470 ASNALS OP THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [G. me/anoloma
campanulate, subcoriaceous, green, striately veined, its teeth triangular acute; corolla
about a third longer than the calyx, divided almost from the base into 3 ovatelaueeolate,
acute, concave, cartilaginous, externally rather polished segments;
stamens with filaments as long as the corolla, subulate with inflescd apices in the
bud; anthers versatile, linear-sagittate, attenuate towards the apex; rudimentary
ovary consisting of 3 small obtuse papillae. Famak spadix exactly like the male,
sometimes perhaps smaller and with fewer spikelets (2-4 on each side); primary
spathes as in the male spadix; spikelets very similar to the male ones', 5-6 cm.
long, with 5-6 very spreading or horizontal flowers on each side; the uppermost
somewhat shorter and witli fewer flowers; spatheis as in the male spikelets;
involucrophorum subtended by the point of its own spathol and laterally attached
to the base of the one above, shallowly cupnlar, acutely bidentate and bicatinato on
the side next to the axis, ciliolate at the margin, excavate on the side of the neuter
flower of which the areola is comparatively large and lunate. Female flowers small,
3 mm. long; the calyx divided midway down into 3 ovato acute lobes; segments
of the corolla as long as but narrower than the lobes of the calyx; stamina! urceolum
reaching about to the middle of the corolla, and crowned by 6 short teeth; anthers
very small; ovary oblong; stigmas subsessile, subulate-trigonous, speedily recurved.
FmitiiKj perianth distinctly pediceUiform somewhat narrowed towards the base. Frtiit
18-24 mm. long, 10-15 mm. broad, elongate-ellipsoid, equally rounded at both ends,
caudiculate at the base, topped by a very distinct cylindric narrow beak; scales
in 15-18 series Blume\ shining, faintly channelled along the middle, straw-coloured
with an almost black marginal line which broadens towards the somewhat prolonged
obtuse point; margins acute, finely erosely toothed. Seed narrowly oblong, equally
rounded at both ends, 11-14 mm. long, 6 mm. thick, with deep narrow pits on
the back; chalazal fovea narrow and deep in the centre of the ra2>hal side;
albumen ruminate near the periphery, homogeneous in the centre; embryo basal. All
parts of the plants have a light-green colour when dry.
IIABITAT.—On the hi?h part of the volcanoes in West Java ; on the Salak,
Pangherango, Tankuwang prahu, etc., Blume; on the Megamendong, Eurs in the
Munich Herb.; at Tjanjor, Jmghuhn.
I t produces a good slender, elastic and tough Rotang, much emplnyed lor ligatures
and when reduced into fine strips for basket-making and other wicker work.
OBSERVATIONS.—I have seen portions of the authentic specimens of C. aneeps
Blume, of C. ealolcpis Miquel and of C. melanoloma Martius, and I am therefore sure
that these three names Lave been applied to only one species. In the St. Petersburg
Herbarium I have seen dome very complete specimens forwarded by Teysmann, and
f r om these T have chiefly derived the description,
C. caloUpis Miq. certainly in no way differs from C. melanoloma Mart. Tiie fruit
of Junghuhn's specimens, which Miquel described, was very young and exactly corresponds
to that of the same period of development of C. melanoloma. Miquel
to the leaves the length of 10-11 feet, evidently meaning inches.
The name C. aneeps, employed by Blume in a manuscript paper, •
after that of C. melanoloma, which therefore has the precedence.
published
C. siphonosp<ithus] BECCAEI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. 471
A cultivated male specimen forwarded to me from Buitenzorg is more robust than
the wild ones soon by me in herbaria; it has a sheathed stem 14 mm, in diam. ;
the sheaths are armed with more robust spines; the petiole is very short, almost
smooth; the pinniferoua part is 80 cm. long with about 10 leaflets on each side, o
which some are as much as 30 cm. long and 3 cm. broad; the cirrus is 50-60 cm. long.
According to Blume some of the leaves (seemingly those of the lower part of the
plaot) are not cirriferous and terminate in two confluent leaflets.
C. melanoloma is a very well-marked species which keeps a green colour in
herbaria. It is chiefly distinguishable by its very similar male and female epadices;
the slender stem; the sheaths armed with scattered spines, otherwise smootii and like
the spathes and spatheis not scabrid; the rather small leaves with not numerous lanceolate
or oblanceolate 3-5-co8tulate inequidistant not fascicled leaflets; the costae naked
on both surfaces; the fruit elongate-ellipsoid, beaked; the scales with an almost black
margin and tip.
PLATE 214.—Calamus melanoloma Mart. Portion of the sheathed stem with an
entire spadix, this bearing mature f r u i t ; the summit of a plant with a male spadir
in flower ; the summit of a cirriferous leaf ; dorsal and ventral view of the seed;
one seed in two halves longitudinally cut through the embryo.—From Teysmann's
specimen in St. Petersb, Herb.
185. CALAMUS SIPHONOSPATHUS Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 342; Walp.
Ann. iii, 491 and v, 832 ; Miquel. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 137 ; Becc.
in Rec- Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 213 and in Webbia, 70.
Calamus sp. Vidal. Rev. PI. Vase. Filip. 330 (No. 931 and 1942).
DESCEIPTION.—Scandent, slender or of moderate size, more or less covered in the
younger parts with a rubiginous removable scurF. Skeathed stem 1-4 cm. in diam.
Leaf-sheaths gibbous above, armed with very thinly laminar confluent and seriate or
even scattered, opaque, sehistaceous-brown or light coloured, 1-3 cm. Ion«- spines
Oorea extraordinarily large, rigid and thickly papyraceous, even 20 em. long°and half
sheathing the younger part of t.ho terminal shoot, densely armed like tho sheaths
Leaves rather large and elongate, 1-1-5 m. long in the pinniferous part and terminated
with a long and rather robust cirrus; petiole moro or less elongate, usually prickly
all round, but m the upper surface and at the margins, biconvex, except
at the base, whore flattish above; rachis more or less prickly in the upper surface
where b,faced (obsoletely at first and acutely towards the summit}; L the owe
surface armed at first along the middle with small, remote .olitk;y b l a c k - t i Zd
claws, wlucli higher up are ternate and then digitate and very sharp in number 5 7
the cirrus; the half or three-fourth whorls formed by these large claws often alternating
with smaller whorls ot .m.o.re d.peliacat.e ones • leaflf^fs v^rr,- ¿,. trrraceous,
rather firm, green and srtconooloions on both surfaces, linear or i L ar
lanceolate sligntly attenuate towards and suddenly pKcate at the base v,.r
gradually acn-nmate into a long subulate fihferous tip ; almost all of the sa4e si.e