452 ANWALS OP THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCQTTA. [C. OxIeyanUS
tlio largest, the lower oaes, about 50 cm. long, with 8-9 spikeiets on each side
-and terminating with a very small slender unarmed caudiculum; the upper
ones a good deal shorter; secondary spathes papyraceous or submembranous,
tubular, 2-2'5 cm. long, slij^htly enlarged abnve, closely sheathing, unarmed, finely
striately veined, very obliquely truncate and naked at the moutli, prolonged
at the summit into a triangular acute point; spikeiets vermicular, their axis
cylindraceoua, rigid, slightly flesuous, spreading, inserted just at the mouth of
their own spathes with a distinct axillary callus, the lower ones of each inflorescence
the largest, up to 18-30 cm. long with i20-22 flowers on each side, the
iijjper ones gradually smaller; spathels finely striately veined, shortly tubular, slightly
enlarged above and prolonged at one side into a broadly triangular deflexed acute
point; involucrophorum very shallow, orbicular, exsert from its own spathol and laterally
attached to the base of the on^ above; involucre exactly cupular, rather shallow,
shining inside, the margin entire; areola of the neuter flower lunate, usually shining and
callous in the centre. Female flowers about i mm. long, remote (1 cm. apart on uach
side), bifarious, horizontal; the calyx coriaceous with a flat and polished base not or
indistinctly striately veined, deeply parted into 3 very broad acute lobes; the corolla
slightly longer than the calyx, its segments ovate-acute. Fniitiw] perianih shortly
pedicelliform. Fruit globular, small, about 1 cm. in diam. topped by a slender
2 mm. long, conspicuous mucro; scales few, in 12 longitudinal series, each of these
with 5-6 scales, strongly convex, superficially channelled along the middle, shining,
Btraw-coloured with a rod-brown marginal line; tip very obtuse; margins erosely
toothed. Heed irregularly globular, wrinkled; albumen equable; embryo basal? (I
have not seen perfectly mature seeds.)
Habitat.—The Malayan Peninsula at Malai^ca {Griijiih)] Singapore, at Bukit Timah,
{Ridley No. 6283 in Herb. Becc. and No. 10780, male plant, in Herb. Kew); State
of Johore at Gunong Pulai {Ridley No. 3719, in Herb. Kew); Island of Bangka
(Teysmann, Miquel).
Obseevatioks.—I have identified with 0. Oxlcyanus Teysm, & Binnend., the
Eoiang Paiare, which was recognised by Griffith as a new and distinct form without
assigning to it a scientific name. Griffith's specimens were only portions of the
leaves of which I have seen a part in the Herbarium at Kew. I have to make
many remarks regarding the identification of this species, and I will pi-oceed
chronologically :—
I.—The Rotang Pajare was first mentioned by Griffith in vol. V of the
Calcutta Journal in 1845; afterwards by the same author in the "Palms of
British East India"; it was considered by him to be related to C. {Daemnorops)
II.—Martius in the last pages of vol. I l l of his great work on Palms—pages
that must have been published in the year 18i9-50—proposed the name of
Daemonoro2js fasciaulatus for ihe Rotang Pajare of Griffith, agreeing with this author
as to its similarity with 0. angmtifoVms, which is a typical form of Daemonorops.
III.—H. Wendland in the Enumeration of the Palms in Kerchove de Denterghem's
work (1878) not having accepted the genus Daemonorops and not being able to
C. mhrosphisnon.'] BECCAEX. MONOGEAPH OF THE GENDS CALAMUS. 453
make use of the specific name of fascicularis, which had been already taken by
G. fascicularis Roxb., proposed the name of C. Fermndezii in memory of Griffith's
intelligent collector the : Peninsula.
IV.—Teysmann and Binnendijk, in the Catalogue of the Buitenzorg Garden
for 1866, mention C. Oxlcyanus as a native of Malacca and Bangka, which was
afterwards described and figured under that name by Miquel (1. c.) in 1868. In
this I at once recognised the Rotang Pajare, chiefly on account of the peculiar
arrangement of the leaflets.
v. — C . Oxleyanus has nothing to do with a Daemonorops, being a well
characterised species of Calamus ; consequently its oldest name of fasciculaius cannot
be retained ; no more can that of 0. Fermndezii, this last being more recent
than the name (7. Ozleymus.
C. Oxleyanus is a highly characteristic species, being erect and at the same time
being furnished with a powerful climbing apparatus, viz., the strongly clawed cirri;
perhaps only with age the plant acquires a climbing habit. It is also distinguishable
by the long petioles, and especially by the aggregation of its leaflets in remote
groups of even 10-12, on each side, where the leaflets are equidistant and in one
plane and not pointing difíerent ways.
I have derived my description chiefly from the cultivated specimens wliich I
have received from Buitenzorg : these have decayed male spadices and female ones
with young fruit. Ilidley's specimen has a portion of a female spadix with growing
ovaries. I have not seen the mature seed.
pLATii 203.—Calamus Oxleyanus feysm. Birtnend.—The upper part of a
leaf-sheath with the petiole seen frour below; an intermediate portion of a leaf
(under-surface) ; the upper pait of a female spadix with young fruit; a branchlet
of a male spadix (in the lower part of tlie plate).—From a specimen in Herb.
Becc. made from a plant cultivated at Buitenzorg.
174. Cal.vmus ÍIICHOSPH.ERION Becc.
Webbia. 349.
Perkins Fragm. Fl. Philipp. 45 et
Desckiptiox.—Scandent, slender. Sheaihed stem about 16 mm. in diam. Leafslieaihs
gibbous ahove, cylindraceons, obliquely truncate at the mouth, quite ujiarmed
green, sprinkled with very small punctiforra brown scales. Ocrea very short, liguliform
and naiTOwly bordering the mouth of the sheath. Leaves about 80 cm. long in
the pinniferous part, the cirrus slender, with approximate half-whorls of small blacktipped
claws; petiole 8-20 cm. long, flat above and round beneath with acute
margins, smooth or very sparingly sjjinous; rachis smooth above, irregularly armed
beneath along the middle and at the sides with small black-tipped claws; these solitary
near the base and ternate higher up; leaflets numerous, grouped in many small
alternate or sub-opposito fascicles of 2-4 on each side of the rachis, the fascicles
separated hy vacant spaces o-lO cm. long; in each fascicle the leaflets are very approixmate
by their bases and divergent, narrowly lanceolate, a good deal narrowed to
the acute base, gradually acuminate at the summit into a finely subulate tip, thinly
papyraceous, green and concolorous on both surfaces, 20-30 cm. long, 15-20 mm.