagellum, an intermediate portion of a sheathed stem
(on the right-hand side); portion of the scaly pericarp of a f r u i t ; seed from dorsal
and raphal side and in longitudinal section.—From Pierre's gpecimens in Herb. Becc.
117. CiLAMUS nETEEACANTHiis Zipp. in Bijdr. Nat. Weten. v, 173; Macklot in
Bull. Sc. Nat. xxiv, 67; Bl. Rumphia iii, 56; Miq. De Palm. 29;
H. Wendl. in Kerch. Les Palm. 236; Becc. Malesia i, 87 and in
Eee. Bot. Surv. Ind. 210.
Daemonoropa heteracanthus Bl. 1. c. pi. 139; Walp. Ann. iii, 48 and v,
829; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 101 ; Becc. Malesia i, 87, 96.
DESCEIPTION.—Scandent. Unsheathed canes 10-15 mm. in diam. (Blume). Leafsheaths
flagelliferous (Blume), woody, gibbous above, stamped with the impressions left
by the spines during the praefoliation; the spines themselves 12-20 mm. long,
scattered or confluent and transversally seriate, spreading, pale-fuscescent, intermixed
with confluent pectinate criniform prickles (Blume). Ocrea densely aculeate. Leaves
rather large, cirriferous; petiole ; rachis in the intermediate and upper
portion slightly convex and at not very regular intervals (15-25 mm.) armed beneath
with rather stout solitary or ternate claws, obtusely and asymmetrically bifaced aboveleaflets
not very numerous, patent, pointing in different directions, with a distinct
axillary callus at their insertion, approximate on each side, into often opposite pairs,
these remote, with vacant spaces 16-18 cm. long, green and shining on both surfaces
papyraceous, rather firm, narrowly oblong-spathulate, 21-25 cm. long, 4-5-6 cm. broad
conspicuously concavo-convex or cochleariform, gradually tapering towards the base'
this acute, suddenly contracted at the summit into a short acuminate tip which is
furnished with a few black bristles at the top and at the margins longitudinally
phcate chiefly near the base, provided with 5 primary nerves or costae, all reaching
the summit, loss prominent beneath and completely naked on both surfaces; transverse
Teinlets very sharp, numerous, approximate, subparallel and continuous, almost equally
prominent on both surfaces; margins quite smooth, the lower one of the upper surface
bordered with a narrow polished band. Male ipadix ultradecompound, 1-1-3 m. long
(Blume); partial inflorescences ascendent loosely panicled, narrowly pyramidate; the
one seen by me is 30 cm. long and bears 4-5 gradually diminishing branchlefs
on each side; primary spathes ; secondary spathes loosely sheathing
the slightly sinuous main-axis rigid, tubular-infundibuliform, membranous, exsuccous
AM». EOY, BOT. QAEK. C-U-CCTTA YOL. X I.