. 3 8 0 ANNALS OF THE BOYAL BOTANIC FFABDEN, C^VLCUXTA. zei/lanioUS.
the middle) robust, bifaced above with the upper angle and side margins acute
and smooth, rounded beneath, whoi'o armed with robust claws, solitary at first aud
3-nate upwards; leaflets numerous, equidistant, 1-5-3 cm. apart, papyraceous, almost
shining above, opaque and slightly paler beneath, ensiform or very narrowly elougatelanceolace,
25-35 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, narrowed to the base, acuminate at the
summit into a slender bristly-caudate tip, with a rather deep indentation on the
lower margin about 2 cm. from the apex and furnished with 3 slender costae, which
arc very sparingly bristly on the upper surface; on the lower surface all nerves veiy
slender, the mid-costa closely covered witli fine aud short bristles and 3-5 other
very slender nerves on each side of it also covered all along with haira or very
small aud short bristles, which rest on a small bulb ; transverse veinlets slender, rather
distinct; margins slightly thickened by a slender marginaut nerve, very adpressedly
spinulous. liiale ijjadix ultradecompound, not fiagelliferous, apparently very lai-ge, not
seen entire; partial infloresconces punicled pyramidate, rather dense, with many rather
approximate brauchlets, which are inserted inside at the bottom of their own spathe
and are 15-20 cm. long, with 12-16 spikelets ou each side; primary spathos
; secondary spathes short (¿-3 cm. long), tubular-infuudibuliform,
horizontally truncate, entire aud scaly-ciliolate at the mouth, smooth or very sparingly
spinulous; tertiary spathes (spathes of the branohlets) shortly tubular-infundibuliform,
4-5 mm. long, truncate, slightly apiculate at one side; spikelots broad and flat,
15-20 mm. long, inserted with a narrow pedicel to the bottom of their respective
spathe, with 12-15 very closely set, flatly bifarious flowers on each side; spathes
very closely packed, coucave-subcymbiform, imbricate or partially enclosed one into the
other, horizontally truncate, entire, rounded at both sides; involucre enclosed iuto its
own spathel, two-keeled, bldentate and luaately excavate on the side next to the axis.
Male Jloioers small oblong, often slightly curved, 4-5 ram. long when full grown;
the calyx thin, membranous, not distinctly veined, divided down about to the middle
into 3 semi-ovate lobes and usually cleft down to the base; the corolla somewhat
longer than the calyx, its segments lanceolate pergamentaceous, acute, finoiy striate;
anthers versatile; rudiuicntary ovary oblong, 3-sulcate. Female spa'lix very different
from the male one, simply decompound, very large, not fiagelliferous at the apex
and terminating with a short (10 cm.) rigid tail-like prickly appendix; upper primary
spathes (the lowermost not seen by me) elongate, tubular-cylindraceous, ¡slightly
enlarged above, thmly coriaceous, ofcen split on the ventral side, prolonged at the
summit into a short limb, aculeolate on the back in their upper part; partial
inilorescenccs large, 40-60 cm. long and perhaps even more, rigid, diffuse, with
many spikelets (5-8 cm. apart) on each side; secondary spathes tubular, slightly
infundibuliform, 2 ' 5 ^ cm. long, truncate at the mouth, smooth or very sparingly
spinulous; spikelets robust, 10-16 cm. long, the upper ones somewhat shorter,
pedicellate and inserted at tbe bottom of their own spathe, with 10-18 distichous
flowers on each side; spathels short, iutundibullform, liorizontally truncate, thinly
coriaceous, not or obsoletely striately veined, very slightly extended and acute ai;
one side (that of the flower) where usually split; involucrophorum calyciform'
narrowed at the base and inserted at the bottom of its own spathel, and therefore
pedicellate, bidentate, two-keeled and lunately excavate on the side next to the
axis; involucre obliquely cupular, rather deep, exceeding the involucrophorum on
•the side of the neuter flower; areola of the neuter flower ovate or elliptic,
C. zcylanicus.'] BECCAHI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS.
Female Jlowera about (
381
slightly concave, rather shai-ply defined. Jlowers 6 mm. long; the
calyx almost entirely spUt into 3 ovate, concave,! acute, finely striately veined parts;
the corolla slightly longer than the calyx, divided from the base into 3 lanceolate
acuminate, striately veined segments ; staminal urceolum shorter by one-half than tbe
corolla and crowned by six broadly triangular teeth; sterile anthers small, deeply
sagittate ; ovary ovate ; style short ; stigmata elongate, recurved, lamellose-tuberculate
inside. 'Fruiting •perianth explanate, but subtended by the aubpedicelliform involucrophorum.
Fruit (when quite ripej sphteric, about 18 mm. in diam., topped by a
distinct conic beak, this 4 mm. long ; scales in 18 series, very convex, deeply
channelled along the middle, dirty straw-yellowish, almost as broad as long i4-5 mm.)
with a very narrow dark intramarginal line, margins light, scarious very finely
erosely-toothed, tip obtuse adpressed. 8eci globular, about 12 mm. in diam., finely
tubercled and pitted; the cbalazal fovea circular and deep, penetrating to tho centre
of the albumen, but hke all other unevenness of the sui-face covered with the very
adherent (when dry) thin integument; albumen bony, very deeply ruminate ; embryo
subbasal.
HABITAT.—Ceylon, at Sassafragam in the hottest parts of the Island, Thwaites
C P. No. 2Q'H. With this number have been also distributed portions of the leaves
which apparently belong to 0. ovoideus. 'Ma-Waiwel" (Thwaites).
OBSERVATIONS.—The specimens of the male and female spadices of this species
distributed by Thwaites with the No. 2874 are accompanied by portions of leaves
which evidently belong to two quite distinct species. I have considered as belonging
to C. scylanicus those which have the leaflets shining above and opaque beneath with
3 slightly bristly costae above and the mid-costa with 3-5 very slender nerves on
each side of it, finely and closely hairy in the lower surface. The other portions
of leaves, which I consider as belonging to C. ovoideus, have the leaflets shining
•on both surfaces with long bristles on 3 nerves in the lower surface, and the upper
surface usually bristly on the two side nerves only. The distinctive characters of
this fine species are the large cirriferous leaves, the leaflets numerous, equidistant,
narrow, with many very slender hairy nerves beneath, the large panicled male spadis
very different from tho female one with small flattened spikelets ; the female spadix
with long robust spikelets; the male and female spikelets inserted with a pedicel to
the bottom of their respective spathe—a peculiarity also reproduced in the involucrophorum
; the explanato peiianth; the sphferic, rather large, distinctly beaked fruit;
the ruminated albumen.
C. zeylanicus approaches in many respects to C. ovoideus, but this has a seed with
almost equable albumen, while it is deeply ruminated in the first-a diSerence which
however is of not very great importance in the genus Calamm. I have not seen
the apex of an adult leaf of 0. zcylanicus, but I have Uttle or no doubt that it
terminates in a (robust clawed cirrus; consequently the leaf-sheaths ought to be
without I
PLATE 159.—Calamus zeylanicus Beoc. Lower portion of a partial inflorescence
with immature' fruit (0. P. No. 2874 in Herb, de Cand.) ; small portion of a male
spadix and portion of a female spadis with mature f r u i t ; eeed entire and one