3 7 4 : AIIN^ILS OP T H E KOYAL BOTANIC G A E D E N , C.VLCCJTTA, SCIPIOMM.
Billitou I have a specimen collected thore by Kieclel. In Borneo ifc has been
found by Low, probably in Sarawak {Herb. Kow.), but it must be very scarce there,
as I have never met it. Dr. Treub forwarded me some splendid specimens made
froai plants grown at Bnitenzorg from seeds gathered by Mr. Strichman on the West
Coast of Borneo. It mainly grows in damp forests near the sea. In the
Malayan Peninsula it receives the name of " Rotang Semanbu" {Scorieckini) \ in
Billiton of " R. Simanbo" {Riedel)-, in Borneo of " ii. Marow" {Lozv).
This species supplies the well-known comincrcial Malacca canes brought to the
markets of Singapore and Pinang in pieces of tlie length of about I'S m. and
consisting of only 3 joints or nodes with only an entire very long internoJe. The
longest internode I have seen is preserved in the Botanical Museum at Florence,
and is 88 cm. in length. The diameter of the canes is very variable, some
being as thick as a man's little finger and others attaining 3 cm. in diam. I
have not seen leafy specimens of the thinner canes, but I can scarcely doubt
their belonging to the same species as the larger ones. The Rotang of C. Scipionum
is vahied onlv for the sticks and handles it produces, and is not employed for other
purposes.
OBSERVATIONS.—The leaves in C. Scipionum cannot be called subcirriferous, but
they approach this kind of termination, as the leaflets near the summit are very
much reduced in size and the last one is often rudimentary, while the racliia is
more or less, never however very powerfully, clawed.
This name of C. Scipionmi has been given by Lourcii'o to the plant producing
the well-known commercial Malacca canes, and only through them has it been possible
to recognize this species, the description left of it by its author not serving as a
sure means of identification.
Griffith had known this Cnlamus, as it is easily recognized in the short but
characteristic description of the Calamus from Ching, but Griffith never assigned a
specific name to it. As far as I know no other Palm produces such long internodes
as those of this Calamus, but perhaps these are not of such extraordinary length
throughout tiw entii-e plant, and the very long ones are produced only near the base
of the plant, when this is at a maximum of its vigour.
The leaflets figured by Blumc in the plate 191 of the "Rumphia " with the
name of C. micranthus are very seemingly those of C. scipionum; and the same may
be said for those represented in the plate 144, f. A. B. C. as those of Daemonorops
fissus.
C. Scipionum seems a very variable species, and to ihc comprehensive description
given above I do not think it out of place to add the following observations on
the different specimens from which I have derived it : —
I. I consider as type'specimens those of the Malayan Poniasula (Calcutta
Herbarium No. 7171) and of Scortechini (No. SOl"»). These last bear male spadices,
and the first a portion of a partial inflorescence, this with very young fruit
and terminated as in all other specimsns of different origin by a slender, short,
(12 cm. long) sheathed unarmed appendix. The secondary spathes bear only 1 or 2
C. S d p ' m m ^ BECOARI. MONOGEAPH OP THE GKNUS CALAMUS. 375
solitary very small claws ; the spathels are very .short and approximate with a
deflexed point, the flowers being very crowded; involucrophorum quite sessile;
involucre irregularly lobulate-crenate; fruiting perianth with very short depressed
ventricose calyx; fruit scales very dark coloured; tho leaf accompanying the abovementioned
inflorescence is very robust; the sheath is G cai. in diam., the petiole
short (10 cm.) prickly at the margins, but not beneath; the largest leaflets relatively
short and broad (40 cm. long by S-S'o cm.) with fivo costae, sometimes all, but
usually 3 only setose.
II. The specimen from Billiton resembles much those of tho Malayan Peninsula
but the secondary spathes are rather densely aculeate all round; the spathels shortly
cyathiforra ; the involucrophorum quite sessile, and the involucre 2-'i-lobed, the
lobes acute; the calyx, as in Malacca specimens, depressed ventricose.
III. The specimens cultivated at Buitenzorg and coming from the west coast
of Borneo agree pretty well with those of Malacca, but the fmiting perianth
has a very short' tube, which is not depressed-ventricose; the leaves have a
moderately long petiole, wliich is armed at the margins only; the secondary spathes
are unarmed or furnished with a few small claws; spathels short; involucrophorum
e; involucre with uneven margin, lobulate or denticulate.
IV. Another cultivated specimen from Buitenzorg without any notice about its
origin is very robust, -with leaf-aheaths 6 cm. in diam.; petiole 25 cm. long,
strongly anned at the sides with often geminate spines, and furthermore with
strong solitary claws along the middle beneath; leaflets more closely set and more
numerous than usual (about 60 in all), of which many with 5 setose nerves above;
secondary spathes unarmed or very scarcely aculeate; fruiting perianth trúncate' at
the base, with very short not ventricose calyx. The fruit as described above.
V. Other specimens cultivated at Buitenzorg with the No. 3784 have the leaves
as in those coming from the :5Ialayan Peninsula, but the petiole is very long
(as much as 40 cm.), armed at the sides, iinarmed below along the middle in the first
portion and clawed only towards the summit. A female spadix with the fruit fallen
away has the lowust partial inflorescences very large and some oc the spikclcts
nearly 20 cm. long, and in somo cases, in the lowest portion of tho spikelet, the
involucrophorum has a tendency to become pediceilatc; the spathels are also more
elongate than in the above-described specimens and are tubular-infundibuliform, attaining
up to 5 mm. in length. It seems that these last peculiarities are more apparent
in tho infloresceuces of the upper portion of the spadix, where the involucrophorum
with tho involucre, more than elsewhere, protrudes from its own spathel.
VI. "The specimen of the Kew Herbarium collected by Low in Borneo has a
leaf-sheath 3'5 cm. in diam. armed with few very broad solitary or sometimes more
or less aggregate spines; the petiole bears a few long straight spines at the margins;
the rachis is armed in the mesial portion with strong aohtary claws. The leaflets
are alternate, 8 cm. apart at one side, reaching to 60 cm. in length and 5-6 cm.
in breadth, with 5 nerves sparsely setose above, naked below.